How to get Confident and Connected Hacking Out on the Trail

Getting out and about with your horse should be fun and enriching for both of you, but it can often be stressful and challenging instead.
In this video, you'll learn my training process for building calmness and confidence with your horse from the arena to riding out confidently.
As always, the training is about how to improve your connection with your horse so that you enjoy going out together as a strong partnership.
There are techniques for:
- Teaching your horse to enjoy exploring the world
- How to calm your horse down and stay safe when he spooks
- Despooking exercises
- Using mini-hacks to get started in a progressive way
- When and how to mount or dismount
-Using clicker training or positive reinforcement techniques to make it a really rewarding experience
Hacking out is a brilliant way to build fitness, improve your bond and have a lot of fun together - I hope this has given you some ideas to make it a successful and joyful experience for you and your horse, too.
~Hannah
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[@RoosLoveDieren]

Love this video! So much good advice!

[@calanleyendecker8369]

What a great video! I will definitely be using these techniques with my arab cross pony and others that are not confident in new surroundings. Thank you so much for sharing 💞

[@annvanhoey9983]

Again nice video!

[@sigi8055]

Lovely video Hannah, as always!! Thank you for this super clear and helpful info!

[@ConnectionTraining]

You're welcome, glad you liked it :-)

[@cinnamon8884]

great training! right next to our riding arena there live like a dozen fasans, so we are training them all the time and it`s no big deal if we meet them when hacking out.

[@maciejkosmala9390]

Xwjdudhg?

[@kmiklaszewski]

This was an amazing video. I really love your work and how detailed you are in explaining everything, which is really important. What do you look for in a treat product that you use for Rewarding with treats?

[@kmiklaszewski]

Would love it if you could do more riding or lesson videos.

[@ConnectionTraining]

@@kmiklaszewski For treats, I go for something healthy so forage-based like grass or alfalfa pellets. That's usually motivating enough for most horses, but if I need something a little extra, I'll mix in some chopped carrots or apples. Thank you so much for your comment :-) And this week's video is a riding one! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nKuuhKGFjsypaLM

[@tylahall6454]

I love you

[@shevhunter986]

I’ve got to start hacking on my own and your video has helped - any tips for napping?

[@ConnectionTraining]

Thanks for your comment. Just take it slowly and build it up in a way that is relaxing and fun for both you - you want to enjoy it and not just feel like you're relieved when you get back safely! Work from the ground first to give you both confidence, practice just going a short way and back again and repeating that until it's easy before increasing the distance and don't be afraid to get off to give you both confidence if you find you're disconnected (not responding to your aids, which napping is one example) when riding. Make it as fun and rewarding as possible so bring tasty rewards, plant feedbuckets up the road which you can stop at with your horse, have grazing/browsing breaks, stop and play some fun games like targeting etc every so often. Also, do it consistently - 15-20 mins out every day will make a huge difference in a short time as it becomes routine for you both. You can lead and/or ride - I recommend to mix it up. Hope that helps :-)

[@shevhunter986]

Thank you so much for your reply - we’ve started clicker training on a 30 min circular ride - I have a ball on the end of schooling whip which I ask him to target. We are getting better although he got heated when there was a fun run being run from a field we go past. We were giraffe like for a while then recovered and calmed after we got past them - thank you. I’m going to keep going on this ride until v confident then go further x

[@daisystables6452]

Is it weird that I play games with mine like real games tack him up and jump in the padock