What's Your Hacking Like?

newforest

Well-Known Member
Mar 15, 2008
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I came across footage of a rider using a camera to wear riding.
What surprised me more about the footage was how busy the road was. Its on the Staffordshire border.
Do people really ride on busy roads like this? They must do as there is a warning sign to be aware of horses.
In the few minutes of footage that rider saw about a months worth of our traffic! I couldn't and wouldn't hack on that road.

 
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Awful, down 1/2 mile drive to busy road and 100 yards to roundabout with town bypass,after that on commuter rat run roads and only bridleway runs alongside bypass and is open to it at one point. Hacking is a Sunday early morning pursuit around here or load horse in lorry and drive 3 miles. When we moved here 30 years ago we were on a quiet country lane with no bypass and bridleway was accessible from our land and meandered through neighbours farms. Take nothing for granted ever.
 
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Yes we have a stretch of road almost as busy as this at times. It goes from the yard to any of the bridle ways so you can't hack without going on it. It's a slip road from a dual carriageway and has a blind bend so not ideal. I try to pick quieter times to hack when I can and deck out in hi viz but what else can we do. At times it is fairly quiet.
 
No hacking from our yard without going on fast busy roads. I take the trailer out mostly. Even just to get a mile nearer the bridleways.
 
I think I saw a total of seven cars when I was out for an hour today. Oh and one motorbike.
 
I have apx 200yds of busy road to ride along and cross before going into a nice sleepy village and through woods. We have supermarket lorries, bin lorries, motorbikes, push bikes, you name it's on that stretch, and at times it's awful. Having said that I ride on the grass verge as it just gives me a bit more space between me and the traffic, it didn't used to be as busy when I was a child. :-(
 
quiet lanes mainly single track with passing places, very open you can see whats coming for miles, no horrible blind bends.
 
We have the forest east from the yard, its also north and south of us but the river is on the north side of my yard so you have to go a couple of miles east or west to get to a bridge and the town lies to the south and west. Occasionally I ride over to my old yard which requires going through town which includes the busy, bottle neck, high street, I try to only do that later in the evenings or on Sunday mornings as its quieter then, but from the old yard we had to do it to get to the forest so Jess is well used to it even in rush hour traffic. I will ride on busy roads to get to somewhere, but I wouldn't choose just to hack around busy roads.
I have taken Jess up the A134 and A47 both of which are very busy, fast roads (Norfolk doesn't have motorways and these are the main trunk roads) but only for a few hundred meters to get somewhere off road. I actually don't mind busy or fast main roads as much as I dislike 60mph lanes with high hedges and blind bends.
 
Totally agree @Jessey
There's a woman who teaches dressage literally 500 yards from my yard. Unfortunately, 300 of those yards are on a major trunk road, and worse still the next 200 are on a windy, narrow, high hedged country lane in a 60mph zone. I always box it rather than risk those 200 yards.
 
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quiet lanes mainly single track with passing places, very open you can see whats coming for miles, no horrible blind bends.
That's my biggest disadvantage, hills with blind bends.
Meeting lorries means I need to find a gateway or pass bay.
 
I have access to 150 acres of off road hacking plus my own little patch. "Real" hacking around here is all on windy bendy country roads. Pretty as a picture but not for me, as I am not confident and I've seen how many tractors, balers, trucks blast about on them. There are passing places etc but I just don't fancy it.
 
I have one bridlepath 20m from our field gate and access to 1,000s of acres of public land half a mile up the lane. Our lanes are quiet outside school run and rush hour times, but they are narrow, hilly, with high banks and hedges and inhabited by very wealthy people who are constantly rebuilding their big houses, so you have to be confident to meet anything. Many's the bin lorry, grabber truck and scaffolding cart Ziggy and I have had to squeeze by.

We do have a busy main road along the bottom of the valley. I wouldn't hack along it myself (though some do) but one of my more adventurous routes involves about 400m along the pavement of this road - it's a pavement legal for bikes, so I take the view that it's legit for ponies too - and a level crossing. I like to make sure Ziggy stays ok with fast traffic.
 
Mine is all road hacking along with a lane i found recently that runs alongside a motorway but no traffic on the actual lane. My roads can get busy, we have a race course, golf course, a couple of haulage firms and home heating oil companies as well as all the farmers and their machinery...but it is a bit hit and miss, sometimes its quieter than others. I also have an exhibition center and agricultural show grounds facing me...
 
it is a bit hit and miss

That sounds scary! :p

I've just been out long reining for an hour, 45 minutes of which was on the lane. I was passed by 14 cars, one Ocado van, one Glazier's van with enormous panes of glass and the postman (4 times). It is horsey round here and mostly people are very polite. In fact sometimes they are too polite, I hate it when they wait unnecessarily!

Oh and I got one neighbour saying "I thought you were supposed to sit on him," which they think is hysterically funny, but I just say, "It's good for me as well as good for him! Come on, Ziggy," and away we go...
 
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Lots of good off road hacking for me, but we have to ride about a mile along the "main road" out of the village to get to most of it. I can go out at 9am on a Sunday morning and not see a car for that mile, but I will always try to avoid rush hour and match days as the road is used as a rat run between two towns and the "Townie" drivers don't know what a horse is!!!! The road still isn't as bust as that one in the clip though.
 
I dont think I could cope driving back on English roads anymore, When I think back I had so many hair raising incidents!! Mind you someone nearly hit me driving like they were blind in their car just recently! they are everywhere!!!! Least traffic is few and far between, most of it is our own villagers anyway, Our village is ' end of the road' so no through traffic, alough can get tourists, they tend to drive slow to soak up the scenery !
 
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We have a good few hundred yards of residential streets, then cross a more main road, and then we are onto bridle paths. At the moment I only attempt it with a more experienced fellow hacker. It is London so always busy and you can meet all kinds of stuff. Still though I think it is probably safer than busy country roads - at least there is a 30 mph speed limit and no bends!
 
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