Hacking alone :|

[Ruby.27]

Before i go into anything just want to thank everyone for all the help & advice NR has given me over the past 6months. I can now tack up & hack out alone, hack regularly along the busy main road & scary farms which used to terrify me! On the whole i feel quite chuffed since i've only been riding a year, but there r so many things i can't seem to get!
Main one is being able to ride in an outline - my rein contact isn't the best just not sure how to fix it! My friend says i'm not riding between the leg & the rein correctly but not to worry, it'll take years to grasp?!
Theres no arena for me to ride in just yet so relying on hacking alone. Didn't have much fun tonight on our hack.... Slightest touch of the leg & she was jogging/trotting so struggled to try & ride her forward in walk at any point at all :|
Please tell me i'm not the only dunce that has problems with this?

 

[TBminx]

I struggled and still do on hacks an riding in an outline with my mare for years whereas gelding a different kettle of fish.

Ive put so much work into her and some days i get nowhere and other days she is fab. My main turn around with an outline was one instructor who made more difference than any other had.

 

[Skib]

Simple answer - we dont hack in an outline.
If you have a quiet stretch of track and the horse is calm, you could take the opportunity to teach your horse to yield to the bit and go in what is called an outline -
But it is like a person going to the gymn - the horse needs to learn slowly, in walk first of all and only a few steps at a time, to gradually develop the muscles that enable it to do this.
And you need to learn too how to get feel and softness through the reins - through your hands, which can be done out hacking and without asking for an outline at the same time.
If you are hacking , remember the purpose of riding with some contact, however gentle is to stop the horse running away with you.
And remember the purpose of riding with an outline is to get the horse to be more active with his hind legs and do less with the front legs which tend to be overused when a horse carries a rider on its back.
You sound to be doing really well with your hacking and teaching the horse to like hacking - a great achievement. And many young horses are trained to move forward with active hind legs by taking them hacking. You sound to be doing really well.
If you really want to school your horse while hacking, there are books on the subject, but I cant recommend one as I dont have any. Both with my share (who did know outline) and the RS ponies (who dont) I just do little bits now and then, whatever comes into my head.

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

I have lessons out hacking with my RI (when I have a functional pony :smoke.

Ziggy is 13 and has never in his life been asked for collection. When my RI rides him he arches his neck and lifts his back like a dressage horse, but I can't get him to do the same thing. We're getting closer though. The keys for me are:

* Strong connection with his back through my seat bones, my back upright and not hollow, a nice anklebone - hip - shoulder line with neutral alignment;

* My core muscles engaged;

* Good connection with his rib cage through my thighs, the feeling of a "long" thigh against the saddle:

* Nice loose lower leg, weight in the stirrup lightly;

* A regular forward walk;

* A much stronger contact than feels natural to me. We usually go on quite a loose rein, which is as if all the energy that we make behind just squirts out the front, like toothpaste out of a tube. I have to hold his front steady to keep the toothpaste in the tube.

He doesn't object to the contact at all, he is relaxed and attentive and still in the mouth. When I get this right his head starts to drop and his back lifts and he goes with more engagement. Over time as I get better my RI says his head will come more to the vertical.

Because we are both beginners we don't try it for too long, and he needs a stretch afterwards. I'm getting better at this in walk and am starting to be able to do it in trot too. Sitting is easier than rising.

 

[sjp1]

Tobes and I are pants at 'outline'. If he is ridden in a steady contact, he objects and makes a huge fuss and has to stretch down even if it is after a few strides - as though he has done Rollkur for hours on end!!!

I have very ineffectual hands I know, but you need a lot of leg to get an outline, and I reckon, more leg than hand.