Horse Trekking vs Hacking – what is the difference?

Hacking is different to trekking, many people confuse the two.

Trekking

Trekking is for anybody, whether you can ride or not, you are matched to a horse or pony and off you go.

Usually the horse’s are quite placid and should follow the one in front, they know when they are going to walk, trot and sometimes canter/gallop.

Hopefully you and the horse/pony will stay together throughout your ride and you will go back to the trekking centre in one piece.

Hacking

Hacking is more for people that have some experience and have control of their horse.

They can usually hold the reins correctly and are able to stop and steer.

The rider should have reasonable balance and maintain a good rising trot.

Hopefully most riders will be able to canter/gallop with the correct seat and balance (although cantering is not essential to hacking)

Because our horses are used in the school and for hacking they tend to be more responsive to the riders aids and therefore the rider needs to understand the basic aids.

Another reason why we prefer riders who wish to hack to have some basic knowledge of riding beforehand is so that horse and rider can be in harmony rather than a tug of war (on a horse that is used to having its mouth yanked on by riders who use their hands to balance rather than their seat)

We will always hack out to (if in a group) the slowest persons ability.

Our lead rein hacks have proven very popular last year and we aim to have more this year. This is when inexperienced rider will have a person walk beside them leading the horse, then the control of the horse is the leaders responsibility and not the riders. This has proven popular with families who want to do something together.

If you have questions on this subject that i have not covered please do not hesitate to email