Anyone have a grass arena or who schools in a field?

[myheartinahoofbeat]

I am moving to a house with ten acres so will be able to have my horses at home for the first time ever. While this is very exciting, I'm wondering how I am going to cope without an arena. ( first world problem!) At my current livery yard, I am spoilt with two all weather arenas to ride in but I'll have plenty of space to set out a grass arena at my new house. I wondered how people manage, do you move the area you ride in around depending on the weather. I event and that's usually all on grass so I'm hoping to turn this to an advantage and there are arenas to hire nearby if need be. Just looking for any tips please?

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

We have dressage markers which we put out whenever we want to use them, so they will be in a slightly different place every time, even if they are roughly in the same area. We have to put everything away each time, as it would blow away if not.

 

[Brownmare]

I only have grass to ride on at home and I just use any flat area of field available. I try not to use one spot often enough to churn it up and in winter I can use a nearby indoor school which is a 15 min walk or 2 min drive away.

 

[[131452]]

If you have grass that will keep then I prefer schooling in a field. I find that often horses and riders rely on the arena fences for confidence, manners and straightness, and once in the open those things go out the window. I've certainly observed that in myself.
So if you can school out in the open in a "grass arena " then doing the same work in an arena should come easy.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I schooled in the field for the first 25 years that we were here - it took that long to get enough spare cash to put the arena in!

I marked out a 20m x 60m arena on a fairly flat area, and kept it mowed all summer. I had dressage markers and boards, homemade at first then upgraded to posh purpose made ones. I would shift my arena sideways every so often to get fresh ground.

It did need thought to use though, eg if I’d planned a schooling session but there was a heavy shower of rain beforehand, I’d have to hack instead. Certainly doable though in spring/summer/autumn, if you have a suitable patch of ground to use. I had thought my grass arena was level, but when the proper arena was put there in the same place, it turned out that there was a 1 metre drop in levels down the long side .

 

[dorsetladette]

I've fenced off a 20 x 40m area on the flattest part of the field and I school in there. My soil is really sandy and the grass doesn't grow. With all the rain we had saturday it was to slippy to ride but yesterday I was able to get some nice walk and trot work out of my lad. Anything faster than a collected canter I use a resting paddock to ride in so i can get some bigger circles/straight lines etc.

Growing up my parents bred and showed a lot of welsh ponies and for a lot of that time we only had a small paddock for stallion turn out and schooling in. So, most of our schooling was done out hacking or in the bill cow fields when the farmer let us. (think Section A's, long grass and small ponies ) We held our own in the show ring often coming home with red rosettes and championship prizes. So, I've always thought of an arena as a luxury not a necessity. But, it does depend on the ground you have.

 

[PatchyBabyHorse]

I only have fields to ride in.
Pros:
I find it works well wrt to training balanced horses, as even flat fields are not perfectly level.
Horses are used to being worked in large grass areas and don’t get a shock at comps.
Lots of space so they don’t learn to hang onto the fence.

That’s about it. Cons are much much more:
Can’t use them for much of the year. Such as all winter, if it’s very wet in summer, or now when I’m waiting for hay to be cut in most of them.
Very tricky/impossible when breaking sharp youngsters.
Very tricky with horses such as my new one, who has just turned 4, is very sharp, unbalanced and gets very lit up in open fields. You spend half your schooling session (at least) walking round settling them.
I can’t leave jumps or dressage boards out in mine as it will mark the grass.
The footing is very unreliable. We have good ground but it still spends much of its time either like concrete, terribly slippy and greasy as it’s hard with a shower of rain on top, or just too wet.

I think just grass is ok if
- you don’t compete seriously
- you have an arena 2 mins down the road, or
- it’s 1970 and no one has an arena

Otherwise you’ll struggle.

If I could put an arena in I’d do it in a heartbeat!

 

[GoldenWillow]

I only have our field to ride in. I tend to use the whole lot when the weather is good so as not to damage any one particular bit. I do have a 30 x 50 area that isn't grazed from June onwards, so grows good grass cover, and I use that once it gets wet through autumn and winter. I don't use it if it is very wet and avoid cutting it up or making tracks. It depends how wet the winter is as to how much I can use it, some years I've ridden right through on it others by February it's too wet. We do live in a very wet area of the country though.

 

[bubsqueaks]

We are at home minus an arena & use a one acre field to school in where the dressage is set out without fencing - its quite fun actually to go from dressage schooling over the whole field incorporating small hills, poles, jumps, ours are all barefoot & we event low level.
Downside yes is the winter months approx 5 months where we cant use but if you have 10 acres you might be able to plan multi places to school incorporating different aspects - schooling in an arena must be as dull as dishwater for horses plus all the soft surface injuries banded about - yes if I have £20k to throw away Id have one but I dont so we get by & the bonus of having them home far outweighs an arena!

 

[Maryann]

I do most my schooling in different parts of fields for a bit of variety but have lessons in a school. I do hire an arena sometimes when the fields are impossible or I want to practise something.

 

[dorsetladette]

I only have fields to ride in.
Pros:
I find it works well wrt to training balanced horses, as even flat fields are not perfectly level.
Horses are used to being worked in large grass areas and don’t get a shock at comps.
Lots of space so they don’t learn to hang onto the fence.

That’s about it. Cons are much much more:
Can’t use them for much of the year. Such as all winter, if it’s very wet in summer, or now when I’m waiting for hay to be cut in most of them.
Very tricky/impossible when breaking sharp youngsters.
Very tricky with horses such as my new one, who has just turned 4, is very sharp, unbalanced and gets very lit up in open fields. You spend half your schooling session (at least) walking round settling them.
I can’t leave jumps or dressage boards out in mine as it will mark the grass.
The footing is very unreliable. We have good ground but it still spends much of its time either like concrete, terribly slippy and greasy as it’s hard with a shower of rain on top, or just too wet.

I think just grass is ok if
- you don’t compete seriously
- you have an arena 2 mins down the road, or
- it’s 1970 and no one has an arena

Otherwise you’ll struggle.

If I could put an arena in I’d do it in a heartbeat!

1970!!!!! How old do you think I am -

 

[MiniMilton]

My friend doesn't have an arena and she says her mare acts like a complete idiot in the field, but as soon as she puts rails on the ground to mark out a dressage sized "arena" the horse is suddenly well behaved. It could be in the exact same part of the field that she was previously acting up in but the ground rails make her think she's not in the field anymore!

 

[Chuffy99]

We’ve never had an arena and are on Essex clay, we can normally ride on the paddock between end of March and early November, we do most of our work out hacking and during the winter we usually hire an arena when we start to get fit in January perhaps once a week. Not stopped us getting to hoys or Badminton grass roots and our ponies don’t get ménagitus ( going round and round an arena aimlessly sickness)

 

[PatchyBabyHorse]

1970!!!!! How old do you think I am -

I just meant a time when no one at all had an arena!

 

[PatchyBabyHorse]

We’ve never had an arena and are on Essex clay, we can normally ride on the paddock between end of March and early November, we do most of our work out hacking and during the winter we usually hire an arena when we start to get fit in January perhaps once a week. Not stopped us getting to hoys or Badminton grass roots and our ponies don’t get ménagitus ( going round and round an arena aimlessly sickness)

Good term for it!

 

[MissTyc]

I also don't have an arena; I have a "dressage square" set out with boards and electric tape - always in the same location and more for the kids to play + the odd dressage practice. And I put up a course of jumps in my winter field in summer and autumn and enjoy hairing around it. The horses don't have any trouble schooling in these areas, or even if their own field. We have eventers and cheeky ponies but they all get on with it the same

 

[dorsetladette]

I just meant a time when no one at all had an arena!

LOL - I was only messing (I'm not easily offended).

When I mentioned my parents stud/showing I was refering to the late 80's early 90's around 92ish we moved to a lovely new yard with an indoor and outdoor. Dad didn't like the surface of the outdoor so took it up and used the space for lorry and trailer storage. So even though we had an outdoor (on paper) we still rode in the fields in summer months. The indoor was used more for storing straw and housing the broodmares over night in winter. We did ride in there a fair bit and breaking naughty ponies it was a god send, but on the whole hacking and riding/schooling on grass was our main form of exercising the ponies.

 

[Annagain]

If you're going to be constantly moving your arena and want to set a up a 40x20 frequently, can I recommend what I call a magic rope and a tent peg. It makes setting up an arena so much easier. It's a 45m long rope with a little loop at each end and markers (a piece of tape will do) at 6m, 10m, 20m 36m, 30m, and 40m. These markers need to be from the loops not the end of the rope. The 30m isn't essential but it means you can mark 10m from either end of the rope (or more accurately from the 40m marker) so it saves faffing with which end of the rope have.

Lay the rope on the floor along the long side and secure one end by putting a tent peg through the loop and into the ground. Let's say we're starting at with the tent peg at M. Mark out the corner then along the length of the rope, mark out M at the 6m marker, B at the 20m, F at 34m and the opposite corner at 40m. Then hold the rope at the 20m marker and keeping it relatively tight walk a quarter circle until you're back level with your peg in the opposite corner of the short side (so if the peg is in the M corner you end up in the H corner). Mark out the corner C at 10m. Move the start of the rope with the tent peg to the H corner and do the opposite long side then move the tent peg (but not the rope) to the opposite end of the rope (the K corner). Go back to E, take the rope at the 20m marker and repeat the quarter circle so you end up in the F corner. If everything is square the 20m marker should match up with the corner. Mark A at 10m.

To check it's all square (and why your rope is 45m) the diagonal (from corner to corner, not to the markers) should be 44.72m (roughly the whole length of the rope by the time the loops are in. It's easier with 2 people (you don't need the tent peg) but I've set up an arena on my own in 10 minutes using my magic rope! I ordered it from a rope company online and asked them to put the tape markers in at the set distances, it cost me less that £10.

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

Lots of fantastic answers and it sounds like i'm going to have lots of fun schooling in the field and working which is the best area. I'm thinking that the bit furthest from the house might be good to start with because then we don't have to walk all that way to turn the horses out!!

annagain- brilliant and once i get my head around it, it sounds like a really simple way of doing it. I hadn't even begun to think about how to measure it all out practically, just that I needed some markers.!!!!

dorsetladette- I love that you had an indoor and ended up using it for lorries

MissTyc- I need a jumping field too!

Chuffy99- Badminton grassroots!! thats just brilliant with all the mania about everyone needing an arena

MiniMilton- yes, i'm hoping dressage in grass will become a doddle

Maryann- I agree, i think a field gives more variety

bubsqueaks- I also think arenas cause a lot of injuries to horses legs

Goldenwillow- we are planning to have a bit thats not grazed so i can ride in there

PatchybabyHorse- hmmm, not as positive as some of the others. I'm not sure how the wet/hard our land will get.

Tiddlypom- good idea to turn the arena sideways after a while. My fields are slightly sloping but some patches look flatish!

131452- i'll have the edge over all the arena based competitors at eventing dressage! I hope

Brownmare- The key seems to be keep moving things around

Pearlsasinger- good point, hadn't thought about things blowing away

 

[Goldenstar]

I have a surface and a field set aside for riding it’s quite big its probably an acre . I fenced it off and rolled it then we cut every week in summer with a large garden tractor with a heavy duty mulching deck .

It’s never ever grazed or used in winter it’s now a fantastic surface for work we use it all the time and I have not used my school since the end of March .
I have grown some jumping hedges in it which are great fun .

 

[Beaulo]

I have a surface and a field set aside for riding it’s quite big its probably an acre . I fenced it off and rolled it then we cut every week in summer with a large garden tractor with a heavy duty mulching deck .

It’s never ever grazed or used in winter it’s now a fantastic surface for work we use it all the time and I have not used my school since the end of March .
I have grown some jumping hedges in it which are great fun .

I really like the sound of this.
What kind of soil are you on?

I’m thinking to create a turf arena but we are on clay so I’m thinking level it, put in the drainage, build it up a bit then lay down the right top soil and suitable hardwearing turf. Fence it off, plant a windbreak.
Not sure if I’d need planning though as essentially creating a well drained rectangular paddock.

 

[Goldenstar]

We are on red clay and at the top of a hill so little top soil .
Before you spend a fortune have a trial .
Fence it off with a electric fence on round posts .
If it’s still dry enough cut it with a mower get it rolled .
Leave it for the winter don’t graze it or walk on it .
I manage mine with a diesel heavy duty mulching mower .
As soon as you can in spring mow it and lightly roll it .
Then it just mow mow mow weekly .
We have just had very wet weather it might be the end of getting on it until spring .
You need to keep on top of the mowing and roll now and again ( I don’t roll much now ) every third year something like this .
I think if you start draining and bringing in top soil you may trigger a change of use type situation .
I do have to manage use of mine sensibly in summer leave it 24 hours after heavy rain stuff like that .
It’s the best thing I ever did I only ever use my school in winter now , I have a huge amount of fun in there .

 

[Sir barnaby]

We only have a spare paddock for schooling, luckily not many of the liveries school as we are all happy hackers, but it is useful for odd times to remind the horses about schooling and for lunging, I actually took Barney in last Monday first time in years, and he was lovely and remembered everything he was taught before I got him.

 

[scruffyponies]

Lots to be said for schooling out hacking. Nobody struggles to get a half-pass on bin day

 

[dorsetladette]

Lots to be said for schooling out hacking. Nobody struggles to get a half-pass on bin day

Leg yield past a drain cover, spanish work (welsh dragon style) past the cows - canter to halt transitions if a leave looks different on the track - the list is endless

 

[windand rain]

Technically you need planning permission to ride in your fields unless they have been used for that purpose for 10 years or more. I have a grass school on very sandy soil. Grazed when too long and usable year round apart from deep snow, or prolonged dry weather as it gets hard have watered it from time to time and have restricted it walk and trot in really hard times

 

[scruffyponies]

^^ I think you're OK if the riding use is 'incidental' to it's use as grazing land. i.e. nobody is going to claim change of use for a bit of dressage in the corner every other Saturday.

 

[ihatework]

All the event yards I know use grass arenas. The difference is they also have all weather arenas too.

Ultimately the more effort you put into maintaining the ground and turf the better. Don’t expect to be able to use it all year round though. Good Grass arenas are super for educating horses on.

 

[tatty_v]

We only have the field to ride in - handily we have a fenced 25m wide strip between the bridleway that passes through our land and our field, so the safety net of the arena fence is sort of there!
I’ll be honest and say that if somebody offered me an arena I’d bite their hand off, but it is manageable. You have to be flexible around weather, going, plans (if it’s slippy for example I’ll do a schooling session all in walk) and in the depths of winter I school whilst road hacking. My boy is 20 though and I’m don’t really compete. With a younger horse or wanting to compete more I think I’d struggle.

 

[MuddyMonster]

I'm going to go against the majority here but I really struggled without an arena last year.

At heart I'm a happy hacker that often doesn't use the school from one week to the next but I really struggled without an arena to keep up his fitness and therefore his weight manageable whilst working full time.

I had under estimated how much a good surface and the ability to ride in the dark made a difference during winter and early Spring

I'd suggest being really honest about your hacking. In hindsight, we were on clay and although we had lots of off road hacking the land owner was understandably very fussy about it not getting too churned up in autumn/winter and were limited to just walking a lot of the time. We were nowhere near a school to hire, without transport and hacking off the yard wasn't great at all, so I found it very limiting.

In the winter the schooling fields were too muddy to use and it soon became rock hard in the early Spring/Summer and really slippery after a bit of rain so again, and was really limited to how much work I could even do in the schooling fields.

Having said that, I think I'd possibly cope without an arena at the moment as although I still work full time I now work flexi-time and WFH permanently. Having moved yards I also have access to better hacking - better surfaced bridleways & very quiet country roads - so could keep him fitter but in suspect winter and spring will be easier. But I like knowing that even if the ground is hard or wet in winter, I can still do a fair amount of trot or canter work in the arena if need be.