What's your daily, hacking routine?

On those days where you don't have a lesson and aren't jumping, what is the specific routing you and your horse accomplish? Do you enjoy dozens of round circles, or are you more of a shortening/lengthening type of gal? Do you like to do work with trotting grids and cavaletties, or do you prefer working on transitions?

I don't jump or any of that fun stuff (imo, Lacey's too old to be learning a new high impact sport like that) so I'm basically stuck with trot poles and the like. In any case, I'm definitely a shortening/lengthening kinda girl. I get so excited about that sort of thing, circles just don't do it for me. I'm also a big fan of serpentines and figure-eights. Maybe it's because I have think more? I'm not sure.

I love trot poles but Lacey has a tendency to trip over them like crazy so I generally only set up one at a time for her which kinda ruins the fun of them... Oh well.
I really like transitions, an excellent, fluid transition is one of those things that gets me every time. =)

I like to tack up my horse, go out in the woods and look for elk! We also look for antlers and explore places we haven't been before. When we are on the trails and roads proper, I like to practice gaiting my Foxtrotter and collecting the trot and canter with my Mustang. I like to work on stopping, standing, backing, and sidepassing too! I also like to weave them in and out of trees and bushes just to get them really soft and listening to me. And practice going home at a walk on a loose rein!

So really, I work in all gaits with my horses, and making sure they respect me and do as I ask, all while enjoying nature.

I guess that's not what you really asked, but when I saw "hacking" I thought that usually meant trail riding, lol!

So what is "hacking" exactly? Is it just a generic term for riding in general?

(I'm a western rider, can you tell?)

I spend 30 minutes grooming my mare, I tack her up :) and it depends on if Im jumping I put her bell boots on and her splint boots..then I usually ride her for 45 minutes, she is very untrained.

In the 80's I was into jumping but even then I put at least 50 miles a week on my girl out hacking. To many circles in a tiny arena drives me nuts and I have to get out in the fresh air and wide open spaces.

I ride long rides both Saturday and Sunday, about 3 hours and Tuesday and Thursday I go for a 2 hour ride and if I can I squeeze a extra 2 hour outing.
All days I brush, pick feet, clean his stall and grain. All days.
I spend at least 1 hour minimum each and every day in the barn.

My warm ups start off with a lot of walking, circles. The walk is an extremely important part of the warm up, probably more so than any of the other gaits. I always make sure my riding routine involves some lateral work as well. Its a great way to working on the horse moving off your leg, become more supple.

What I do after that all depends on what my riding goal for that day or what I have been working on all week. Sometimes it's working on lengthening and sometimes it's collections. Sometimes it's been working on the basics of having good upward and downward transitions.

Then there is also me as a rider. You should always have lots of rides where you focus on your riding and what you part of it you need to strengthen (your seat, leg etc).

I don't that I ever stuck to one particular riding routine because your horse's ride can be affected by so much.

Thanks everyone so far! You all seem to love what you do.

Oh and trailhorseride, hacking is just walking, trotting, and cantering, so in other terms "flatting."

Lets see. After we tack up I put her on the lunge line and let her get her jiggles out. Since she's gotten back in shape she's been more happy to be worked which is nice. After her bumps and bucks are out I get on and walk her around for a few minutes. Then I collect up the trot and work on extending and shortening and reminding her to pick up her feet. We trot circles, figure 8's change directions and work on leg commands and stopping with little pull. Then we canter and collect up twice around the arena. If she breaks to a trot it's another time around at the canter until we've done two non stop rounds. Then we change direction and do that routine from walk to canter the other way. Then she gets about 15-20 minutes of walking out after. I total it ranges anywhere from 45 to an hour and half of actual work not including the walking before and after. She's been really good lately so I've been keeping it at 45 minutes.

Well, I often take the horses out in the nature. At the moment I'm also trying to teach Fritz (the pony) some tricks. I have to admit that I totally neglected dressage during the last months as I have been really stressed out (due to my studies). Actually, I'm not always riding, if I'm spending time with the horses. Lunging is also an integral part of horse training for me, sometimes I take them for a walk,...

I always try to keep things different so my horse doesn't start to "predict" what we are going to do.

I throw in a whole lot of different work. Some days I just go out into the field, others I work in the arena with transitions and circles, then trot poles and grid work. Sometimes to make it interesting, I do a schooling session out in the field.