Hacking alone- enjoyable or stressful?

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shoniedaspony

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Aug 22, 2003
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Do you find hacking alone enjoyable or stressful?
I've increasingly found with my horse, that hacking alone off road is very nice and relaxing, very controlled, and fun for both of us. Roadwork however (especially in a residential area) isn't. Simply put, he gets scared/stressed, i get fed up, and by the time we get off road we both just want to go home again.

Obviously i know why he doesnt like it, and I'm not looking for ways to resolve it, we are working on it already.

I was just thinking 'oh I'll got for a nice relaxing hack today because my back hurts', but due to essential road work through a residential area, I think I'd rather do some light schooling, we would both find it more fun.

Is it right to avoid it in certain circumstances, when you think it would be counter productive?
 
I love hacking alone. But B is as bombproof as a pony can be. I would say I'm slightly more on guard when hacking alone than when in company, but no so much that it makes the ride stressful.

I think you are right if you are not feeling 100% to stay in the school rather than to hack out as you are more likely to injure yourself more or to get into a difficult situation than you are if you are feeling fine. (same goes for mentalitly, if your feeling relaxed and happy your more likely to be able to deal with any issues in a relaxed way than if your raging about something)

I lost my confidence hacking out on the roads with a share pony I had (who on several occasions nearly put us under cars, tractors, over the side of the bypass bridge!

So when I first got B I wouldnt ride on the roads, I lead him to the start of the off road hacking then mounted and rode. Eventually I just bit the bullet and rode him on the road and he was fine.

Just do it in your own way, you know your horse and yourself best and what will work for you and him.

Good luck!
 
I think its a kind of ' it could be fine, but if we meet a van/lorry/ pneumatic drill (like the other day)' im really not in the right frame of mind or body to deal with it.

And although normally i like to challenge myself, if im not 100%, then whats the point.

I just dont want to get into the habit of avoiding it because its harder work-it is something we need to keep doing in order to get him used to the local area again (we move back and forth from uni, and he 'forgets' how settled he was with it before). I love my pony, but i do wish someone had decided to do some roadwork with him in the first ten years of his life!!!
 
Arion is quite a chilled out lad and even if he does spook at something, the most he does is that "freeze and gawp" thing that all horses are capable of and which make me laugh mostly. So I find a hack with Arion quite relaxing and enjoyable. We have very little road work to our hacking paths, and traffic doesn't bother him at all.
 
I don't like hacking alone and if I can avoid it I will.

Red is really great out on his own, in fact he's better than he is in company as he's much more forward going but the downside is he is more spooky. IF I am able to relax (getting better at it) then I am much more able to school him on a hack if he's alone compared to with company.

I had my confidence seriously dented by my previous share, when I started sharing Red I made sure he was a confidence giver and his owner knew I wouldn't hack out alone. After a good 6 months I was ready to tackle hacking alone again, and Red has been so so good with me. We've encountered some hairy situations and he's had a few wobbles but ultimately shown me that I can trust him to try his hardest.

I still don't like it and it's a case of biting the bullet when I do go out alone, and if I can hear quadbikes or motorbikes in the distance I would rather stay and school.

I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of and I don't think that forcing the issue is going to do any good for either of us. We need our stressful alone hacks to be regular but not too often, because hacking every day on his own with a stressed out rider CANNOT be good for Red.
 
I don't mind hacking alone.

My last share horse wouldn't hack out alone then I got Mo, and for a 6 year old I can't fault her. We do road work or off road it's great. She can sometime spook at silly things but I just laugh it off. We mainly do road work to get to the good off road bits so that's fine.

I still prefer to hack out with my friend so we can have a good gossip
 
I enjoy it, and both my horses are pretty reliable, especially in traffic. We do have to go a bit further to end up in built up areas, but I've found the more we do the better they've got in general. Things like skips, bulk bags, lawnmowers, hoses and power tools for example aren't usually any bother.
 
On my old boy i love going off hacking all over the place on our own. He's much more settled on his own as he gets exciteable in company. I still love going out with good friends though.

With Lantern hacking out alone was just plane stressful, he would call the whole way spook at the air. On numerous occasions he spun round and ran the other way. However the first times he started to improve it was so satisfying and now he is PERFECT and it is great fun - i love it. You don't have the restrictions or pressure of someone else there and you do what you want.

Although i have to say there's one person i love hacking out with cus we always want to do the same things, and she is the ONLY person i know that can ride Nimby like i can. :)
 
I love hacking out on my own - just as well really as there is no-one nearby to go with me.

I'm not scared of meeting a "stranger" (I have my dressage whip for that;)), but I AM scared of being bucked off and him b*ggering off!

Thunder is a sweetie but very green and nervous, and I lack confidence in myself!:eek: BAD combo. I can ride out on any of my friends horses but I do lack confidence on Thunder as I know he's still a baby, even now at 14.

My only worry out hacking is that he bucks, I fly off, wind myself and lie there for a while till OH decides I'm late and comes-a-looking.

He always knows my route and I do take a phone, but can't get a signal for most of the way.:D

So I have a choice - either hack out alone, or sell horsey and stay home knitting:p I'll risk eating gravel, thank you.:D
 
I generally find hacking alone quite relaxing. I dont really like riding on the roads on my own but not because my horse is badly behaved/spooky on them, just simply because i dont like busy traffic. If i have to i will use the roads, especially in the winter when there is nowhere else to go really:)
 
I dont reall relax when hacking alone but most of the time I have to do it. Ive got to a stage where I can enjoy it....on the way home!

will let you know when Ive mastered enjoying the way out!

pony is only 5 so shes very good really but I try to avoid much roadwork, thankfully i can up here...(Cairngorms)
 
i love hacking on my own or with people if on my own i have my ipod and sing along quite the thing lol but my mare naps until a certain point which kinda ruins the hack a little but after the big sand hill thing she is fine :D
 
I used to always hack my old lad – he had a few dodgy encounters with motorbikes on the road but was something we worked through and hacking for me was just so enjoyable on him. He was fab without company and great with company also. I was normally by myself hacking so to have company was nice but I enjoyed it just being us by our selves more.

Voltan I’ve had to introduce to the whole hacking malarkey lol hes taken to it really well. Introduction to traffic has been good but he massive hate seems to be trucks which doesn’t make me feel positive sometimes but something we have to work through bit by bit. Hes been doing a lot of solo hacking while odin been off work something I dreaded doing with him but hes taken to it better then I ever expected. Which is great as hacking is a big chunk of what I like to do.

I will avoid a certain situation if it weighs up as too much of a risk – but I will always re visit and make sure I do it. So for instance his first solo hack I wanted someone on foot with us so if anything happened there was a back up so to say. I didn’t feel with voltan it was advisable to do it completely by ourselves at first.
 
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shoniedaspony said:
Is it right to avoid it in certain circumstances, when you think it would be counter productive?
Click to expand...

Personally I avoid anything that stresses me and my mare and puts us both at risk - die hard hackers of the younger age group will probably laugh and tell me to stop being silly, or indeed older more experienced ones, but at the end of the day I do riding and being with my horses for fun and pleasure:D Not to come back a quivering wreck!! I'm lucky in that all of my hacking is off road - but every now and again I have a "wibble" when our farmer comes tearing past on the quad - my mare doesn't mind - its ME!!!!:eek:
 
I LOVE it!! My horse was always an angel whatever I did, but she's always so much 'fun' when she's on her own! If she's in a fairly lively mood, we always have a ball. Its funny, because I've never heard anyone apart from me describe their horse as 'fun' on hacks - I've heard them say that the ride was fun, but not that the horse was. Anyway, I was speaking to my mare's loan owner, and she'd just been for a hack, and the first thing she said was that Lou was really good 'fun'. Sometimes, she's just so full of bounce, but doesn't pull or misbehave :)
 
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