How old should a kid be to ride out alone

I let my daughter go down a track from our yard and round a field alone at about your daughters ago. Secretly I was following on foot from a safe distance! It made me see that actually she was quite sensible. I think she was about 13 when allowed out properly. She's 15 now and even recently took a wrong turn on a badly marked bridleway and got lost. Phone of course had no signal and I was worried sick! She was also scared and got home as it was getting dark. Be very strict on where she go's and check phone battery etc.
it's such a worry!
 
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-12380329 - interesting reading

NZ Unsupervised children outside the home

The law is not specific to children left alone in the home, but is also about children left alone or inadequately supervised in places outside the home, such as a playground, or shopping centre. Some public environments, like swimming pools have clearly stated age limits for children being left without adult supervision. However, other situations are not as clear and can be contentious. In the same way we would encourage parents to consider safety issues when leaving children alone at home, the same applies when considering the supervision of children outside the home environ. Parents need to exercise judgement in these situations and social workers need to use their professional judgement when helping families think through issues of risk and safety

So in the UK it's OK to let your child ride out alone at any age, here in NZ the law is different.
 
I started riding out alone at 11. We had roads a housing estate and a couple of scruffy fields waiting to be built on.
 
I would get a tracking app put on her phone so you can see where she is. Make sure she tells you exactly where she is going and that she doesn't deviate from that route! If she is a sane, competent rider on a safe pony I think she should be fine.
 
I hacked alone from the age of twelve... we kept a yard book where everyone going out for a ride had to write down their ride plan: route and expected time we'd be back. We also had to carry a phone. For example the route I'd take was within sight range of surrounding yards and cars, constantly. Trouble would have been very quickly picked up on!

Truthfully I have known eleven year olds who have probably been mature enough even if I wouldn't personally consider it wise, and sixteen to eighteen year olds who should never have been trusted to do it. Kids mature so very differently and it also depends on the horse and the area...
 
Once they were old enough could ride well enough and responsible enough, Including knowing what to to in an emergency and always with a phone. Not before 10 years old
 
I ride out with my friends 12 year old and she is only allowed around the back field on her own not on a full hack, she can ride out with other kids around the same age on her own but on very short routes, I think it very much depends on the child and the hacking she is lucky as the field is directly behind the yard no roads and if you walked around the corner you would be able to see her wherever she was on the field.
 
My daughter is that age so I think I am qualified to answer.

Firstly, I understand your pain when it comes to her thinking you are unreasonable. This is will be a special problem if her friends go hacking on their own as she will feel babyish.
One thing that you should never do though is get a tracking app. This will result in many fights about how you don't trust her and if you did you wouldn't be tracking her.
Firstly, try getting her going with some friends. She will find it great fun chatting away with her friends and it means that you don't have to worry about her while she is gone. I recommend a picnic. Going with her friends will make her realise how much fun it is with company and it will put off the problem until she is a bit more mature.
Secondly, I would explain to her why you are nervous. I wrote 1 page to my daughter and she responded with a 5 page essay on why I should let her. This means that she will put more thought into the problem so she might start to doubt if her only reason is that her friends do it.
Thirdly, teach her horse to come on command if s/he doesn't do it already. This is extremely helpful in event of a fall. My daughter had a nasty fall which gave her a broken ankle and she managed to call her horse back and limped very slowly home. She probably won't be hacking alone for a while but I am glad that she could get her horse back because without that, she wouldn't have been able to walk home.
Finally, get her to do BHS Riding and Road Safety exam so that she has qualifications and you know that she is serious.

Hope this helped!
 
I was 11 or 12 I think, I just used to say where I was going, and go. No roads though, it never came up - there's good hacking round here. That was 5 years ago - I'm now 16, and almost always hack alone, mostly on roads.

It did me no harm, and a hell of a lot of good, with regards to independence, common sense, fun.
 
Apercrumbie said:
I would get a tracking app put on her phone so you can see where she is. Make sure she tells you exactly where she is going and that she doesn't deviate from that route! If she is a sane, competent rider on a safe pony I think she should be fine.
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A tracking app would be a very sensible thing to put on any kids phone and horse riders phone as we do tend to get ourselves into sticky situations at times, and if you do get parted and your horse goes home at least someone can search in the right place for you
 
My daughter is 11 and on a very good safe pony but I don't let her hack alone because it's mostly on roads. I trust them just not other road users! If there was a hack that they could go on that involved no roads and they were gone 30mins max then I may consider it. Tbh I barely let her ride out in our fields without keeping an eye on them - it only takes a second for the unthinkable to happen - but then I think I am overly protective

Eta a friend oh a livery yard with good off road hacking lets her 11 yr old hack out with another 11 year old friend - she always has a mobile on her. My daughter gets v jealous about it. Occasionally this friend brings her daughter with pony over and they nag me to ,et them go out hacking here but again because of the roads I don't let them. I probably would if no roads.
 
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My daughter used to go hacking with a friend and me on a bike from age 10. When a bit older and having passed her riding & road safety test, they went alone, I used to meet them en route (at the pub for cheesy chips) or at the top of the common for a picnic. This has from time to time been 'ring me when you get to x' as well. However friend stopped riding so the past 3 or 4 years she's gone alone, the pony is safe and stops if you fall off (not that she does fall off), although much of the routes round here are on roads. The only thing I insisted on was hi viz everywhere on horse and rider, her phone was hit and miss as to whether she charged it so invariably she was not contactable. However she knew that she HAD to say where she was going and to stick to the route and not dilly dally.

Now she's 16 and has the spookiest horse out (but laughs about it) she is quite happy to hack out while I cringe as said horse dances about the road becasue a leaf moved, never too close to a car always when they're at a distance - I think the horse is a bit of a drama queen and does it deliberately to frighten the cars who are known to wizz about on the main road, other days that dead fox is ignored. Meanwhile I have to say nothing!

I would say as your daughter cannot be sure to check her girth that perhaps she has a bit more to prove, I'd definitely recommend a R&RS course to do the test before going alone, but for now can she go with a friend and a mobile phone?
 
Could you start off by letting her go round a loop while you walk in the same area so you meet back up. I let my 6yr old do this (she's in sight tho) with a view to seeing how she copes with things, for the future. I doubt she will hack on her own for many years as we have a road to negotiate but I think it's good to give her and the pony some independence. I also would let her ride round a field while I went the opposite way etc.

My main worry would be how would she cope if something you hadn't thought of happens. Also I wouldn't let her if she doesn't have a mobile.
 
I think it depends on the child. My daughter who is now 26 used to hack out on her own on the road at 11. Our lanes are busier now but I trusted her to be sensible, she wore hi-viz and I knew how long each of her rides took and she knew if she was late back I'd be in the car looking for her. She was very mature for her age and a very competent rider on a pony that was good in traffic. I'd also take her down to the common and she'd ride off road, I'd walk the dogs and we'd meet up again at the lorry at a specified time. I used to train the PC children for their R&R safety test and I've also been an examiner, so I was confident that she knew how to behave on the road TBH I've seen a lot of adult riders who shouldn't be out on the road. Accidents can happen to anyone regardless of age but personally I feel we wrap our children up in cotton wool too much and encouraging independence is a good way to go for many children. We didn't have mobiles in those days so there was no temptation to read texts and answer calls which I see many people doing these days whilst riding and she wasn't allowed to have her walkman (remember those?)with her.
 
The age of legal responsibility is 14, so if your child has an accident with a car and they can prove its their fault you will get the bill and the tears.
I look at it this way, I fell off my mare and I was 28, she ran all the way home over a main road and that alerted my husband to come and find me, I was OK but imagine if I had been my 12 year old daughter. If the pony had come home without her, was she injured, had someone taken her( small sweet blond girl on small pony) and the distress if the pony was injured?
The good thing about walking out with them, I was two stones lighter.
 
I was allowed from 10ish, my pony was not the best behaved (Shitland)but I had to prove I was fit ride and handle her aswell as any adult could and knew what to do in the event of accident with myself/pony/tack etc, I started off riding with friends around my own age. I found riding alone great for building a bond though and that pony got me out of some scary situations (flashers etc) oddly I will never hack alone now I have my own kids as an adult but if we had off road hacking and my son still rode I would have let him hack out from around 9 (hes now 11, no longer rides but is really quite independent on a general basis)
 
Mmmm, don't think so, the criminal age of responsibility in England is ten. so if a child commits a criminal act it is considered capable of understanding the consequences of his/her actions. If you are correct no child under the age of 14 should be allowed to ride a bike on the roads, walk home alone or in fact do anything without an adult. As a member of the PC my daughter had 3rd party insurance so in case of an accident that was deemed to be her fault she was covered. Strangely enough, should she have been unfortunate enough to have had an accident, getting a bill would have been the last of my worries. My neighbour's 13 yr old daughter won gold at Malmo this year eventing for the pony team, she regularly hacks past our house on one of her ponies, are you really saying her mother should walk with her...really?? If your 12 year old is not safe hacking on her own, then don't let her do it, if she is, then you do her a disservice by not giving her some independence.
honetpot said:
The age of legal responsibility is 14, so if your child has an accident with a car and they can prove its their fault you will get the bill and the tears.
I look at it this way, I fell off my mare and I was 28, she ran all the way home over a main road and that alerted my husband to come and find me, I was OK but imagine if I had been my 12 year old daughter. If the pony had come home without her, was she injured, had someone taken her( small sweet blond girl on small pony) and the distress if the pony was injured?
The good thing about walking out with them, I was two stones lighter.
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V
oldie48 said:
Mmmm, don't think so, the criminal age of responsibility in England is ten. so if a child commits a criminal act it is considered capable of understanding the consequences of his/her actions. If you are correct no child under the age of 14 should be allowed to ride a bike on the roads, walk home alone or in fact do anything without an adult. As a member of the PC my daughter had 3rd party insurance so in case of an accident that was deemed to be her fault she was covered. Strangely enough, should she have been unfortunate enough to have had an accident, getting a bill would have been the last of my worries. My neighbour's 13 yr old daughter won gold at Malmo this year eventing for the pony team, she regularly hacks past our house on one of her ponies, are you really saying her mother should walk with her...really?? If your 12 year old is not safe hacking on her own, then don't let her do it, if she is, then you do her a disservice by not giving her some independence.
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Have a look at a post I made earlier. UK does not have any law that says at what age a child can be left unsupervised, but police have discretionary powers to charge if they think a child has been put at risk.
 
It's a how long is a piece of string question. It all depends on where she goes, what she is like, what her pony is like and what you are like! Eg. when my older daughter was 7 I let her go round a couple of fields by herself away from me. When she was 8 she went out of sight of me round a few more fields (all gates to road shut). If we had off road hacking, I might let her go off on a 15 minute ride by herself quite soon (she is 9 now). But I will not let her go out on the road outside our house on her own perhaps ever ie. until she is 17 or 18 - there are too many stupid drivers, large lorries and farm traffic. I am working on a negotiating with landowners a safe route across some land to quiet lanes, and if I can manage that perhaps I would let them go out on that route when they are about 14, but I couldn't see it being any younger. It's less about their ability, more about other road users causing problems. And they would need to be strong and able enough to open and shut gates if necessary and deal with any issues which arose without panicking.
 
After she has taken her Riding and Road Safety I think , what with the state of traffic now. And if she is an independent person who could take a sensible decision. What would she do if she fell off - pony shied at a pheasant for instance, or someone else galloped past her and the pony whipped round. We all fall off at some stage, but would she be OK with that, go after the pony, catch it and get back on?

I think I was about 10, but as everyone says, it was a very different world with a lot less traffic and I was catching the train, with my 3d fare, and walking nearly a mile at the other end to school, and coming back via the back streets to catch the bus home. I never had any trouble of any sort either walking, cycling or riding.
 
Orangehorse said:
After she has taken her Riding and Road Safety I think , what with the state of traffic now. And if she is an independent person who could take a sensible decision. What would she do if she fell off - pony shied at a pheasant for instance, or someone else galloped past her and the pony whipped round. We all fall off at some stage, but would she be OK with that, go after the pony, catch it and get back on?

I think I was about 10, but as everyone says, it was a very different world with a lot less traffic and I was catching the train, with my 3d fare, and walking nearly a mile at the other end to school, and coming back via the back streets to catch the bus home. I never had any trouble of any sort either walking, cycling or riding.
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are we not wrapping these kids in cottonwool somewhat? They will never be independent and take sensible decisions unless allowed to. I wonder if there are frustrated children out there who know they are capable of more but are restricted due to over panicking parents. Many kids know little fear riding, ride far better then nervous adults and have the confidence to get on and do it at that age.

Are kids that stupid that they don't realise if they fall off and are not seriously hurt their first thought is to go and find the pony and make sure it is OK? Even if they are too scared to get back on and have to either stay put for help to arrive or lead it home. If they haven't already been taught that lesson they need to be.

It is a different world to the older generation but not to kids. This is their world, what they have grown up with and what they live in. They have never known any different. When I was a kid I didn't find the amount of traffic scary yet to my grandmother, who was born before cars were invented, it would have seemed frightening.
 
Shay said:
The "Track my friend" type app is worthwhile - if you have a reasonable mobile signal. Its free and there is an android and iphone version. But it does require a signal. There is also a paid for app - the android version is called "rescue me" but there are others which phones a specified number if the phone is jolted and then stops moving - so if a rider falls. That uses the emergency network so you don't need a signal from your own phone provider.
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That is really useful to know. Sadly I am a lot older than 12 and have managed many years since then riding alone. However nowadays I do a lot off road and when I come off it would not be a case of someone being able to do a quick drive round to figure out where I was lying unconscious.
 
paddy555 said:
are we not wrapping these kids in cottonwool somewhat? They will never be independent and take sensible decisions unless allowed to. I wonder if there are frustrated children out there who know they are capable of more but are restricted due to over panicking parents.
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I am sure many will disagree with you, but this resonates with me. it's not a new thing though. I'm in my 30s and as I said above, I was out and about on my pony from the age of 10. I have always been very independent as my parents empowered me at a young age ;)

By contrast, my schoolfriends really lacked independence. Even aged 15 or so, when I wanted to go on the train to see a band 100 miles away, had youth hostel booked - my friends wanted to come, but not if we were unaccompanied. They'd had it drilled into them that they needed an adult to escort them. We were a gang of responsible teen/young adults. This was nearly 20 years ago :rolleyes:

ETA this sounds like I was a tearaway. I wasn't, I was a total square and still am! :lol:
 
Until I was 10 I kept my pony on livery at a riding school and was left in there care pretty much every none school day from the age of 6 or 7, The owner/chief instructor was a very live and let live person and I was allowed out hacking with the other girls from minute I could canter on my own (well hold on!!), I remember practicing in the school to prove I could!! We used to hare round the countryside, mostly off road and had an amazing time. Occasionally 1 of us would fall off and have to walk home or get a backie from a friend, as the ponies always took themselves home!!
When I was 10 we moved house and pony went to private livery yard, there were a couple kids bit older then me but I clearly remember thinking how boring they all were to hack with as a parent always had to walk so I started riding mostly on my own, from 1st summer at secondary school I would frequently disappear of with pony early morning and not re-appear until late afternoon when I was hungry. I also used to ride my bike to and from the yard on my own.
My stepson is now 12 and has Down Syndrome, he rides out with couple of friends on his ex polo pony, his friends are who are 13 and 14. I used the same rule as soon as you can canter. He has a fantastic time and I wouldn't want him to miss out on the fun I used to have.
 
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I'm not a parent so maybe have a different view but there are kids aged 6 or 7 living alone on the streets of big cities in India or working in sweatshops. I'm not saying for one second this is right, nobody should be in those conditions, especially kids, but I think it puts into perspective what children CAN cope with and how resourceful they CAN be and shows how much we mollycoddle them in the 1st world.

I was just 12 when I started sharing my first pony. He was 5 and only broken in 3 weeks when I started riding him. As soon as I was familiar with him and we knew he wasn't a lunatic, mum / dad would drop me off and pick me up a few hours later or if they couldn't I'd go on my bike. I wasn't hacking him out as he'd not seen much traffic at that point and I would have had to go along a very busy A road but I was riding him around 100 acres of farmland while there was nobody else for miles around. This was in the day before mobile phones but I had a key to his owner's farmhouse and could use her phone if I needed. Things went wrong as they always do, but nothing serious, and those experiences probably helped me be the calm-in-a-crisis, logical person I am today. Or maybe I always was and that's why mum and dad let me do it?

In terms of accidents, if your daughter is mature, calm and confident she will be ok. In terms of "stranger danger" statistically there's no more risk now than there was 50 years ago, it's just wider news reporting means we hear about it more. Not necessarily the most comforting thought, I appreciate that but that risk really is very small.

I think I'd be inclined to let her go on short hacks on pre-planned routes with a fully charged mobile with a tracking app on it and an agreement she would be back by a certain time and doesn't do anything stupid like jumping logs / fences etc

If you're not sure though, I think the Riding and Road Safety is a good stalling tactic for a few months rather than simply saying no as it puts the onus on her to a certain extent and she has to prove she's willing to do her bit to get some freedom in return. If she proves she's adult enough by doing this, she's probably responsible enough to give it a go.
 
milliepops said:
I am sure many will disagree with you, but this resonates with me. it's not a new thing though. I'm in my 30s and as I said above, I was out and about on my pony from the age of 10. I have always been very independent as my parents empowered me at a young age ;)

By contrast, my schoolfriends really lacked independence. Even aged 15 or so, when I wanted to go on the train to see a band 100 miles away, had youth hostel booked - my friends wanted to come, but not if we were unaccompanied. They'd had it drilled into them that they needed an adult to escort them. We were a gang of responsible teen/young adults. This was nearly 20 years ago :rolleyes:

ETA this sounds like I was a tearaway. I wasn't, I was a total square and still am! :lol:
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This sounds like me! I was allowed to ride short distances from about 9 but I do live in a rural area. I did my cycling proficiency at 10 though, so I don't see why a child wouldn't be safe out on the roads etc after that age. I always felt some of my friends parents were over-protective - I was allowed to do all sorts and it meant I had to grow up if I wanted to get on with things!
 
milliepops said:
I am sure many will disagree with you, but this resonates with me. it's not a new thing though. I'm in my 30s and as I said above, I was out and about on my pony from the age of 10. I have always been very independent as my parents empowered me at a young age ;)

By contrast, my schoolfriends really lacked independence. Even aged 15 or so, when I wanted to go on the train to see a band 100 miles away, had youth hostel booked - my friends wanted to come, but not if we were unaccompanied. They'd had it drilled into them that they needed an adult to escort them. We were a gang of responsible teen/young adults. This was nearly 20 years ago :rolleyes:

ETA this sounds like I was a tearaway. I wasn't, I was a total square and still am! :lol:
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I'm of the same opinion to be honest! It always seems to me the people who were most restricted/over protected as kids ended up going totally over-the-top crazy as soon as they went to uni/left home etc and got into trouble. Like they had never learnt to be responsible for themselves. I'm sure many will disagree, but I hold this opinion purely as it has been my experience with most people I've known/grown up with!
Plus horse-riding is probably not a great activity for a child if you are a VERY worried parent. My sister did dancing, don't think she's had nearly as many accidents as me from pursuing that hobby :s
 
Surely the real question to consider is "What will the child do in a crisis?". If any child is going to be able to deal with whatever calamity happens, in a calm, resourceful manner, s/he is probably going to be ok hacking on his/her own.
I wouldn't let a child under 10 be solely responsible for either a pony or a dog. I wouldn't let him/her ride a bike on the road without passing whatever the Cycling Proficiency Test is called nowadays and the Riding and Road Safety test should be necessary to ride a horse, imo.
I wouldn't expect a teenager to be responsible for younger children and their ponies, either.
I would definitely discuss the matter with whoever underwrites your Public Liability insurance, too.
 
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