Why is it so hard to find a horse that is safe hacking alone?

Red-1 said:
Hi,

all of my horses hack alone, some more comfortably than others.

I did advertise one to sell, he was FAB as a riding club level, or BS to Discovery/Newcomers, or BE to BE100, even got a few BD points but would not go comfortably any further in any sphere. That was his limit. He was a total saint, FAB in traffic, in company, alone, with tractors, wheelie bins, flappy plastic. He was used to nanny babies (baby horses, not actual babies -although Charlie would probably have given that a crack too!)out hunting, would leave the hunt on his own if necessary, swim in the sea, ride in a town centre, look after any rider.

To part with this paragon of virtue at 8 years old I advertised at £8,500 to sell at £8k minimum. No takers. He was worth that to me, so we kept him with little idea what we would do next with him. Charlie then carved out a new role for himself, he taught my husband to ride from scratch to competitive Dressage, taught a nervous child to jump 4 ft, had a middle aged man have a first crack at SJ, did pub rides and was a general good egg for every visitor who had the pleasure to ride him. I even learned to ride bridle-less and had great fun at home even though he did not have the same competitive aspirations as me.

I guess it depends on what a generous budget is? A horse as good an all rounder as this is worth good money IMO, that the general market does not seem to value. To me this horse is more valuable than the host of well bred horses with "potential".

In the end I am glad that no-one valued him as much as we did, as we had many more happy years with him, until he was PTS at a fine age last year.
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This! We have a fabulous, fun and safe for anyone quality, up to weight gelding who my husband has learnt to ride on and done all RC teams etc. Have turned down that sort of money on 2 occasions (though he will probably by for sale in the next few months) because I simply don't know what we would have replaced him with that was as reliable and lovely to have around. Once people find them I think they tend to hang onto them! We bought ours as a 4yr old and despite the 'odd moment' starting out, I know I think the World of him and fully appreciate just how good he is, and how lucky we are to have him!
 
I have a super little trotter cross - not very handsome to look at but is safe and sane, he has come on better than expected so we are keeping him!! He's too much fun! Hopefully he will have a driving career once he has had a riding one.
 
The point about it being the rider is SOOOO important.

Horses who are good to hack alone with a confident experienced rider, and some practise, are not rare. However a horse who's utterly bombproof with a nervous or novice owner (and I mean after being owned and handled by them exclusively, not just giving a novice a shot) are rare. They are rarely sold and when they are, they're expensive.

It take quite a lot of time and effort to 'make' a genuinely happy hacker who's confident enough to take someone they don't know or trust for a hack by themselves. There's loads of potentially suitable candidates for the job but they've often not got much experience and will quickly revert back to the default nervous and spooky with the wrong rider.

I've had quite a few horses and all bar one have been exceptionally good hacking horses and utterly bombproof for any rider. BUT only because I put a lot of time and effort in and I MAINTAIN it. Only two would have carried on as a completely safe hack for someone nervous or novice. One's an old girl now hacked by a novice. The other was sold to a nervous happy hacker for quite a lot of money.

OP. If you are competent and more importantly, confident, MAKE yourself a really good happy hacker
 
Op dont worry most of the people on hear will shoot the horse
for you if it is not right.Looking at there knowledge and
experiance.Thats what they do when their horses do
anything wrong then give advice to people on forums
like you.Also had a scare today forum , horse bolted forums
Op read THE GOOD OLD DAYS forum.There is no such thing
as safe reliable they are half a tonne with a brain.You
just have to get on learn to ride quick hope for the best.And enjoy it
Try not to be a whimp like half of of these just be as sensiable
as you can with your purchase. X
 
lizbet said:
Op dont worry most of the people on hear will shoot the horse
for you if it is not right.Looking at there knowledge and
experiance.Thats what they do when their horses do
anything wrong then give advice to people on forums
like you.Also had a scare today forum , horse bolted forums
Op read THE GOOD OLD DAYS forum.There is no such thing
as safe reliable they are half a tonne with a brain.You
just have to get on learn to ride quick hope for the best.And enjoy it
Try not to be a whimp like half of of these just be as sensiable
as you can with your purchase. X
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Aren't you a little ray of sunshine. Sadly your spelling and grammer isn't up to the same standard as your vitriol. Do you have any useful advise for the OP or are you just feeling sulky and spiteful?
 
Op one like kilabear piper looks ideal slow ploddy type
the older hairy cobby types are usually quiet safe.They
are usually thicker lazier types hence safer x.
 
lizbet said:
Op one like kilabear piper looks ideal slow ploddy type
the older hairy cobby types are usually quiet safe.They
are usually thicker lazier types hence safer x.
Click to expand...

Yes, Pips was the ultimate hacking horse: he's the one sold for a fair amount of money to a nervous happy hacker. Age doesn't always make a difference and he's not ploddy, although I'll grant you that he wasn't the sharpest tool in box. He was like that from a baby and still just as easy at now 6yrs old. However my youngster is prob more what OP is looking for if she wants to do RC ect talented and athletic but also utterly bombproof to hack because I've spent almost 2years teaching him to be . Sadly he's not for sale ;)
 
All mine are excellent to hack out in company and on their own as thats how I train them. I will even go out with a group of others then leave them and go on my own no issues. Even if another horse pee off mine will not follow if I tell them no.
 
Neither of my horses had been hacked out at all when I bought them as 4 year old, not on their own and not on roads. One of them literally plopped himself at the sight of acar when Igot him. Now they will do anything and go anywhere but it's taken time and a big pair of brave pants.
What you want isn't just born, it had to be made and someone had to do it.
Either you do it yourself, or pay the price for someone else having done it.
 
As somebody up thread said, the 'need' to hack out has disappeared for some due to facilities.
Due to circumstances, I hacked my never been on the road young horse by herself. I chose the time of day and route carefully to give her a good a time as I possibly could.
Now 8, she is bolder when alone but does like to ride in company. I do a mixture of both and am happy to do either.
She would be seen as a 'worth their weight in gold' type and I won't be parted from her!
 
I started mine by hacking across the fields and getting into a small housing estate, and spent hours going around in a figure of eight. Quiet enough to be safe but introduced them to the joys of traffic, wheelie bins, pushchairs.....went past the same house several times one morning and heard a small child say to his mum..."mummy...I've seen three horses this morning!"
 
Kyra hacks alone and is sensible. She'll take the smallest child down busy roads as long as they point her in the right direction and she'll put one foot infront of the other until she's asked to stop.
When i had her up for sale at £1,500 no one even came to look ):

cbmcts said:
OP.

Do remember though (as I had to when I was looking for a saint like this) that horses like this quite rightly have a serious premium on their price as they really are worth their weight in gold!
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Realistically if you are not finding what you want you are either not looking at enough horses (it can become disheartening I know) or your budget does not meet the market's demands (despite the recession what you want is what most people want so such horses are likely to keep their value). If it's a money issue can you compromise on some of your other requirements for the horse? Or wait until spring and save some more money?
 
It takes hours to build them up ! I started walking my pony as a foal and built up over years, by the time you get to backing them they think nothing of hacking out alone. I'm not saying we were perfect at first and the big stuff we are still working so work in progress. Totally recommend walking out in hand to get the horse confident in the outside world ! but you can never plan for a pheasant or a pig or rattling trailer for it to go a little pear shaped on occassion's LOL X
 
The safest horse I own to hack out in absolutely any traffic is one I have had since he was a 5 month old colt. I had nothing to ride when I bought him so I took him for walks everywhere. He met everything at a young age and took his confidence from me. Now 17 years on he doesn't hack alone and never has because he has always had me with him on his back quietly reassuring him if anything every worries him which is rare. He doesn't need to be out with other horses as he puts his trust in his rider. This type of horse which has never had a bad experience and has complete faith in their owner are rare and not very often sold on. I know it means waiting but as long as you are experienced enough sometimes a young horse can end up being exactly what you are looking for.
 
My horses are great to hack alone, they have common sense in bucketfuls. Once the tack goes on, they are in work mode.

However, I've been amazed when riders who appear competent take them out alone and have problems. While they remain safe around traffic (they're not daft), they have napped or stropped when the rider doesn't have the understanding of how a horse's brain works. Expecting to be a passenger or hiding apprehension by overly aggressive riding gets little cooperation from my two.
 
All my horses hack out alone perfectly. And if they didn't at first, after a few months they are perfectly confident hacking- roads, woods, fields and lanes. I try to keep off the really busy main roads and dual carriageways, and I start off with easy hacks, lots of different ones (even if I have to box to a quiet lane and tack up by the box) and slowly progress to more scary things- farmyards, busier roads, bird scarers etc. If I have one that's a bit nervous and wont obey my aids I put scary stuff down my driveway and ride up and down past umbrellas, dogs, signs I get from shops rubbish bins, flags- anything I can think of. When theyr fine with that I start hacking. I think horses really enjoy a good hack once they become confident.
Are you sure, OP, that you aren't giving off 'vibes' when you get on a horse....ooh will I be able to hack alone? will there be scary things? what will I meet? Will the horse nap/buck/rear? .....because if you are,the horse will pick up from you that what you are about to do (hack!) is a scary thing.....
 
Have thought about this a bit more and realised that no-one at my yard hacks out at all, except from me. Its only a small yard, but there are a few other liveries, and they only ever ride in the school. Despite there being at least one off road track directly off the yard. One of them is definitely too nervous to hack out, as one time when she did so, the horse was spooked by some cattle in a field and bolted back to the yard. I know where the horse came from and it definately did used to hack out with the previous owner alone, so I would say a lot of the "non-hacking" horses are down to very nervous riders.
 
Jessi&Magic said:
Kyra hacks alone and is sensible. She'll take the smallest child down busy roads as long as they point her in the right direction and she'll put one foot infront of the other until she's asked to stop.
When i had her up for sale at £1,500 no one even came to look ):
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Hi Jess,

I know how good Kyra is - that road outside your yard is scary! - but I bet you're glad that no did look now :)
 
I was talking to my next door neighbour about this thread today. She has recently bought the world's best hacking horse, who also happens to be a dressage horse working at PSG.

She hadn't hacked for years owing to having a home bred mare who chose not to hack at an early age.

Not only is she hacking the dressage horse for miles, the home bred is now out on the roads, , hacking with confidence, due to the inspiration of the dressage horse!
 
We have one on sales livery and can I hell as like sell him!

I haven't read all the posts so sorry if it's already been stated but I think a lot of it is to do with the traffic it has to deal with these days. My own horse had a lot of problems when he arrived but he was always 100% in heavy traffic and this I guess at the time was his saving grace as a lot of his school work could be done hacking. After a few months of having to contend with double decker buses that refuse to slow down, vans driving right up to his hocks and cars hammering it round corners towards him he really isn't that good in traffic now, even with an older horse buffering him. I find it quite sad really that some horses are being completely ruined by the things they have to contend with while out hacking.

I also think that a time issue has something to do with it. Generally during the winter months the DIY girls on our yards will rarely hack due to light. They start work at 8 and don't finish until 5, so is dark pretty much every time they reach the yard. Perhaps work has become slouch more of an issue these days that people just do not have time or inclination to hack Luton the roads.a
 
Hiya Orla, I didnt even realise i was replying to you! Hello!
I am now but at the time i thought she just wouldnt sell. I was getting offers of £300 or swap for colts, when i politely declined people got very angry and said horrid things. Shame thats what its come to now.
 
My old girl is great hacking alone - in fact I think she prefers it!

We go out for hours and hours in the forest, she can be a bit fizzy on the way back (she's an ex p2p) but I just make sure we don't do much fast work then. And as soon as she steps one hoof on the road she knows she has to be serious and sensible. We've had big rattly tractors and trailers squeeze past with just over a foot to spare :o and she's just trundled along.

No-one else on my yard hacked out so we spent every weekend exploring by ourselves. So much so that when we met up with some friends to do a x country ride the BGP just strode out ahead at her own pace and was not at all reliant on the others.

When I come to look for a new horse in the next year or so hacking out alone is one of my main priorities.
 
I had to spend a lot of time and effort (plus professional help) to get my traddie cob to hack solo, but now he's a lovely boy and ambles around quite happily on his own. Ditto my loan mare, but her owner is my trainer, so not surprising basically as its one of the first things she always does with any horse that passes through her yard is to get them safe and polite in ALL circumstances, inc solo hacking.

We have to cope with artic lorries here, plus the normal run-of-the-mill llike quad bikes, buses, boy racers, as well as having to ride out over dual carriageway bridges, plus local airport.

I make it a point to hack my two solo at least once a fortnight, because IME if you don't keep it up, they'll get very spooky when you do take them out solo. I'd trust either of them to go past virtually anything........ yesterday we rode through a busy working quarry plus encountered a flapping blue sheet which someone had erected over a thatch roof...... however the only thing we DO remain challenged about is the piggies up the road, where we sidle past/climb up the hedge snorting and puffing with boggling eyes, blimmin things!!!

IMO it takes time, effort, commitment, confidence - and quite often professional help - to get a horse to hack solo. They don't do it naturally, and in many livery yards a lot of people ride out together in a group anyway, and so horses never learn to treat their humans as herd leaders and be confident enough to go out alone - this is the main reason I would suggest.
 
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My youngster is lovely to hack alone but he isn't that great with heavy traffic, and I don't have anyone to hack out with. My partner walks/bikes with us a bit which helps but I know he does need to see more of the world. We have got some good off road hacking that we use and he isn't spooky at all will go past anything really, canter and pull up very easily and not strong. The off road hacking is around a farm so he does get to see the big stuff without worrying about other cars which helps, but I don't think we are ready to go on long road hacks yet, little and often and I would rather turn back for home and end on a good note to build up confidence in him and of course my self first.

It's such a shame that he isn't 100% in heavy traffic he was a lot better when I had him but he had a nasty accident with tractor dumping a pile of stone right besides him on the horse walker, the driver (hired farm hand) utterly igorned me when I asked him to stop so I get the horses out. I could still hit that guy now. Grrr!
But we are getting there he use to throw himself on the ground after that and bog off, who could blame him? But 18months down the line we are still working at it. The hard work will pay off in the end
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
I had to spend a lot of time and effort (plus professional help) to get my traddie cob to hack solo, but now he's a lovely boy and ambles around quite happily on his own. Ditto my loan mare, but her owner is my trainer, so not surprising basically as its one of the first things she always does with any horse that passes through her yard is to get them safe and polite in ALL circumstances, inc solo hacking.

We have to cope with artic lorries here, plus the normal run-of-the-mill llike quad bikes, buses, boy racers, as well as having to ride out over dual carriageway bridges, plus local airport.

I make it a point to hack my two solo at least once a fortnight, because IME if you don't keep it up, they'll get very spooky when you do take them out solo. I'd trust either of them to go past virtually anything........ yesterday we rode through a busy working quarry plus encountered a flapping blue sheet which someone had erected over a thatch roof...... however the only thing we DO remain challenged about is the piggies up the road, where we sidle past/climb up the hedge snorting and puffing with boggling eyes, blimmin things!!!

IMO it takes time, effort, commitment, confidence - and quite often professional help - to get a horse to hack solo. They don't do it naturally, and in many livery yards a lot of people ride out together in a group anyway, and so horses never learn to treat their humans as herd leaders and be confident enough to go out alone - this is the main reason I would suggest.
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I do agree with this - mine has gone the other way, and is so used to hacking out by himself, that he finds company very exciting - and he's so used to ambling along by himself we have arguments about trotting or cantering behind!!
 
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