You think you’ve seen everything out hacking and then...

Ben2684

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Pigs, donkeys, a couple in a compromising situation. Not all on the same ride thankfully.
Did once have someone lean out of their car, scream at the top of their lungs that hunting should be banned and that I was scum (I was in walk, solo, hacking down a lane decked out in high vis)
 

Meredith

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Just remembered this.
I was hacking home few months after moving to our present home. As I left the forestry a woman came from her garden and asked me to pay for her car tyre.
Apparently a shoe nail had punctured a tyre and it was from my horse’s shoe.
I said none of the family’s horses had lost a shoe since we moved and it couldn’t possibly be my fault.
She never spoke to me again even when I took her milk from the local shop when she was ill ( shop keeper asked me if I would do it.
 

pansymouse

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When I was about 10 or 11 and hacking on my own (it was the '70s so not considered odd) I came across a couple having sex on the river bank but I couldn't stop my pony matching over to them and sniffing bare flesh. I had to wallop her hard to make her move awayo_O

Now I hack on Salisbury Plain where large, loud and unusual stuff is pretty much everyday and is routinely ignored by my typically melodramatic Welsh x - squirrels, deer and odd coloured grass tufts however are a totally different ball game :rolleyes:
 

tatty_v

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We came across an amorous teenage couple once, which was quite amusing. Also popped out of one of my favourite bridleways straight into the middle of a half marathon once. I think we set the fastest time for that section as we piaffed sideways down the hill into the village amongst all the runners!
 

Annagain

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I've told the story before but a friend was out hacking and came across two men doing things that two men meet in remote places to do. They scattered in opposite directions - one running away and one running towards her. She made eye contact with the one who ran towards her and realised it was the husband of a (not particularly close) friend. She'd only met him a couple of times but they both recognised each other. She never said a word to her friend or to any mutual friends (I don't know her so was a safe person to tell and she never gave me names!) but the husband hasn't come to any gatherings since! Apparently he's always got something else on or isn't feeling well whenever they go anywhere where my friend might be!

I also took my boy over to my friend's old horse's new home to hack out with her - she had kept in touch with the new owner who invited her over to ride but had nothing else to ride with my friend and my friend has a terrible sense of direction so needed supervision! What I didn't know was her yard was at the end of Cardiff airport's runway! In the hour or so we were at the yard, about 15 planes came in to land and were no more than about 50m above us. I was expecting histrionics as he was on his ''own" (without his usual wingmen although there were two other horses there ) Arch stood and watched the first couple absolutely fascinated then completely ignored the others. As we left on our hack another came in flying (what looked like) directly towards us. I was terrified but he didn't give a stuff! Apparently very few worry about them coming in to land but some don't like them taking off - I assume as the appear out of nowhere or because of the noise. We were lucky the runway was operating in the direction it was that day so only saw the landing planes.
 

Brownmare

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I was out hacking with my Mum when I was around 14 and we were caught out in a torrential downpour. As we were on a downhill stretch of lane and unable to trot on we decided to take shelter at the end of a track under an overhanging tree / hedge. There was a car parked in there too and we both gradually became aware it was rocking slightly and the windows were steamed up. We sat there cringing silently for a minute then both said we thought the rain was slowing up (it wasn't) and carried on home. Neither of us has ever mentioned it to each other since ?

In, I think, 2012 I had a VERY sharp TB mare who I was rehabbing from a suspensory ligament injury and we were out hacking when jets were scrambled in response to a passenger plane that had pressed it's panic button. They went supersonic going over us but the mare didn't bat an eyelid at the massive sonic boom that nearly made me wet myself. Purple flowers on the other hand were out to get her and had to be snorted at and given a wide berth!
 

rowan666

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I saw a flasher out riding once when I was about 15. Reported it to the police and I had to describe him. They asked me if it was flaccid or erect :eek:.
I was flashed at when I was around 9/10, my trusty little shetland felt my heart go and bolted back to the yard to be met by my friends dad who quickly ran up the lane with a pitch fork to catch the perve, he didnt catch him but took me to the police station where I was bombarded with very awkward questions like that including if I thought it was a real penis or a fake one!!? How on earth was I supposed to know the answer to that at 10 years old!?

Are flashers still a thing today? They were rife on urmston meadows when I was a kid
 

SamBean

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I had a low hot air balloon going the same way as me once, horse was fine with the noise of the flames and just kept a brisk walk but spooked at a pheasant running out the hedge by us. We get steam trains by us that always whistle when level with my field. The horses cant see them, just hear them and see the smoke as the trains are down an embankment and there is a road between us. They pop their heads up but never react, I wouldn't like them to see them up close though.
Oh a massive bunch of deflated balloons rolling through a hedge on a lane once too, I got off for those as they were really menacing looking even to me then drove back out to remove them.
 

cindars

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I once met a tortoise on the side of the road. I got off and picked it up and it had its address painted on its underside so I rode the mile or so, with one hand on the reins and it in the palm of my other hand and delivered it back home.
A friend and I found a guinea pig that had been dumped poor thing had a skin problem friend had not long had an operation and had a colostomy bag so couldn't put it anywhere we and go.were saved when a car pulled up and said a friend did small animal res cue. Much relief. Another friend rescued a kitten and got back to yard with kitten stuffed up her jumper
 

Errin Paddywack

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We rescued a kitten once in the same way. We were out for a bike ride in fog and found a little ginger kitten sitting very composedly by the side of the road right out in the country. My cousin stuffed him inside her coat and we took him home. Turned into a gorgeous golden longhair and was with us for 12 years. Have also rescued a very large tortoise I met out in the wilds, had him for quite a few years too.
 

Gusbear

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Mines’s not so much what happened at the time but rather what transpired later.
Over 30 years ago in Oz, there was often a strange guy wandering around the laneways where I hacked. He would mumble to himself, hide behind trees and then jump out and stare at me and sometimes be reciting what sounded like religious texts from a book he was reading.
I was always nervous whenever I encountered him.
I was talking to some people at the yard about it when one girl I knew but not that well said “oh that’s my older brother. Yes he’s very odd but don’t worry he’s not dangerous”. So every time after that I was more relaxed whenever I came across him.
Years later I’m watching a news bulletin when his face appears on it. My blood ran cold. He’d been arrested in the US.
He was Graeme Craddock, a disciple of David Koresh and the sole survivor of the Waco Texas massacre. ?
 

Sussexbythesea

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So a new one on me, a woman on a flippin hover board in the woods (Sign of the times I guess ?) theres a private estate road there so flat. Her kids were playing noisily in a tree nearby. My ginger nobber was not impressed with her or the kids, luckily my old boy led the way which never would have happened a few years ago. I guess all my spook busting work finally paid off ?
 

JFTDWS

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Must be a day for it - I had a child literally scoot right out into my mare's flank today. I was quite impressed that she only flinched, turned her head and looked at her assailant. I wouldn't have blamed her for booting him, but I'm rather relieved she didn't!
 
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