Riding in fields - Good or bad?

[Kate_13]

Unfortuntely, I dont have a school , but I can ride in a flat field. It has been soft early this week due to rain, but is now getting hard.

Do you ride in fields through summer when it is rock hard?

Is it ok to walk and trot on 20 metre circles on this ground? I am relucatant to canter now as it is so hard.

Your views?

 

[SonnysHumanSlave]

its ok to ride in fields.

i still say bad though as i was in a field when i broke my wrist last monday.

 

[helenhorse]

Its ok, we have gotten on fine with grass fields we dont have a menage and we are (if i do say so my self) quite succesful with out a menage or expensive things like that

 

[chillidragon]

Good:
(Relatively) enclosed space so any incidents should be fairly contained
No traffic (versus a road)
If it's hard you won't damage it too much with walk/trot work
If it's soft, you can do trot/canter/jumping work BUT...

Bad:
If it's soft you'll churn it to soup in no time
If it's hard cantering/jumping is out
If other horses are in there it's not recommended as it could get ugly
No markers (versus a school) which is a bigger issue if you want to get very precise say for shows

I do ride in our hayfield after it's been cut, but I very carefully regulate any 20m circling/lunging and only use it to take off her first edge before doing roadwork.

 

[soph21]

I school in the field, you just have to be careful if the grass get slippery!
I hope you are OK Mistral_shining? I had my plaster off 3 weeks ago, and typically it was my writing hand!

 

[BlackWhite381]

I haven't had a menage for 16 years and have coped riding in the field obviously if it is really hard i am careful what i do and if it is wet i don't ride in there but as long as you are sensible there shouldn't be a problem

fields are alot better than menages for balancing (sp?) your horse

 

[PeanutButterDragon]

I think its okay it it is an area that wont be grazed

 

[LizzieJ]

You can always measure and mark out dressage markers

[ QUOTE ]
I think its okay it it is an area that wont be grazed

[/ QUOTE ]

Why is it an issue if it's grazed?

 

[SecretSquirrell379]

We are going to (as we have before) marked off a 40 x 20 area of our field. We normally use a corner, so we have post and rail on 2 sides with (not live) electric fencing on the other 2 sides. We use our poles, cones and jumps in there. We tend to walk and trot mostly as they can get very excited if you canter as they can see the other horses and tend to show off a bit.

It works for us

with regards to the grass we get our YO to cut the grass down with his lawn mower