This Denny Emerson Between Rounds column ran in a 2009 print edition of The Chronicle of the Horse.

Some riders call it hacking, some call it trail riding, while others simply say, “I’m going for a ride.”

Almost all riders do some riding out in the fields, woods, dirt roads, or even on the verges of traveled highways. They differentiate hacking from schooling, in that hacking usually has less clearly defined goals than jumping or working in dressage, although hacking is used by many riders as a fitness workout.