Mags goes on the buckle unless she's high. The odd time I'll do a bit of work on a hack, then I'll bring her round, do a bit, then down she goes. I guess every time I have contact, she's expected to go round... She doesn't think that's necessary, really, and sometimes throws her head straight in the air... Good thing I love that girl! I know one of the reasons I hack Maggie is to give her a break and to show her that just because she's in tack, it doesn't mean it's hard work. I suppose it depends on why you are doing it... and how they respond.

If I'm on a trail ride where I don't know the footing, I'll ride in a light contact. Where I know the footing to be good, I'll ride on a long rein. If I'm doing trotting hill work, we're in a working frame because I want Figgy to get the most good over his back & neck and USE those hind legs. I can put him together any time. I think they all need a change of "posture" from time to time.

So it depends.

All interesting and helpful replies! I asked because when I hack I generally don't have my horse in a round frame. He is sort of semi-round on a very light contact. A friend of mine only hacks in a round frame because she says it confuses the dressage horses to sometimes be round, sometimes be "out there" in their frame.

My boy is so happy to just trot along on his hacks with his ears forward and his head high and out there - and he is so polite - I think why not?! We are both having so much fun!

I would like to comment too although I do not ride dressage and I am no longer steady enough in the saddle to do much hacking.

Out hacking my ideal was hacking on loose reins, or with light contact (determined by the horse). I did not turn control over to the horse as far as direction or speed, but I did give the horse majority control to deal with bad ground as he saw fit. I did it this way because then the horse knew that HE was responsible for dealing with what came up under his feet.

Whenever I worked on "roundness", then I was the one totally responsible for dealing with what came up under his feet. I did not do this often, like less than 20 times in 40 years?

Uphill or downhill I might keep contact, but just for speed control, or when I was encouraging the horse to reach out to the bit.

You see, when I was first riding it was in the foothills of the Andes mountains in Chile, and some of those foothills were STEEP and tall. We did not ride on contact. There I learned that horses work better on uneven/broken/dangerous ground when they are expected to figure the safest way across without interference from the rider except for the broad "I want to go there, generally at this rate of speed, but you, the horse, are responsible for the details", with the rider encouraging forward movement when the horse stops.

If the horse was nervous or flightly and I HAD TO keep strong contact for control I was ALWAYS working on getting the horse to proceed calmly on loose reins at all three gaits, at first I might get only three steps of calm movement at a time but gradually I would be able to get more calm movement, building up to trail rides 90% on loose reins at the walk. This process could take a long time.

On another, but related note, who hacks out alone? I do and I know I shouldn't.

A friend from the barn has a very experienced hack horse and one day she went out into the forest and the horse and her dog came running back to the barn - no rider. A search party found her wandering back to the barn. She had fallen and hit her head, but she has no recollection of how it happened. It spooked everyone, yet, I do go out on my own when there is no one else to go out with. Maybe stupid, but I love being out there.

What does everyone else do?

Hi

Of the horses that I had many were dressage horses, and many were young eventers as well, but no matter what the purpose of the horses I rode-- including western (1/4 horses-- and just western saddle horses), hunter ponies/horses, and simply horses that I was training just to be nice all round riding horses-- to some really good dressage horses that went on to be quite good-- all of them were hacked no differently than I rode the trail horses that I worked for a western trail riding place-- all loose reined unless they were getting rough, all allowed to think for themselves, always chill-- hot ones followed cool horses, eventually learning to be the lead horses.  Although an English ridder by trade, as a child and a teenager I had worked for an old guy that rode any type of horse that came though his barn, most were 1/4 horses, he had top flight horses in this area, that he bred and raised and then sold as finished horses... and he had the trail facility... he rode all his good horses on the trail at least twice a week, and all he treat no matter the cost of the horse as he did the cheap trail horses-- they were given the chance to learn, to make mistakes and to grow as horses, they were given the chance to learn to chill, relax and smell the flowers as it were... it made them better arena horses and when he was in the ring they then also thought for themselves, acted like pro's and did their job... their reward was a couple of hacks a week where they could look around and just be. 

My own really good eventer (rig horse)-- (we did dressage most of his carreer and life), was a 1/4 horse that was a lousy 1/4 horse-- bred and raised for western (sire was a reining/cow work horse), and with a off track 1/4 horse mother, he made a much better english horse-- and excelled in dressage... but when we hacked-- I for a break for him put a western briddle on him and taught him to neck rein... he was not a horse to be 'on' all the time, he could be sour if pushed beyond his limit of tollarance, and he had attitude, it made him a super show horse, he put it all on the line when we were in the ring, but the same attiude that made him tough to beat-- also made him tough to deal with day to day and if crossed was dangerous... like killer dangerous, so when he got tough off went the dressage bits, or english briddle and on went the western briddle, and off we went to the back bush/woods to hack of some steam, there he became the wild stallion again that had ran his own herd before I bought him, and he would lead a trail ride of whomever was around at the time, or he and I would head of for an afternoon, just the two of us pretending like we were the fist exploreres in the woods of Canada-- never mind that the town or city would only be 5 or 10 miles away from us! lol   To the last day that I owned him the sight of the western briddle brought his ears up as we only used to to hack.

I had over the years a number of sour ridding horses/show horses, and sour stb race horses.... these horses came away with better dispostions with hacking, and chilling... and were safer in the long run becuase out in the woods with just me and maybe one other rider and calm horse they learned that they had to depend on me and themselves to get us through... so I guess for me I allow them to have as long a loose rein as I can and relax myself... always watching for the boogy man, but thinking that everything will be okay-- and you know it usually is! lol 

Cheers,

Deb

ps. after ridding more trail horses than you can imagine I also learned that a horse that watches his own footing is much, much safer than one you have to watch out for!