Since C and I moved to the new yard in December we've been spoiled for choice when it comes to hacking - we have a 70 acre forest & reservoir on the door step, another similar sized forest less than a mile away and lots of qite country roads.
C is a really good horse to hack - he's generally interesting in seeing new things and although he does sometimes stop and snort or have a wee spook he's not silly with it (most of the time)
If I hack him with another horse he pretty much goes to sleep for the whole hack unless we're doing fast work.
If I take him on his own however he goes between being very forward and bouncy one day which is fine to being very slow, backing of the leg and constantly trying to turn for home the next day - he doesn't spin but if you put the reins into one hand or take your legs off etc chances are you'll end up facing towards home.
It is relatively easy to turn him and push him on but when all you want is a relaxing hack at the end of the buckle like I'd planned for today it can be very frustrating!
In order to address this today we ended up doing some trot work on the road with leg yields, flexing etc and that work s well as it keeps his brain busy but I wonder if there are any other options which will allow me to have a more relaxed hack i.e. no schooling but not be constantly kicking or tapping him on to make him go forward? He's not scared just a little apprehensive but I don't understand the inconsistency?
Sorry for the long post - any suggestions welcome!
C is a really good horse to hack - he's generally interesting in seeing new things and although he does sometimes stop and snort or have a wee spook he's not silly with it (most of the time)
If I hack him with another horse he pretty much goes to sleep for the whole hack unless we're doing fast work.
If I take him on his own however he goes between being very forward and bouncy one day which is fine to being very slow, backing of the leg and constantly trying to turn for home the next day - he doesn't spin but if you put the reins into one hand or take your legs off etc chances are you'll end up facing towards home.
It is relatively easy to turn him and push him on but when all you want is a relaxing hack at the end of the buckle like I'd planned for today it can be very frustrating!
In order to address this today we ended up doing some trot work on the road with leg yields, flexing etc and that work s well as it keeps his brain busy but I wonder if there are any other options which will allow me to have a more relaxed hack i.e. no schooling but not be constantly kicking or tapping him on to make him go forward? He's not scared just a little apprehensive but I don't understand the inconsistency?
Sorry for the long post - any suggestions welcome!
