Learning to ride without an arena

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I am new to all this, so please bear with me!
My eldest daughter (8) has just moved on from our little family ponies to a proper job PC pony, which she is having great fun on. At the moment he is staying with a friend who has a v smart arena and they have bonded v well using the school where she has lessons.
She is now understandably keen to have him home, so that she can spend more time with him, but we only have fields and currently no money to build a proper arena, which I understand will cost upwards of £10k.
Do you have any tips on what I can do to keep up the good work in the school? Her instructor would come to us. We don't have an arena within riding distance and no trailer yet. Someone told me we shouldn't use the paddock they graze in, because they need to associate an area with 'work'.
The problem with that being that we would have to keep the work area mown, which would be time consuming but not impossible. And with the endless rain at the moment, would it be slippery and is this a problem?
Would I just mark out a 20 x 30 space and fence it with electric tape?
To be honest, I can't think of an alternative, and I know that plenty of people have learned to ride without an arena, but I don't want to go back to the days of just hacking or mucking around in the fields when she has done so well with him in the school.
 
Personally I don't see a problem with using the paddock they graze in. I don't find it makes any difference having to work in their grazing field. I don't have an arena, and although I agree riding in one is better than a field, it is still possible to school in a paddock. You could either fence an area off just to ride in, or mark out an area with poles or dressage markers/cones. Whatever you want really. I find a secure smaller fenced off area is better than a large field though, even if just with electric tape to mark the area. Problems you will come across is ground becoming too wet or too hard, but you can always 'move' your arena to a better piece of ground of you have a larger field. I have almost 3 acres and ride on different areas at different times of the year. I also don't see that you would have to mow it, just graze which ever area you want to use to keep it shortish, although I do find long grass is good for making the horse work hard and pick his feet up!
 
i, personally, dont see a problem riding in the field they graze in, provided that is safe to do so (no other horses etc) I ride my gelding in his field all the time, cause its on a good hill for hill work, he knows if he has tack on, we're working (ridden or lunging). we have a separate jumping field this year, which is lovely and flat, and also has a dressage arena marked out, but hes a handful in there, purely cause he get over excited about jumping! but last year we had a mini xc course in his turn out field and he loved it, and knew when to set his mind on the job :) assuming newbie knows his job as a ridden pony, i dont see it causing any issue :) xxx
 
Arenas were practically non existent when I was growing up. I always rode and jumped my pony in the field she was in with her companion loose in the field. No problems.
 
I don't even fence my schooling area off. I have letters and some lengths of white guttering in the corner of a big field. The grass on the schooling area doesn't need mowing, I ride on it regularly, doing lots of different sized circles, serpentines, rein changes and so on, and that really keeps the grass down. Once the combine has been round and the flat part of the grass field will start to get wet, the boards and letters will move onto the stubble for winter.
I don't ride my horse in his own field at the moment because of the other horses (and the slope on it!) but when he lived elsewhere, in a flat field, I used to catch him in summer, tie him to a bit of band on the gate, tack him up there and school him, then wash him off with water scooped out of the trough, and just release him without ever opening the gate. It was never a problem.
 
we have a good sized area fenced off for schooling (we use heras security fencing) it works well on dry days although does get very slippy when it rains but its better than nothing, we tend to do more schooling whilst hacking though so paddock is mainly for the kids to ride in safety incase of napping etc and away from the rest of the herd getting in the way (they are a close nit, playfull herd so dont like to miss out on the fun lol)
 
To be honest, I think there are huge advantages for pony and rider to school in field. It teaches the pony that it has to obey rider and work properly even outside the school and in open spaces. It builds confidence in the rider that they can control pony in the open. It prevents both from over-relying on the enclosing fence. They will also have a huge advantage in competitions held on grass - so many young competitors never get that experience!
Disadvantage of course is that lessons may have to be abandoned if ground gets too hard/wet/slippery.
If you decide to mow an area, don't mow grass too short as this can make it more slippery when damp. Rather than put up a temporary fence round schooling area, I would put out a few cones to mark it off and make (or get child to make and paint) some dressage markers to use. If the area starts to get worn - just move 'school' to a new bit of field.
 
I sadly don't have an arena but also don't like riding or jumping in the field as the ground is always hard or it's always wet so you don't wanna ruin the field so you can't win
 
We've never had an arena and always ridden in the grazing field with no issues. When we first have new ponies or we have those who like to tank,we do fence a section off with baler twine and fence posts,but otherwise they do everything in the big open field. It can put them at an advantage when at shows/PC/ camp because they aren't nervous in big open spaces and are used to jumping on grass.
 
we have an area sectioned off with tape. it is safer for small children I think, but also remember she can learn to school out on a hack. changes of pace or within pace at telegraph poles or signs , leg yield on tracks , circles even when the hacking allows. makes it all fun : )
 
I use my field too. I find it very useful to introduce the horses to new obstacles (I do TREC) as I can build stuff and by the time they've grazed around it they are totally un-phased by it ridden. My biggest problem is hard/soft ground as we are on clay, so it's not always reliable and out of the question in winter.
 
I was never on a yard with a school until a couple of years ago! Except for the very odd occasion that I went to a hired school/had lessons out at another yard/etc I would always be schooling in my field which is where he grazed. Never bothered to fence it off, I did have to bring his companion in but she was a loopy chestnut TB mare who would have come cantering round with us.

If they're going to get into eventing/PC competitions/etc it will probably more of a help than a hinderance, you never know when you'll get to a competition and be expected to a dressage test on grass. Many horses find that unsettling but if your pony is used to it then he'll be in a better position! Also helps if they're used to it for jumping as so much of summer jumping is done on grass.

Good luck with the pony, what a lucky daughter you have to have him at home :)
 
I think you will find your child is a more independent, secure and forward rider than those who never get out of an arena. We have an arena but ride as often as possible on the grass, it's amazing how much more positive and thinking ahead you have to be when you haven't got the security of a fence to hold you in.
Just mind when going gets hard, and try and stamp out divots when it's soft. Don't do small circles and be sensible. You'll be fine!
 
oldjumper said:
To be honest, I think there are huge advantages for pony and rider to school in field. It teaches the pony that it has to obey rider and work properly even outside the school and in open spaces. It builds confidence in the rider that they can control pony in the open. It prevents both from over-relying on the enclosing fence. They will also have a huge advantage in competitions held on grass - so many young competitors never get that experience!
Disadvantage of course is that lessons may have to be abandoned if ground gets too hard/wet/slippery.
If you decide to mow an area, don't mow grass too short as this can make it more slippery when damp. Rather than put up a temporary fence round schooling area, I would put out a few cones to mark it off and make (or get child to make and paint) some dressage markers to use. If the area starts to get worn - just move 'school' to a new bit of field.
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Ditto, ditto, ditto. It is useful to have "an arena" marked with cones, it makes schooling much easier.
 
There was a thread similar to this posted the other day (would be worth you having a search for it ) and I was so impressed with how many people don't have an arena but compete (not just dressage either, many event) to a very high level successfully.
 
Max123 said:
Arenas were practically non existent when I was growing up. I always rode and jumped my pony in the field she was in with her companion loose in the field. No problems.
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I used to jump and school my pony on our garden lawn when I was younger- it was about 20m x 40m by coincidence! My brothers used to like to play tennis on it too and would complain about the ball bouncing awkwardly from the divots so my answer was it sharpened their reactions as they were never sure where the ball would go!!
 
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