Hello!
I have noticed than when I ride my horse outside of lesson I never get much done because I don’t have a plan. I usually hop between too many different activities and then my horse gets frustrated and then I get frustrated. What’s your general outline when you hack your horse? If it helps at all, I’m an equitation rider and I can’t jump outside of lessons, so any plans with poles or cavaletti would be wonderful! Thank you all.
I usually hack to just let my horse get some exercise and a break from real mental work. And especially no jumping.
I will walk a lot on a loose rein. Then some trot on loose rein, canter and reverse. Then walk about the property and relax.
I suppose my plan is to let them enjoy a day of not having to think too much. And me too…
For me, it totally depends on the day! Some days I do a more dressage-style hack and work a little on lateral work like leg yield, shoulder-in, haunches-in, etc. Other days I do work with poles, which is incredibly useful.
One of my favorite exercises is four poles set on a circle (if the circle was a clock face, a pole at 12, 3, 6, and 9). I usually set them for a normal three canter strides in between, and I’ll work on shortening (four strides) and lengthening (two strides). It’s really good for adjustability and also suppleness, because you’re working on a circle. I’ll also ride courses of poles, which is more beneficial for me than for the horse. It’s really fun to set courses from equitation finals in previous years and practice them as poles, to keep things interesting!*
*Or, at least, I think it’s fun. Others might disagree. I once rode the 2013 Medal finals test set as poles and my barn mates acted as if I had willingly subjected myself to water boarding.
You can use the time to work on things you need to improve, such as not slouching during transitions or riding in two-point.
I might have worded that a little wrong… at my barn, hacking is riding outside of lessons. So I am looking for some flatwork and pole exercises to do… like what EquitationNewbie said. I’d be looking for what I would work on if I was having a flatwork lesson.
How about asking your trainer for “homework”, exercises you can do to build on the things you learn in your lessons?
[QUOTE=EquitationNewbie;7591152]
One of my favorite exercises is four poles set on a circle (if the circle was a clock face, a pole at 12, 3, 6, and 9). I usually set them for a normal three canter strides in between, and I’ll work on shortening (four strides) and lengthening (two strides). It’s really good for adjustability and also suppleness, because you’re working on a circle. I’ll also ride courses of poles, which is more beneficial for me than for the horse. It’s really fun to set courses from equitation finals in previous years and practice them as poles, to keep things interesting!*
*Or, at least, I think it’s fun. Others might disagree. I once rode the 2013 Medal finals test set as poles and my barn mates acted as if I had willingly subjected myself to water boarding.[/QUOTE]
I LOVE the circle exercise. It helps so much with adjusting strides and balancing. It helps you stay centered and straight too, so helps with your position.
You can also work on ground poles that you can extend and shorten strides, just like the circle but on a straight line. I always think circles and turns are great to work on. I just go all over the place, do teardrop turns with lead changes, serpentines, figure eights. All while collecting and extending!
You could also set up grid work with poles or cavaletti, have bounces to one stride and two strides. You could do a course of poles and transition between them, ask your horse to halt in the middle of a line and pick back up a canter. Transitions will help tremendously over fences as well.
And of course since you’re an EQ rider, don’t forget to drop those stirrups 
i dedicate a whole hacking day to working on things with my horse but take my stirrups off beforehand. that way you both get a lot out of your ride.
I try to pay attention to what needs to be worked on during the lesson, and work on that in specific during my hack the next day. Ex- if I was having trouble getting him to listen to my right leg over a course in my lesson, I work on moving him off my right leg during the hack! Then I usually find my next lesson he’s much more responsive to whatever I had been having trouble with previously.
I usually start with a general plan such as pole day, transition day, lateral work day, circle day, equitation day, etc. I pick one of those based on my previous rides/lessons.
Pole day could involve 15-20 trot poles, poles on a circle like previously mentioned, lines of poles to canter and adjust strides through.
Transition day I won’t go more then a 1/4 of the way around the ring without changing something. Trot-halt, walk-canter, 20 strides canter-3 strides trot-10 strdies canter-5 strides trot, etc., extended, collected
Lateral day I work on lateral movements at all gaits, lots of transitions those days as well.
Circle day I circle over every square inch of the ring, big, small, spiral, figure-eights, etc. Making sure that the circles are round and not ovals, that the horse is between my leg and hand, ie not bulging/leaning, etc.
Equitation day I work in two point, without stirrups, work on my bad habits, and generally ignore what the horse is doing, and since proper equitation with lots of leg usually results in a happy, forward, pushing from behind horse it’s a win-win.
It depends on what I was having issues on in my lesson. My horse is notoriously lazy so I like to do lots of transition work to keep her attentive. I also like setting up lines of poles and seeing how many strides I can fit in between the distance (ex. in one line can I get a forward 4, comfortable 5, collected 6). Some days it’s working on me and I’ll do no stirrup work or build my two point muscles 
What do you do when you hack?
Spend several hours going up a mountain (and back down again).
[QUOTE=Equibrit;7593734]
What do you do when you hack?
Spend several hours going up a mountain (and back down again).[/QUOTE]
Seems you and I are the only ones who understand the meaning of hack.
This seems to come up every so often on the H/J forums and usually follows the same pattern:
OP: What should I do when I hack?
Posters 1-8: Use poles/drop stirrups/transitions!/do poles without stirrups and integrate transitions!/stretchy flat work
Poster 9: Duh, hacking means getting out of the ring, on the trail, in a field, getting OUT.
Poster 10: ^Amen. I wish people all used the same horse terms, it’s confusing and stupid to have multiple meanings of the same word. Hacking is hacking.
Poster 11: So…is hacking just flatting or is hacking getting out of the ring and going on adventures? I’m confused.
Poster 12: Hacking in the H/J world often means just doing flatwork outside of lessons/jump schools. Hacking in most every other discipline means going out of the ring.
OP: Thanks everyone! I’ll do some of the above and go hacking!
Poster 13: Didn’t we just talk about this two weeks ago?
Poster 14: Why does this always turn into a “why don’t you know what hacking means” discussion? Ask your trainer what you should be working on outside of lessons.
End of thread.
I guess it depends on what part of the country what term you use. In my area, my understanding is that hacking is done outside the ring to give the horse a mental break from going round and round. Flatting is what is typically referred to as working on transitions, WTC, trotting poles, circles, figure eights, no stirrup work etc.
I can see where the confusion lies.
I agree that to me, hacking is riding outside the ring! Riding xc is a great way to relax your horse AND help them work correctly. I do a lot of hill work and use the down hill sections as a way to half halt and rebalance my horse. Since I foxhunt, I need a horse that is very adjustable and yet one that will happily canter/hand gallop down hill without falling on his face.
If I’m flatting, I will do:
- work on transitions, making sure they are coming from behind into a soft hand. I will start with transitions between the gaits and then do transitions within the gaits. I really like those – hand gallop to collected canter, trot lengthenings down a collected trot, etc.
- lateral work, starting with some shoulder in and leg yields. Sometimes I’ll do a figure 8 with shoulder in on the circle side and leg yields across the diagonal.
- spiral in/spiral out
- “Square” circles to work on corners
Sometimes I’ll do poles, but I find there’s plenty to do without them.
Hacking is a term that has been around for centuries. It is used to describe leisurely rides across the countryside. “Flatting” is not a word, and can be better described as dressage.
Flat Work? 
I hack at the end of every ride. On the days I don’t have lessons, I do pretty intense flat work, practicing lateral movements, accuracy in transitions, extension/collection, school figures, and sometimes, work over poles. I also spend some time in two point with no stirrups to strengthen my own core.
After this, I will go outside the ring and hack on a loose rein.
When I flat my horse outside of lessons I send them into a forward trot a few times around the arena each direction, I do spiral circles, I flex them to the inside and to the outside, I do leg yields, haunches in, shoulder in, trot poles, canter poles, extension and collection in all gaits, two point, sitting trot, posting canter, serpentines, small circles around all the jumps in the arena while changing rein after each circle, many many upward and downward transitions, counter canter, no stirrups… There are really countless things you can do, you just need to pick a couple things to work on and pick a couple ways to work on them. Start planning your rides, the best thing you can do for yourself and your horse is to actively THINK about your riding and what you want to accomplish instead of just being passive and along for the ride.
[QUOTE=GoneAway;7593914]
This seems to come up every so often on the H/J forums and usually follows the same pattern:
OP: What should I do when I hack?
Posters 1-8: Use poles/drop stirrups/transitions!/do poles without stirrups and integrate transitions!/stretchy flat work
Poster 9: Duh, hacking means getting out of the ring, on the trail, in a field, getting OUT.
Poster 10: ^Amen. I wish people all used the same horse terms, it’s confusing and stupid to have multiple meanings of the same word. Hacking is hacking.
Poster 11: So…is hacking just flatting or is hacking getting out of the ring and going on adventures? I’m confused.
Poster 12: Hacking in the H/J world often means just doing flatwork outside of lessons/jump schools. Hacking in most every other discipline means going out of the ring.
OP: Thanks everyone! I’ll do some of the above and go hacking!
Poster 13: Didn’t we just talk about this two weeks ago?
Poster 14: Why does this always turn into a “why don’t you know what hacking means” discussion? Ask your trainer what you should be working on outside of lessons.
End of thread.[/QUOTE]
Hahahahaha!!! Love it.
Seeing that we call the under saddle portion of showing “the hack,” everyone should easily be able to see why people use it for meanings other than ‘riding outside of the ring.’
