Productive hacking

Having an arena is attractive, but is it essential for competition prep and keeping horses fit? Verena Bowyer finds out top riders’ views

- Verena Bowyer

IT’S hard not to hanker after an arena if you don’t have one – especially in midwinter. However, as many top riders prove, it’s possible to give your horse a constructive schooling session on a hack – and even prime them for Badminton – providing you do it properly.

Some riders would argue hacking is just the right medium for enjoying yourself and getting a constructive workout done at the same time. As grand prix dressage rider Anna Ross says: “My greatest pleasure is going out on my horse,” while showing producer Katie Jerram-Hunnable encourages riders to “box up and get on to some quiet roads if they’re not on your doorstep”.

It’s all well and good extolling the virtues of hacking when the sun is shining and you’re nattering away to a friend. The big question is whether you can prepare your horse for competition when lanes, fields and tracks are your only facility. Event rider Lucinda Fredericks reckons so. Her Badminton 2007 winner Headley Britannia did “99% of her training on hacks on Salisbury Plain”.

“You need to use your initiative and make the most of what is around you, including the landscape and natural features,” Lucinda says.

Ensuring that time spent hacking is constructive is vital if you are trying to keep up with your arena-owning rivals. The jury is out on whether horses should stay in a contact, but that doesn’t mean horses should be allowed to “get away with” behaviour that would not be acceptable in a formal schooling session. Dressage rider Steph Croxford, who previously trained horses to grand prix without the benefit of her own arena, is a firm believer that horses are black-and-white learners, so it is vital to be consistent.