#Hack1000miles
Checking in with our challengers
SINCE CELEBRATING THE one-year anniversary of #hack1000miles last month, we’ve been so impressed by your efforts. Hundreds more have signed up to our great cause at hack1000miles.co.uk — getting more people like you out into the countryside on horseback — and joined our Facebook group. Reading about your explorations and watching your videos is fascinating, plus it has inspired so many more to get involved (see below). Our #hack1000miles ambassadors, Tracey Sawyer and Joanna Holland, are on board again for 2018 and Joanna celebrated passing through the finish flags in April. Joanna is exactly what this campaign is all about, because she’s hit many personal milestones along the way with her “tricky” bay mare Summer Breeze. “Summer is a proper mare; highly strung and dominating,” says Joanna, who has owned her for three years. “At first, she would nap, bronc and rear, which knocked my confidence. “Doing #hack1000miles helped me persist with her. If she was naughty, I circled or reversed her and riding became less effort as she learned that misbehaving was boring.” Joanna lives in Hampshire’s New Forest, which boasts enviable hacking. She and her seven-year-old mare regularly encounter wild ponies, donkeys and cows. Sometimes they come across pigs, too, which are released in the autumn to eat fallen acorns — a favourite feast for them, but they’re toxic to equines. “It’s a wonderful place to ride and, because we’ve been able to do all these miles together, Summer can’t scare me now,” adds Joanna. “I’ve learned all about her behaviour and reactions, so she can’t surprise me. That’s why #hack1000miles has been great for us. Others on my yard have signed up too, so now Summer and I are going to hack another 1,000 miles and we’re joining Endurance GB, too.” Inspired by Joanna’s story? Then sign up to #hack1000miles now. Find out more about how and why over the page.