How do I get better at hacking out ?

[2LaZ2race]

Slightly embarrassing topic… but I’m REALLY bad at riding out and I want to get better.

I own a lovely farm with a nice fenced in riding area that all my horses are well behaved in. My neighbors are nice enough to let me hack on their farmland and it always ends terribly.

I know it’s me because no matter what horse I’m on it’s some level of bad. They get herd bound, jiggy, spooky and it’s just generally unpleasant. I can take them OFF the property to local parks and trails and it’s fine, but at home it just doesnt work. The last time I took my OTTB out he acted like a fruit loop even with a calm buddy (friends horse who trailered over) and actually got me off. Really disappointing.

I know how important riding out is for fitness and their brains. How can I get better ??

[luckycricket123]

@2LaZ2race

Slightly embarrassing topic… but I’m REALLY bad at riding out and I want to get better.

I own a lovely farm with a nice fenced in riding area that all my horses are well behaved in. My neighbors are nice enough to let me hack on their farmland and it always ends terribly.

I know it’s me because no matter what horse I’m on it’s some level of bad. They get herd bound, jiggy, spooky and it’s just generally unpleasant. I can take them OFF the property to local parks and trails and it’s fine, but at home it just doesnt work. The last time I took my OTTB out he acted like a fruit loop even with a calm buddy (friends horse who trailered over) and actually got me off. Really disappointing.

I know how important riding out is for fitness and their brains. How can I get better ??

It sounds to me like your horses are barn sour, if they are fine for you off property but jiggy and spooky at home. I am blessed now with two of the calmest hackers I’ve known, but I definitely hacked some anxious barn sour horses before I owned this pair.

The good news for you is, even the most anxious, jiggy, barn sour horse I rode got considerably better when he hacked out consistently. I think your horses would benefit from a short hack, even if its just around your property before or after every ride in your arena. Start small, with short hacks and slowly build up to hacking further and further away from home.

I also think you were on the right track by bringing along a calm buddy. That’s always a good place to start with an anxious horse. Are you aware what triggered the “fruit loop” behavior? Some horses insist on being the lead horse on the trails.

My best tips for dealing with a jiggy horse:

• If your horse is constantly trying to run off with you, learn a racing bridge, so that instead of pulling on you, the horse is just pulling against himself.
• It's completely natural to feel anxious on a horse that is dancy, prancy all wound up in the open. You need to do your best to not let that show through to the horse. I personal talk or sing to the horse, and constantly remind my shoulders and lower back to relax. If I don't think about it, I'll carry tension there.
• Don't try to force a jiggy horse to a halt. Let them move forward or that energy builds up and leads to an explosion.
• If your horse spooks and runs sideways/backwards make sure you keep looking in the direction you want to go!

Good luck!

[tbchick84]

He is barn sour. The trick is to go just past the comfort zone and come home on your terms, not the horse, before it completely falls apart. Next time out, go a little further. Lather, rinse, repeat.

This requires a large amount of patience, confidence and stubborn on your part. If and when your horse suddenly decides to plant himself attempt to turn back, your job is to keep him facing in the direction you want him to go and get him moving again before he has time to go rigid and explode. You might have to wait out a few dozen attempts to spin around before your horse gives up and moves forward, but you need to get the job done. Do not attempt when you are on a time limit. I swear horses know the difference between when you have all day and when you’re in a rush.

If he’s the explosive type once he gets completely stopped, use “drunken sailor” to get him moving. Use zero leg pressure, just use alternating opening reins to get his feet moving. Sit tall and deep in the saddle. A little scritch of your fingers on his withers won’t hurt. You’ll wander forward side to side, but it’s still forward in the eyes of the horse and it’s a win for you.

When you get the response you wanted, reward him, tell him how brave and wonderful his is, and very slowly turn him toward home. Do not let him rush back. A nice “going home” walk is okay, but don’t let him punk you into rushing home.

[Salty]

All of the above, plus I add slow cowboy circles to get them to keep moving & relax. Use a low opening rein on the inside & completely ditch the outside rein. They should then walk slowly in a circle with their head down, which gives you control & releases endorphins.

I had one who just had to go to work on a hack. We did most of our dressage in the fields. If he wasn’t working, he was spooking.

I learned to cultivate the attitude that “if I’m still sitting on him, everything’s fine!”

[Wonders12]

Great advice here. When I’m hacking out on a jigging horse, I sing. Row, row, row your boat is my preferred song. It keeps me breathing, relaxed-ish, and focused. I also do think it helps keep my horse a little more focused on me.

You may also want to hand walk, like taking a dog for a walk, if that helps you both. Do the same path waking until your horse is calm about it, then progress to riding.

[RS]

Do any of your friends with calmer horses happen to be good, confident riders? If so, could they trailer their horse over and you two do a horse swap for the ride, so that you can sit on a chill horse and your friend could ride your barn sour horse? Or, do you have a trainer that can come over and hack your horse a few times?

This will definitely get better with repetition, but if you’re nervous from the get-go, it’s hard to calm yourself and your horse down. If your horse is good for someone else a few times, it might make you more comfortable to give it a go again yourself.

[OdieJump]

Like everyone’s already said, they’re most likely barn sour. I keep my horses at my house and the way I regulate this is I’m constantly riding in different areas. Sometimes I’ll ride in the arena, sometimes just around the property, or trail rides, or even right in their pasture! This way my horse realizes that there isn’t a specific place where he knows he won’t have to work so he won’t be looking to go that place.

If you can ride your horse in your pasture I would start there, or somewhere close to the barn. Work for short periods of time and make sure that he’s not stressed out. If you can, “wait out” the bad behavior. What I mean by this is if he starts to paw, don’t smack him. Wait for him to stop and then ask him to continue with what you were doing, if he does what he is asked then reward him.

Something else I would recommend is to try and make the experience not only positive but something to look forward to. For example, my horse used to be terrified of fly spray but he overcame that when I began associating fly spray with rewards. I did this by spraying and then giving him a treat. Then I kept doing this with the treats less and less and now he stands quietly when I spray him. Find a way to do this with your horses and it may help!

[2LaZ2race]

I do have a trainer that comes to me so I can definitely enlist help. I’m not sure my friend will bring her horse anymore after I got tossed that last time ! :o

The main 2 that id like to hack out both have different issues. One just gets excited and wants to run, the other wants to turn around and go home. The bugger bucked me off last time as we were walking BACK to the barn !! He had been super opinionated the entire ride and I’d pushed him forward and was ready to end on a good note and he launched me.

I cant really do much out there besides ride the edges bc id damage the crops, but I can ride in my own pastures. I just always see people’s posts about lovely jaunts around the farm and all the benefits of long walks and trots and I hate that I’m bad at it. I’m not a bad rider either, I can handle a lot and most of the horses are OTTBs I’ve retrained myself.

[tbchick84]

Don’t knock yourself. We all know how NOT fun it is to ride a horse who is jigging, snorting, spinning and looking around for anything to spook at. That you’re even attempting to get your horses used to riding outside of the arena suggests that you are not at all a bad rider. That you’re trying to do something in the best interest of your horse’s well being is fantastic. It does help them decompress (after they get over all that BS), builds muscle and keep them more fit overall. I always hack the day before a dressage test. It’s the best warm up there is.

[danielled]

Proud member of the crappy rider club here.
I call it a “happy dance” like luckycricket123 describes. He has “canter walk” move (if I won’t permit the canter, he does the motion at the pace of a walk), and yea, it gets really bad if he’s not in the lead.
It freaks me out because it feels like he’s about to bolt, buck, rear at any second, but that’s never happened. I just may go flying someday when he does a side jerk though. He’s not mine and his owner is more forgiving of his personality and has some level of trust I can’t muster. I’m getting there but always joke either he or I need a few margaritas next time.
The horses have been allowed to to run up certain hills on our path. I’m not always in the mood for that. Naturally, it gets tough at those spots and at another location where there was an accident a few years back.
(It’s funny now that I see this from OdieJump because he also flips out over fly spray).
I’ll try the tips listed here. Small circles, no hurry, positive association
Several years ago, I leased a 4-yr old that was way too much for me. He had a bolt/rear spazz at one spot (near a deep ditch of course). Breeder/trainer was sure if she gave it a go, the problem would be fixed, so I rode an old reliable while she handled him. We tried twice. It did not end well the first time. The second time was worse.

[EventingMaff]

I’m leasing a spunky thoroughbred mare at the moment who’s owner and previous leaser both backed off as soon as she’d start throwing a tantrum. Result: Spoiled, barn-sour, tantrum-prone horse. She’d learned that tantrums worked so when she tested with some tense-looks and “frozen statue” stances and I didn’t back off - she escalated quickly.

I did 2-rides of pushing her through and it was HELL. Broncing, rearing, spinning - you name it she tried it. We got through both and I decided for both our sanity/safety (and that of the pedestrians/cyclists/dog walkers in the parks and fields around us) that we’d try something else. I started handwalking with a whip and lunge line and basically spent the whole walk working on ground manners You come up too close behind me, I “chase” you back. Once I could get her walking relatively calmly on the lead for most of the walk I started doing small hacks after rides just pushing the boundary a bit further.

After about 2-3 months (with time to hack post-ride only 1x a week) we got to the point that we can leave the stable without fuss (although taking little mincy steps), walk/trot basically anywhere without tantrums, and walk home without jigging (although with BIG steps). However, cantering still gets her all riled up so it’s a work in progress

The big key was that everything she threw at me I rolled with and didn’t back down - but I had to recognize that sometimes you’ve got to change strategies because I hated the brute-force 'throw it all on the line" approach required to deal with the crap she pulled.

ETA: the mare is naturally quite spooky/looky so I also do confidence building work with her out on the trail as I don’t think 100% of her antics are just barn sourness, I think some of it is rooted in true anxiety/fear.

[Texarkana]

Following.

I had a “duh” lightbulb moment earlier this year when I realized my horse’s herd bound/barn sour nature is probably (er, definitely) the reason the wheels fall off the bus during our XC runs at events lately. Schooling with her buddies in sight is not adequately preparing us for tackling the whole course alone. The XC venues where I competed in TN were big, open fields so you never truly lost sight of the crowd. Even at the lowest levels here in MD, the courses seem to wind through the woods and valleys so the horse has to go it alone.

My girl is one to spin & bolt without warning while hacking out alone at home, which takes a toll on my confidence. Just when I think we have it under control, we have an incident. She will even spin/bolt without warming if you try to lead her from the ground off the property away from her buddies. I’m trying to patch this hole with confidence-building groundwork + work to improve my seat, and am hoping to find a trainer with the skill set to address it.

[vineyridge]

You might try learning to ground drive and do some out of the arena work that way. It’s good for your physical fitness, and the horse will learn that she/he will return to the barn at the end. A horse explosion while ground driving most likely won’t hurt you.

[joliemom_again]

I’m such a bad rider that I’ve dismounted twice and walked mine until he took a deep breath. Both times it was due to livestock - dairy cows, once, and goats tippy tapping on top of their metal goat hut, second - and his brain just left his body. He can be strong and performs his own bolt to dolphin to buck move, which I deal with by simply growling* and asking him to go back to work, but in areas where it’s unsafe I have no problems dismounting and walking his country a$$ until he’s calmer.

*No horses were intimidated, manipulated, or tortured by this growl, it’s basically that same sound your mom/grandma used on you if you were messing with her nice things.

[2LaZ2race]

Well, even if I can’t get better at hacking right away, this thread at least lets me know I’m not alone!

I know another big part is consistency. This has been a ROUGH winter and there’s times when it’s really not safe to do much because of the ice. I think I’ll start with handwalking him around and then maybe making my DH lead us. Since they’re both off the track they do pretty well being led.

Not going to lie though, every now and then a fat QH comes across my facebook feed advertised as “amazing trail horse!” and I get pretty tempted! I know it would defeat the point of giving my guys the benefit of hacking though!!

[jump_pony]

You have gotten some good advice here , but I am going to add one more, since these are Ex track horses you could also get someone to pony you, or just find a quiet horse and pony them yourself.
Good luck, I am sure one of these methods will work!

[Equibrit]

Make sure you don’t ride back home the same way you left. Work out a circular route, so that leaving means getting to the barn.

[Twigster]

I am totally guilty of “forgetting how to ride” while hacking out. In a lot of situations actually, LOL. Anyway, I had a great lesson from a fancy dressage clinician who actually got his start in OTTBs, and got some really great advice about this situation. He told me to think about training the horse to hack out like a string of dressage exercises:
10m circle around the tree
leg yield for 3 fence posts
shoulder fore for 3 fence posts
etc
Pick a spot/obstacle/landmark and treat it like a “letter”, ride your figure, move on to the next “letter”.
When my horse starts getting antsy outside, he’s not listening, and it’s because he has no confidence in me. As soon as I start actively riding, even simple things the above at the walk, the tension starts to melt away.

[ecileh]

When my big mare is sassy about hacking out, I find a hill and put her to work. When she decides that it’s a whole lot of fun to pull me up the hill, I switch the hill work to a perpendicular serpentine–meaning I am now working on the side of the hill, not going straight up or straight down. Usually, by the time we snake down (or up) the hill once, or sit the trot for a couple of times up and down, she has settled.

She does sometimes get jiggy on the way home (we do use a circular route, like @Equibrit suggested, but she still knows where home is) and if it’s really bad, I have been known to turn her around and just do the loop backwards and/or, head for the proverbial hills.

As someone else said above–keep their feet moving. If you try to hold them back, that energy is going to explode.

[ladymcts]

This is a good read for me… bought my first place last summer after years of boarding. I have gotten on my horse exactly cough zero times since moving in. In fact, I’ve given pony rides to my nieces and a friend’s kid, and still haven’t gotten on my own dang horse.

My rational brain says most of the advice here sounds great, and the old adage of “lots of wet saddle pads” applies to the rider as much as the horse!