Ridding in farmers fields

kylie88

Well-Known Member
Joined
21 September 2009
Messages
361
Location
Kent
Visit site
does your farmer let you ride on his fields????
we dont really have any good hacking where i am but there are a few farmers fields surrounding us but he wont let us ride on them.
 
nothing u can do then!
sorry some will some wont

they cant let people ride on the grass strips around the edge of fields (if they are in this scheme) because they are supposed to maintain it as a wildlife area and will loose a hell of a lot of money if people are found to be riding on them!
 
Not at the moment and wouldn't even consider asking! It's sodden
frown.gif


We have one neighbouring who will let me do fast work round one of their fields if there is no stock in it, and they're not growing the grass for hay/silage etc.

Too many people abuse the privilege for most farmers to even think about it (see previous posts on this!)
 
We're very lucky as the farmer where me and a friend have our horses lets us go anywhere the cows aren't all year round. The hacking round our area is a bit rubbish, so we are very careful not to take the pee (ie we dont go tearing up through the fields if its going to ruin them etc etc) but we have some LOVELY galloping fields
grin.gif
 
No not this tiime of year and I'm married to him
tongue.gif

Actually they are my fields too and I wouldn't consider mucking up my own land myself let alone let someone else do it! But it is vey wet land where we live unfortunately.
 
We just have one massive field belonging to our farmer, it used to be an airfield. We can ride anywhere on that as long as we keep off it when it's the being grown for hay/haylage. ATM it has cows and sheep on; he's happy for us to ride in it as long as we are sensible and shut the gates. It's too wet to ride in really though now, it will just ruin the field.

I wouldn't ride in fields belonging to other farmers though. This came up on a post earlier this year so I'll repeat what the poster then said - you wouldn't use someone else's garden so why would people think it's ok to ride in a farmer's fields without permission?! I don't see why farmers should let people ride on their fields, after all those fields either contain his livestock that he won't want upsetting, or crops which can be destroyed by horses riding on them.
 
I have to agree with the above posts- It is not unfair or selfish of him to not let you ride on his land. His livelihood depends on 15cm of earth.
It is all very precious to him. Also those lovely strips of land around arable fields are designed to protect the wildlife. He is paid to take those out of production.
It diesn't always seem fair- maybe you can box up and hack somewhere different?
 
[ QUOTE ]
No not this tiime of year and I'm married to him
tongue.gif

Actually they are my fields too and I wouldn't consider mucking up my own land myself let alone let someone else do it! But it is vey wet land where we live unfortunately.

[/ QUOTE ]

Same here! We would lose £25000 if they found hoof prints on our ELS strips, we have already had a warning. So, when I catch people riding on them I go berko, I have to use the roads so they can too.
 
yes.
i am on sandy soil and every year we are allowed on the stubble as soon as the hay/straw has been collected and over winter we are always allowed on the one field that is set aside.

so theres probably a couple of months between the set aside being ploughed and the hay being collected when i dont have any fields to ride on, but really cant complain about that!
 
We used to be really lucky on a previous yard I was at as we were able to access public open space which was about a 40 acre rectangular shaped grassed area which local people used to walk their dogs round - it backed their gardens. It was brilliant for a totally flat out gallop which we used to love doing. We used to have to wait until the dog walkers were at the top of the field and then just used to go!

Our local farmer has a set aside for people to ride around and the livery yard which his wife owns charges people to use it.
 
We are lucky, we have fields owned by the farmer that owns the yard, we have a 10 and a 50 acre field to ride around, on the grassy bits round the edge, not the crops!
 
Yes
smile.gif
due to the fact i ride the shepards horses
laugh.gif
so its like home ground anyway...
but many new people who have brought horses into the area seem to think they can ride on it whenever they feel like and henceforth the gates have all been shut and locked, so lately have been avoiding it as much as pos as the ground is so wet :/ why do some people have no sense? any feel they can ride on whatever they like?
 
why wont he let you? is it to preserve his land or has he had bad experience with riders? if the latter you may be able to convince him you are responsible.

I'm renting off a big fruit farmer, they have said I can ride the ponies round their land as long as i am responsible, stuick to headland, dont ride on crops etc etc. Which is so fab.
 
I wouldn't dream of just ridding on them, as you say it's his land and it's up to him. just some of the fields arnt even used (all overgrown) i would be more than willing to pay to use them too and i do belive someone asked if he would be interetsed in doing it as part of the toll rides but nothing came of it.

we have a country park close to us that has 1 horse route but its a shared route so cant have a good canter. we have said to them why cant they open more up to us but there not interested.
 
We have a lot of land that one of the local farmers owns, some crops and some set aside. We are very lucky he lets anyone use it.

But still some riders take the mick and ride through the middle of the crops. I'm not surprised a lot of farmers won't let people use their fields, when there are idiots like that about.
 
I'm lucky as my horses are kept on estate land, so the estate allow us to ride around the edge of the fields so long as we are sensible. However, there is a bridleway running through the middle, so we have to be a bit discreet about it, as it's a priviledge of keeping the horses where we do, and not open for public use!

I completly understand why farmers are anti- horses though. They have a hard enough time as it is, without having people ruining their land.
 
Top