Hacking - Loose Rein or Outline

My old TB used to lvoe hacking, and i used to have very little contact, as he loved to look around and just enjoy himself. if we went for a canter or gallop, he would come back with minimal contact, and never took the p!ss by trying to run off, he obviously realised he was benefitting from it too! champ, on the other hand, is quite nervous, and isn't confident until he feels that i have contact, and am holding him. he wont move comfortably withought feeling my leg aids and without me collecting the reins. hes also quite clumsy and trips alot so me holding his reins encourages him to hold his head up!
 
My mare yields to the bit and drops her head as soon as I pick up the reins....

She is always keen out hacking so strides out and uses herself while carrying herself in an outline. Throughtout the hack I will offer her stretching breaks, and we walk home on a loose rein.

I don't understand the mentality that an outline is hard work for horse or rider - perhaps if it is a forced or unnatural one. My horse works properly out hacking or in the school. She started life as an eventer and under saddle she is always ready to work hard and use herself properly - there is no such thing as a 'relaxing hack' to her, being tacked up means putting in effort and working hard, including working in an outline whether its required or not.

But if your horse is happy plodding along on a long rein, go for it. I am personally, but the mare disagrees. Each to their own :D
 
I tend to hack on a fairly loose rein. Not right at the buckle, but not short either. Enough to be able to pick up quickly and easily in traffic or on the rare occasion she spooks. There's no facilities where Kita is kept and although I did a bit of schooling in the field over the summer when I was riding her 5/6 days a week, when I'm home from Uni it is generally just hacking. Her owner has never done any proper schooling with her and that will always be the case and so although I do what schooling I can out hacking, it's not eally going to make that much difference in the long run (other than Summer hols, and only home for a couple of weeks at a time) as she is a hacking horse and that's what she enjoys being and is most likely what she'll always be. So we just enjoy ourselves and have a nice relaxed time on a fairly loose rein taking in the views!
 
Bit of both for me really.

I will ask for some outline at various points around the hack, and how long I ask them to hold it for depends on how well-established the horse in question is. I.e. Skippy is just coming back into full work after just under a year on and off work. Therefore he has no real muscle or topline to speak of as it all wasted away whilst he was off work, but he has been schooled to carry himself in an outline by me before he went lame, and this time in 2008 and late 2007 he was carrying himself in a correct outline for long periods of time, so he does know how to do it. So I'll ask him for 10 mins or so, then a break, then another 10 mins, then a break etc.

Soda on the other hand has been in regular work and working correctly for the past year and a bit (before that he was so green and unbalanced he couldn't manage, bless him)! so he has the correct muscles and can hold a correct outline for a longer period of time, so I ask him for longer, he will quite comfortably go round the long block (about 45 mins) in an outline (and I don't mean sawing on the reins, just a light consistent contact which he works into) I don't always ask for it, but more often than not he offers it to me out hacking, he has quite good natural self-carriage anyway, or seems to to me and my RI thinks so, so he doesn't seem to find it hard at all.

Both my horses are th types that tell people if they're uncomfortable anyway.

I do however always give them a long rein for the last 5 mins or so before we turn up the drive to stretch out ec. But then I will ask for some free walk on a long rein and a proper stretch before I allow them to dawdle along whichever way they want.

I don't see why not. We have good facilities at the yard and are very forunate in that respect, but that's no real reason (to me, not having a dig at anyone just my personal opinion) not to ask for a bit of correct work. For Skippy it is more beneficial to him to work in an outline as he has back problems anyway from a bad injury before I bought him (resulting in the chiropractor having to come out every 6 weeks now) so Skippy needs to be asked to work properly (according to the chiro anyway who has advised me that in the long-run Skips will benefit from working correctly). Soda has a natural self-carriage anyway (or seems to) and tends to work into my rein contact. He also has the tendency to take advantage when I have loose reins and fling his head around (back teeth and saddle all checked) and when I pick up a contact he immediately comes back to me and is happy as larry.

It's all personal opinion really. Personally I'd rather my horses worked correctly at most times, I do some schooling out hacking, they then work properly in most places, I feel it makes them concentrate on me more and I do a bit of leg yeild and shoulder-in on quiet roads and we practice walk to canter transitions and medium trot out in fields as well. Equally, I let them have a break and a dawdle at times on a loose rein, but they know when I then pick them up again, it's work time until I loosen the reins.
 
When I had my TB who had no muscle or topline I would really push him on up hills and have sessions through out the hack when I would ask a little more of him and then sessions where he could relax... and without having no rhyme or reason for it, I find that he would relax but still have his attention on me.
 
She thinks that the horse should always have a contact and should be working in an outline.
Click to expand...

No horse should be worked constantly in an out line, Hacks in my opinion ought to be mostly chill out with a bit of out line and proper working occasionally. Working the horse for an hour or more in an outline is not very kind.
 
I use hacking as a time for my horses to chill out and have fun. So I usually keep a contact on the reins but do not ask them to work in an outline and, for example after a particularly long trot/canter I will give them a long rein to allow them to stretch. :)
 
my 4yo can be quite spooky out on hacks (especially the pheasants(sp)? )as everything is new to her, when we are in company ill give her a loose rein, but when we are on our own i keep them quite short. not really short, but just enough to keep her from bolting, and to be under control. i never ask for an outline on a hack, shes too young for all that (IMO).
 
I have slight contact when I hack, Spyder's quite a particular horse, he likes to know I'm there when he's nervous, but if I have too much of a contact he gets tetchy, as contact still means fast work to him (he's never quite realised he's no longer racehorse). I tend to go with shortish reins so I can get control if needed, but still relaxed hands so I'm not sending "go fast" signals to him or winding him up about anything. Like Joyscarer I think said, if he sees something scary the worst thing I can do is shorten up my reins as he just starts to think "well it must be scary if she's noticed it!", so instead i keep the same contact and put my legs on him to let him know I'm there and looking after him.

I learn't my lesson hacking out wih the reins on the buckle, was on my way home, reins in one hand, not paying attention when he spies something (imaginary!) in a bush, spins round and deposits me in said bush :rolleyes:. If I had been paying more attention with shorter reins would have def stayed on!
 
Having a dense moment here but if a horse can be working correctly to best lift the rider without being in an outline then why do we strive to attain it?
 
Joyscarer said:
Having a dense moment here but if a horse can be working correctly to best lift the rider without being in an outline then why do we strive to attain it?
Click to expand...

That's a good question, certainly not dense! I always thought of an outline as something a horse naturally went into when they were being worked correctly - i.e. working from behind forwards into a contact. Maybe I'm wrong though! I think possibly there are a few meanings of the word "outline", I suppose in a way it has become a negative word used to mean pulling the horses head in, whereas I think of it as part of the horse working correctly.
 
newrider.com
Top Bottom