What's Your Hacking Like?

Our hacking is very mixed. There are a couple of very busy roads, but generally its quiet lanes (single track). There are very few bridleways though - I have to hack miles to get on a bridleway. Fortunately the drivers around here are very good so the single track lanes aren't generally too bad even though I quite often meet traffic.
 
Quiet lane that doesn't really lead anywhere except a few residences and in the main they are aware of riders so if we do encounter an occasional car, we are mutually polite to each other. Lots of open fields that have been ridden by couteous riders for years so not a problem. If we choose to do a particular route it involves crossing the main artery road from Bridgnorth to Wolverhampton which can be busy if you don't pick a good time but it makes a nice change as it is a pretty hacking route once you are the other side. Decent hacking is a foremost factor for me - I could easily keep the boys much closer to home but the hacking is cr@p!!
 
I think once the tourist season gets underway fully I will notice more. The tourist attractions /activity centre are now on both sides of the road and are easily seen from my place.

Once the roller coaster is running it might get interesting. She got unsettled by the noise and screams from the other ride! Course anyone who visits has to go on it! ;)
 
The roads get busy here in season with tourists,I am spoilt with the hacking here and don't have to more than cross a road if I don't want to,I tend to avoid then like the plague in season as they either drive along ridiculously slow taking in the scenery paying no attention the the road or drive like idiots no happy medium. I've hacked on busy town roads and it never bothered me or the horses I rode but been spoilt like I have for so long I now can't be bothered with them so when it's busier I just avoid.
 
I really wish we had access to lots of off-road hacking but ours is mainly roads. Quiet roads with good visibility for the most part and it's very horsey round here so most drivers are considerate. We can link up villages without having to go on a main road so there isn't much traffic, although there are tractors. Downside is that with limited exposure to traffic Raf really isn't good with anything bigger than a van so atm I'm having weekly hacking lessons where we leave the village and take a road on the outskirts that serves a waggon depot and a concrete factory deliberately to encounter waggons. It's a bit scary but I feel I need to make progess in this area so that Raf is as safe as I can get him.

It's funny when a new horse comes on the yard that's safe as houses with traffic but sh*ts itself over sheep or gun shots. You can tell where they have been brought up.
 
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we have a mixture of hacking. Mostly off road on fields/bridleways. We do have short stretches of roads which can get busy at commuter times, but generally on the whole its always do-able and easy to avoid bad traffic times. We did have a nasty blind bend which we all used as the bridleway keeping us off that bit was so horrific it was not ride-able. I petitioned and got it repaired last summer.....but already by the end of the winter it is boggy again (but still rideable at the moment).

I miss forestry hacking though!
 
We are in a rural village with narrow windy, hilly country lanes, we get 60 + lorries a day from the Quarry and local haulage yard, tractors from various farms and local rearing units, staff cars and vans, delivery vans ,through traffic who use us as link road onto the A1079 main Hull-York road and we are on the 66 cycle route so weekends are full of bike clubs, you can't have a quiet hack so just have to get on with it - we walk the ponies out in hand regularly if they are not been ridden just to keep them accustomed to it all. 20 years ago it was a different picture altogether.
 
One of my routes is part of a geo cache, I had to Google that after I met walkers asking me if they were going the right way. Eh, who knows :)
 
I've never heard of geocashing, after a quick Google it sounds quite fun, a point to walks :D I like to have a reason for going somewhere, be it on foot or horseback and since I lost my dog I'm walking far less so might look into that :D
 
Ours is really pretty actually. We are super lucky that we have off-road hacking at the end of the drive going to our yard - super, super lucky when you consider we are so close to London. It's expensive, but worth every penny!

Will update with a few snaps, as soon as I can work out how to from my phone :)
 
Hacking is really good - bridlepaths or quiet lanes, through beautiful countryside. Not many cars but tons and tons of cyclists as it's the heart of the Chilterns cycling country. Roxy is fine with bikes luckily, as we regularly get pelotons of 20 or more bikes speeding past us.
 
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