Happy Hackers..

[lisap]

Inverted snobbery or not, that is a great post!

I was lucky enough to ride a proper ranch horse in Texas a few years back. He was a 4 year old quarter horse, and quite one of the most nicely schooled animals it's been my privilege to ride.

However, there was no round pen, no arena, or any area that could be used for schooling. I asked the Ranch manager's wife how she brought these young horses on to be so lovely.

"It's the cow work. Horses understand why they need to move forward fast, or stop on a cent, or git sideways real quick, when they are sorting out the cows".

So, forget the fancy arena, and the dressage instruction, just acquire a few cows! ;D

[lilaclomax]

Love this So true... will have to print off and pop up on our Kitchen noticeboard. Thanks for posting

[fleur]

love love loev this post it's brilliant!! The amount of times I've been people have said to me 'oh do you only hack your horses, why? Are you not interested in dressage blablabl...' Very proud to be a hacker, I hack mine down bridleways into a massive woods and down lanes (where we meet tractors, and the odd boy racer and big lorries) Give me a log to jump in the woods any day than poles in a school. I do school my horses every week with my dually halter and everything but they absolutely love just going out and having fun galloping through fields and through streams and it's true this sort of reading keeps you on your toes (in case there's a walker and their dog about or the pheasants) as well as making you feel relaxed just tootling about! I can now say I am proud to be a hacker!

[erniehorse]

That made me feel good Thank you for posting it.

Hacked out today just my boy and me and met some hens (that would be the horse eating variety of hen). He wanted to go home until he saw that the cockerel rounded them up and they hurried away - then he was a very brave horse!

[SJpony]

go happy hacking!! :-D