Horses on livery - where do you all ride them

[Walnuts]

I am new to the world of horses. I am learning to ride and plan to buy a horse next year. The yard that I like a lot has 50 horses on livery set in 60 acres of land. What I can't work out is where the owners all ride them. I have visited quite a few yards and all seem to be full of horses Where do you all ride and if you compete how often. I am keen to get s feel for how often owners ride their horses and where they go in them. Sorry if this is a bit of an odd question but. The yard is full but I don't often see many people there

 

[ihatework]

Most livery yards have all weather arenas to ride in.
Some are based on farms so might offer riding around the farm.
Then there is hacking - so out on the roads and if you are lucky a good bridleway network.

How often people ride varies greatly. Some barely ever, some everyday, the majority a few times a week. On a big yard you will often find there are people you barely see purely because they keep a completely different time schedule/routine to you.

If you are buying a horse useful questions to ask are how access to the arena works (shared or needs booking), are there times when it is really busy or not available? Hacking - are the roads busy or quiet and how much off road riding is available.

 

[Red-1]

Riding out is good for the body and spirit, you can plan for about 5pmh out on a fairly leisurely hack with a bit of trotting and a canter where the ground is right. Horses can't go on footpaths, but bridleways are marked on an ordinance survey map. You need a horse that is good in traffic, and I personally avoid roads where there is no escape route (as in no verge or footpath to hop on if something doesn't give you enough room).

Many people ride mainly in an arena, and that is OK, but constant circling is not so good for the horse's legs, and does not make them as well rounded IMO. Also, the rider then never learns to handle hills, nor the horse too, not just hills but varied terrain.

There are organised pleasure rides where you would probably need transport to get there. You could also hunt once you can handle varied terrain and have ridden in a group (plus learned to jump) and it is all trail or drag hunting now, not actually after foxes. There are also arena competitions to aim for, such as dressage and show jumping. If there is a local riding club they will often have varied activities and possibly a summer camp.

The yard may have some off road riding, but often this is confined to the summer. For all local riding the fellow liveries and the yard owner would be the people to ask.

 

[Bernster]

What IHW said! My yard has about 40 odd people in it but even at busy times you’ll generally only see handful of them riding. Different times, routines etc. Riding wise they will be schooling in the outdoor, indoor, occasionally in the jumping paddock, most often hacking out, or off somewhere competing at the weekends.

 

[scats]

Most yards will have a manège to use and there is usually some sort of hacking nearby, although many people do have to do a lot of roadwork to reach bridlepaths. Some yards will have there own off road riding- we can ride around the headlands of our farm, about a 20 minute of walk to do one loop, so makes a decent hack if you loop back the other way or go round twice. We also have a field at the halfway point which is super for riding to and doing a bit of fitness work, then riding the rest of the way to cool off.
There’s only four of us on our yard and I’m the only regular rider. I ride 6 days a week, occasionally 5 if I’ve got a lot going on. The others tend to ride at weekends and maybe once in the week aswell.

 

[Walnuts]

This rea

Riding out is good for the body and spirit, you can plan for about 5pmh out on a fairly leisurely hack with a bit of trotting and a canter where the ground is right. Horses can't go on footpaths, but bridleways are marked on an ordinance survey map. You need a horse that is good in traffic, and I personally avoid roads where there is no escape route (as in no verge or footpath to hop on if something doesn't give you enough room).

Many people ride mainly in an arena, and that is OK, but constant circling is not so good for the horse's legs, and does not make them as well rounded IMO. Also, the rider then never learns to handle hills, nor the horse too, not just hills but varied terrain.

There are organised pleasure rides where you would probably need transport to get there. You could also hunt once you can handle varied terrain and have ridden in a group (plus learned to jump) and it is all trail or drag hunting now, not actually after foxes. There are also arena competitions to aim for, such as dressage and show jumping. If there is a local riding club they will often have varied activities and possibly a summer camp.

The yard may have some off road riding, but often this is confined to the summer. For all local riding the fellow liveries and the yard owner would be the people to ask.

 

[Walnuts]

This really resonated with me. There is a big Trail/ hunting scene around here and my longer term vision was to be part of that for sure. It's a goal that I am aiming at. I can't wait to get out of the arena and crack on

 

[TreeDog]

If you go on bing maps you can change the view to OS maps using the drop down selection (where you can also select arial view). This is really helpful for seeing what hacking there is around a yard Bridleways are the long dashed lines, footpaths are short dash lines, as said above horses should not go on footpaths.

 

[Dave's Mam]

On the yard I am at we have an all weather manege, grass jumping field & hacking round 68 acres of land.

 

[FestiveFuzz]

I ride 5-6 days a week usually, although Monday-Friday you'd be forgiven for thinking I do nothing, though the reality is I often get to the yard after everyone else has left for the day. Most weeks I aim to lunge at least once, school twice (usually once away from home) and hack twice but I'm not too rigid about it and mix it up depending on how I or my horse is feeling and whether there's something we need to work on.

 

[oldie48]

I don't know where you are based but if in the UK there are TROT (paid toll routes) that you can join and also forestry commission land where you can buy a permit to ride. If you intend to ride on the roads you do need a very sensible horse that is good in traffic (well at least in this area you do). If you don't have a schooling area on your yard but have transport, many yards do rent out their facilities on an hourly basis. If you want hacking buddies, you're probably better on a biggish yard.

 

[PeterNatt]

My advice to you would be that you share a horse for a few years before you buy one. That way you will learn about horse management and the sort of horse you would want to buy. I shared a couple of horses before I went on to buy a horse. (First horse was lost in a gambling Debt!) I was on a yard in London so all the riding was on the roads and the occasional off road places such as Arrandene Open Space, Hampstead Heath, Hyde Park. South Mimms Woods and Bricket Woods The horse I bought was completely streetwise and 100% Bombproof and Spookproof in traffic and all situations when ridden by himself or in company. Good luck and enjoy your horse riding.

 

[Walnuts]

Would like to thank all those who replied. I know forums can clog up with the same questions over and over again. I live in SE England and it's very horsey around here. Please forgive me in advance if I am back a few times with other questions. One thing I will not do is rush and screw up on the horse buying front. Enjoy your weekends!!