Farm rides and facility hire

Brownmare

Brownmare

Well-Known Member
Joined
5 May 2010
Messages
1,629
Visit site
We have recently set up a small livery yard on our farm and as part of the package we allow our liveries to ride around the farm (200 acres) and use the cross country jumps and, obviously, the arena too.

Now we have had an enquiry from someone who keeps her horse locally wanting to hire the arena regularly and also to ride round the farm too (she says she wouldn't want to jump though). She has suggested a kind of "season ticket" arrangement with an armband or something so we can identify paid-up riders but I'm not sure how this would work or how much to charge. An added complication is that there is a bridleway running through the farm so it wouldn't be that easy to monitor who is using the farm riding - obviously a padlock system wouldn't work :rolleyes:

My first concern is to look after the lovely bunch of liveries we have already got here and secondly to implement a fair system that won't cause problems in the future. Help please :confused::confused:
 
I have no experience of anything like this to be able to advise you, but the first things I thought of when reading this were:

- Insurance implications - would your current liability insurance cover you?

- You would need to come up with a method of designating where people could ride and where they couldn't, obviously the best way would be by creating a proper designated route, but you would have to maintain it properly if you are charging people. Otherwise you could have a marker method either showing places they can ride or places which are out of bounds, otherwise you might find people riding all over the place, spoiling crops etc

- Do you have anywhere to park boxes and trailers for people who live too far away to hack to you?

If you have time to organise it properly you might have found a good little earner!
 
Our insurance does cover us for this and we do have parking for quite a few lorries / trailers. I'd thought of marking gates with either green or red tape to indicate where people can ride plus a blanket rule of headlands only no crossing the middle of fields - do you think that would work?

The other thing is I'm not really sure what to charge for a monthly / annual rate bearing in mind I have no idea how often people would use this kind of facility plus cost of maintenance, risk of gates being left open etc
 
I would say it depends on how often they are looking to visit and charge a set amount per week? Could also temporarily restrict it to none livestock fields couldn't you? That way not risking the open gate problem for the time being.

As for lovely liveries being upset, I can't see that happening when they are thoroughly enjoying their time at the yard :D

The more people to get me over my temporary phobia of hacking ;)
 
The only problem i can see from this is normal bridle way users may see others, liveries and paid riders using the farm routes and use them too thinking they are allowed to ride round them, before you know it you'll have loads riding round private land.
Then why would the people who pay want to pay when they see others riding round for nothing.
 
The Gaddesden Estate near us does something similar. You can pay annually (don't know how much) and are given a sash to wear when riding in the estate. Alternatively you can pay £10 for a week's use. You are given a map and a pass which you have to show if you are stopped by any of the estate staff who stop anyone not wearing a sash.

They do stipulate that you must wear a hard hat and must have insurance.

Here is a link but it doesn't tell you much:

http://www.gaddesdenestate.co.uk/equine/riding/
 
Hi, here is a link to the farm rides in our area:-

http://www.farmrides.com/

Hope you can pick up a few ideas from them, if not what about trying the BHS for some legal advice.

I think some of the key clauses that help to protect the land owners are, closing all routes one day a year and having the ability to temporarily close any of the routes without giving a reson. They are generally only closed at harvest time (safety from heavy machinery) or heavy going causing tracks to be damaged.

Good luck with setting up your rides and giving people a safe place to ride.
 
heidirusso - we are just north of banbury. pm me for a web link, I don't think I'm allowed to put that on the forum am I :confused:

sammii819 - the best solution we have come up with to stop freeloaders is providing a distinctive hat silk for paid up members which we will be able to see from a distance. Given that we can see the majority of the farm from the house this should be ok along with clear signs where riders can access the farmland from the bridleway.

sealine, daydreambeliever and ella19 - thanks for those links :) Some really useful info there!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top