Field or Paddock what’s the difference?

[Hairy Horror]

Hello,
As per the title really I was just wondering legally what the difference is. Hopefully someone will know. Thank you.

 

[Chinchilla]

semantics surely?

eta - someone is going to come along and shoot me down in flames i'm sure....

 

[Ish2020]

I just thought paddock was just the USA word for field. I have no idea what it means legality.

 

[Chinchilla]

Paddock -
noun

1. a small field or enclosure where horses are kept or exercised.

Field -
noun

1. 1.
   an area of open land, especially one planted with crops or pasture, typically bounded by hedges or fences.
   "a wheat field"

So paddocks are horse-specific. Ie you wouldn't say your hay crop was grown in a paddock or you had cattle in a paddock. Source was Oxford Languages.

 

[Amirah]

I thought maybe one acre and under is a paddock and anything bigger a field?

 

[doodle]

I thought paddock = small field.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Is this a planning issue eg agricultural land vs land approved for equestrian use?

I don’t know of a legal definition of paddock.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

I thought maybe one acre and under is a paddock and anything bigger a field?

That's what I use as a rule of thumb, but there isn't a legal definition of it

TFF, having pony paddocks in what was a field

 

[cauda equina]

The only specific paddocks I can think of are the ones where racehorses go before a race

 

[Evie91]

My understanding is as Chinchilla described. I’ve two paddocks at home, not large enough to call a field.

 

[thefarsideofthefield]

Posh people have paddocks . The rest of us have fields .

 

[Hairy Horror]

Thank you, I just was just wondered if it became a paddock if it had mobile shelter /stable in it, so the horse did not just graze in it. I was told that if it was classed as a paddock it was more valuable than a field.

 

[MyBoyChe]

Ive always thought that a paddock is an enclosure within a field, so no natural boundaries but little squares, sectioned up by post and rail and quite sterile. A field is the whole thing, no sectioned off bits and hedges and trees forming the boundary.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

I have always used size.

A farm near here has some small paddocks (their name for them) by the farmhouse for the newly born lambs and their mums. When they are happy with the lambs, the ewes and lambs are moved to the large fields which are further away.

So to me, a small area of grazing land is a paddock, a larger one is a field but a field doesn't have to be pastureland.

 

[JoannaC]

I go by size, I say I have a field and three paddocks. The field is 3 acres and each paddock less than an acre.

 

[Evie91]

Posh people have paddocks . The rest of us have fields .

See I’d say posh people have fields as fields are bigger therefore cost more! ?

 

[milliepops]

size here too. my home horses are in fields, the ridden ones at the yard have paddocks

 

[thefarsideofthefield]

See I’d say posh people have fields as fields are bigger therefore cost more! ?

Mmmm - but then if you're proper posh you know that it's all about the accessories , and you can get proper posh boots which are actually called ' Paddock Boots ' and are specifically for wearing in your proper posh paddock .
Of course you can also get boots for wearing in fields . They're called wellies .

 

[Red-1]

I thought it was size related too. We have one field, but I have split it into 3 paddocks.

The one field would be over 1 acre, the paddocks are smaller than 1 acre.

 

[sharni]

its to do with use not size. a field is an area for growing crops eg barley ,potatoes, rapeseed or if its grass for hay then its called a meadow. a paddock is a grassed area in which horses , sheep or cows graze. A lot of people call pastures fields rather like saying
"i'm putting the horse in its stable" , its actually going into a loose box, stables being the whole set up , rather than the individual box. meanings get blurred.

 

[joosie]

In New Zealand if you said you were putting your horse in the field you'd get a weird look. Here it's always a paddock regardless of size.