Pleasure riding

In horse show competition, a wide variety of classes are labeled pleasure classes with judging standards based on the concept that horses or ponies exhibited should be well-mannered and thus a “pleasure” to ride.

Pleasure riding is called hacking in British English, and in parts of the eastern United States and Canada.

[2] Similarly, a 2006 study in Virginia found that 48.4% of the horses in that state were used for pleasure riding.

[3] The prevalence of pleasure riding and its economic impact also dispels the misperception that horse ownership is only for the wealthy.

[1] Even in competition, the term "pleasure" or "hack" is also applied to a number of horse show classes where the performance of the animals are judged on their manners, performance and way of going, originally to determine a horse's suitability to be a pleasure riding mount.