Do you manage without a manege?

Slightly Foxed

Slightly Foxed

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I've had my sand school for about 12 years now but before that we only had the fields to work in. We used to be able to ride around the woods in those days and make jumps out of fallen branches and so on. We managed to bring two horses through the grades to Grade A and successfully start a couple of youngsters.

I can't imagine having to do without a school now. How do others manage?
 
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My novice horse after time off.. We had a school but mostly chose to use the field as it was pretty heavy going although I'd free school in it..

I have 2 youngsters needing worked in time.. I'll likely back them at home in the field and get them hacking and transport or move to livery for facilities when necessary.. Plenty of time yet..
 
Chrissie, just thought I'd mention how nice it is to see manège spelt correctly. It always makes me giggle when I see ménage and wonder if people know what it actualy means.
 
I fenced off one end of the field so can use that, but obviously limited to when the footing is good...the other field I use backs onto miles of forestry tracks, with loads of little firebreak circles that are great for doing stuff in, so use that like a huge outdoor school. It does force you to be creative!
 
Even when I've had a school to use, I only use it when either the ground means I have too, for lights or if its covered & its throwing it down. Otherwise use fields & school on hacks, more fun for rider & horse, & I think it prepares the horse more for comps cos they get used to concentrating on you, not the outside environment. I've schooled near fairgrounds, monster truck displays, all sorts really. And I think back when everyone did that sort of thing there were more bombproof horses about.9/10 at a show you can pick out the horse who's never been outside a manege before.
 
I have manege envy! I work full time so find it particularly hard in winter as I can only ride at weekends due to daylight restrictions unless I take time off work. Would love even just a lunging ring with lights!
On the other hand i have broken in a few youngsters from the field and my 5yo is successfully competing from the field.
 
Yep mine went and jumped this without having had an arena at home since september.
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Also came 8th in his first ever ODE and has been invited to do rc show jumping teams and I dont even have a set of jumps at home!
 
NO! :mad:

Biggest bug bare at the moment.

When I was 15 my grandad offered to pay to have an arena/manege built for me. However my dad being ever resourceful said he would build it himself, like everything it took forever and then my grandad sadly passed away.

So I have a half finished manege... that is now covered with trailers and caravans and scrap metal... and my uncle who has a smaller percentage of the farm than my dad wont let me have it now.
This uncle threatened me that I would be sued be DEFRA because my fields were so cut up in the winter, the same uncle I had to almost beg to allow me to graze my horses on some unused meadow, who the threatened me that he would go and pull up all the posts which I had put in so my horses could actually graze it.... The same uncle that imply's I should be paying livery!!

I get so angry about the whole thing, especially when I know I could do so well with my horse career.. not to be too smug, but I had 2 top trainers, one in sj and one in dressage tell me that I could be on the GB Juniors SJ team (back in the day when I was young enough) and another that I was easily talented enough to compete at a Grand Prix level dressage.

But to answer your question.. yes you can manage, sometimes, I have broken horses and trained to quite a high level. Though both these horses in the end did sustain tendon injuries.. I didnt over do it with them at all, but I think the fact we had to practise on ground did not help the situation.. The ones I trained were already well schooled and experienced, the one I broke we are getting no where with as she is so immature and inexperienced that trying to school whilst out hacking alone just does not work!! (We also live in a very arable area, flat areas are generally quickly ploughed up for crops!) The only place I could school was in a grass field about a mile down the road from me, but its so uneven that soon as you get an outline you fall out of it as you go down a small incline and my mare isnt advanced enough to hold it. At the moment anyway the grass is so long I wouldnt dare go in it till its cut for fear of not seeing a rabbit hole.

I have had many a lonely walk back after being dumped, espcially during the winter months when I can only ride at weekends, and with 2 quite highly bred youngsters to break in a few years, its just going to be too dangerous. That is what really hurts sometimes, its almost like my family doesnt realise how dangerous it is having to ride a bucking, bronking, spooking hyper horse.. I almost feel it will take a serious accident to get them to realise.. and even then I dont know as my ex-racer dumped me and managed to get on the road and we even had the police turn up. It could have been so much worse than it was and im so lucky nothing serious happened. But I seem to remember my dad not being too bothered and laugh.

To top it off, I would move my mare into livery for the summer, but my dad refuses to allow me to do this even though I would be paying for it...



and breath.... *wipes tears of anger from cheeks*.... Oh before people think Im a spoilt brat not getting my own way - I would be paying for it and I have no intention of even asking my dad to pay for it
 
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Yes, but I am hoping to get one in at our stables this year, will only be a 20 x 35m but I think for me and sister that will be enough, it will mean the horses stand a greater chance of getting their lazy backsides worked in winter, instead of being fulltime compost producers! :D

My field is not great to school in, but we do set up jumps in the summer on a flat-ish area, generally only a grid and a couple of others, problem is the horses are incredibly naughty and forwards in the field, but its hard to be angry when they seem to enjoy it so much, esp when mine is so laid back at a comp, it makes a change :)
 
I have one, but I prefer to ride in my spare field, or a bigger space, although without one i wouldnt be able to ride a lot, living in very wet land after rainfall it can get very wet very quick, but can get very dry very quick also..
Even this morning I have a perfectly good school but I schooled in the field, and he went so nicely, and im going to ride the other in the field aswell, now the grounds soft enough but not too soft! :)
I do think its great how many horses I see without a school that are schooled and go so well..
 
Either you need an arena or you need to be able to ride in daylight otherwise, in my experience, it is impossible to keep your horse fit and schooled up.

I have 3 arenas I can ride in at the yard but tend to ride on grass- but couldn't keep my horse working when it is rockhard or bottomless going and pitch black in the winter without using the arena.
 
I'm currently riding in one of my fields but it's a little too uneven for my 21yr old TB so she's just hacking. I'm finding it so difficult as my other horse won't hack alone so I can't even hack her up the road to hire a school. I'm trying to be patient as we are planning to have one built this year. Our house came with planning permission for a 20x40 bang slap in the middle of one of my fields so I have to reapply for it to be relocated to a more suitable location.
I'm keeping an eye on other threads about which surface to use and which companies to use or avoid, it's a minefield and a big expense so I want to get it right.
 
I have a sand school available and although I don't have a horse to ride at the moment, I probably will hardly use it once I do. I just find it too tempting to go out and about, rather than doing circles. I love having lessons, but apart from that, I find schooling dull (I'll never be a dressage diva :p ).
 
I don't have a school. Won't say it's not a pig when it's wet or very dry, but we manage ok... Pony is competing at novice dr, sj-ing around 80cm (he's a highland not a sports horse who steps over 80cm!), horseballing (would be doing league 3 if the team hadn't collapsed :mad:) and has his unaff ODE debut scheduled in July.

Everything is done on my rather small and not very flat field, or out on hacks.

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Did your horses trip and stumble a bit when they first started schooling in the field rather than in a manège? Did they settle and improve their balance the longer they are worked on grass?
 
I backed and broke the highland in a field. I had a school for about a year when he was 4/5 but still rode in the field a lot then, so never had a major transition from surface to field.

My old cob trips and stumbles more often on a surface than on a field, even directly after moving from a surface to field, but he's just a twit.
 
My 14.2 only went in one to compete until she was 10, so didn't know any different. And only then because I worked on a yard with one. Daughters rising 5 yr old has been in one twice, otherwise only on grass.
 
Managing without an arena is different to being as frustrated as hell without one.

I moved yards (wish I hadn't) and was promised a manege in December. OK, so I coped up till then hacking out. It happened that another girl on the yard was out of work, so I could hack out with her and other people at weekends.

Here we are nearly June. I believe that no arena will be built.

With one very sharp youngster and a rather explosive older horse, neither of which are capable of hacking on their own and no one to hack with, I am reduced to walking my horses around the yard in hand. I can occasionally lunge in a grass paddock, but it is so slippery I can't possibly ride on it. And I get to hack at weekends.

Both my horses are competition horses - frustrated isn't the word.
 
i've never had the luxury of an arena except for lessons when transported to somewhere with an arena and when my horses had a 2 week holiday where there was an arena.
Always ride in a field and do the occasional hack - plenty of room for manouvers and makes you ride the outside of the horse to stop them falling out. I don't pen an area off, i know how big a 20m circle is etc so ride wherever the ground feels suitable on that day.
 
I think an arena is an unnessecary luxury! :D
I have the land and means to have one but I just wouldn't. People managed for a long rims before we had them, and I always think you can tell the horses that only work in arenas. They hardly ever go as well at comps on grass IMO.

Having said that I am very lucky that when the fields are too wet I can ride on the beach, but that's tide dependent and obviously not lit.
However I will often ride in the moonlight at home in the field if it's too dark :D

I'm not anti arena, it's just not for me :)

Not that any of it actually matters at the moment as until this baby appears there is no riding :(
 
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