Schooling in the field!? Advice please

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amanda1788

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Hi

I just wondered people who keep their horses in fields with no school, how do you find schooling in the field?
I rent a field and in the winter its basically impossible to school as it gets too muddy and slippery. However now the weather is improving I can do some schooling again. And wondered if its possible to prepare your horse for a competition without a school? Such as dressage or jumping?

Thanks
 
I've got a field sectioned off for it to be ridden in. The horses on my yard act really out of character in there but I wouldn't have thought you couldn't school your horse. We've got jumps and dressage signs in there so it would work well if they behaved!

I'd recommend giving it a try as it will be cheaper than hiring a school anyway!
 
Up until October I was at a yard without a school and competed all through the winter, not a problem.
In the winter we schooled in an area seperate from the paddocks but in spring, summer, autumn we schooled and jumped in the same paddock as the horses were grazing :D
 
Got an indoor school but much prefer schooling outdoors in the SJ field! Find the schools too small to school the bigun's in and get much better movement outside :)

SJ paddock is about 4 acres though and drains fab, only gets boggy in the gateway, the rest stays perfectly fine all year round. It doesn't get grazed on however and also gets harrowed and topped when approppriate :)
 
I only have a field to school in and like you, dont bother all winter because it just becomes a muddy mess. Ours isnt perfectly flat either and has sheep in it most of the time. However, it works fine for me, admittedly I dont do shows but dont think it would be a problem if I did. Che works quite well in it, learns to concentrate with cows next door, sheep and lambs running around, the ponies in the grazing paddocks and copes with the undulations OK which you would find at outdoor shows anyway. I have some of those cheap plastic dressage cones which only take 2 minutes to put out, although I dont necessarily stick to a regular school shape, prefering to work around the field and using natural markers, ie fence posts, tufty bits of grass and even the sheep when they fall asleep. I have hacked over to borrow a friends school but actually, didnt really feel it was worth it, I prefer my field. An odd plus point is that without the school fence to keep you in you do have to have your horse obedient and listening to you in an open space which is always a good thing
 
I only have the field my horses are in, its not too bad during winter but my lot will not work in their own field, so its hacking or nothing for us, you could always try schooling whilst your out, I would, when I get the chance too.
 
It's ok to school in a field when it's dry, in fact it's really good practice for outdoor competitions. When it's wet, I would either hire a school or do what you can out hacking eg transitions, leg-yielding, shoulder-in.
 
I'm the same - I school in the field during the drier months, I hack out in the winter. In the inbetween stage like now,when its still a bit wet but I want to get the horses fit, I hire a local school.
For my riding area, I've just bought some dressage cone markers ooo! Just looking forward to using them :)
 
We have only had fields for schooling in for 3 years now, this winter my instructor came and taught me my lessons on snow, mud the lot, obviously we were careful with what we did based on the ground conditions. We had lessons in the field my mare was grazing in and in the riding bit but that got too muddy due to overuse and poor drainage in that area of the field.
I do travel once a week for a lesson in an arena if I can but my mare actually works better on grass than in an arena as she's more used to it now. It def helps at shows and dressage comps on grass.
 
Some advice I was given is that generally if you can its not good policy to school the horse in the same field as he grazes in as its the place where he chills out and relaxes, and then to be asked to hold himself in an outline and do school work confuses him and doesn't give clear boundaries of "work" and "relaxation/eating".

I have fenced off a bit in the past when I've needed to, and used this as a dedicated schooling area, but to be honest I don't have that much grazing and try to rotate field usage wherever possible.

I tend to school on a hack; not ideal I know, but then I'm just a happy hacker so its not a huge issue.

There is a sandschool nearby which I can hire but its very deep sand and my horse can't deal with it.
 
I don't have a school, I have my field sectioned into a winter field, summer field, and a schooling strip - about 17m wide by 100m long.....I have school markers down one end, lunge at the other end and will dot a few show jumps in there too. Its a bog at the moment though (was fine 2 weeks ago grrr), so I cant use it, and obviously can't use it over the winter which is a pain but I have no floodlights anyway so weekends are more for hacking. Hoping that if I get a box this summer I can box to a nearby indoor once a week during the winter.

I agree on not keeping them in the same bit you work them though.
 
I school in our fields, its generally fenced off, but since horses and someone elses sheep decided to trash the fence it hasn't been! They work fine in it, even if they graze in it - which we have to do otherwise the grass would be too long to do anything in!
I use it all through the year but obviously depends on the ground conditions as to what I do, in the Spring and Summer I'll use it regularly for schooling, lungeing and jumping, and in the Winter I generally go by the ground as to what I do but I don't usually do to much jumping! If it is too wet to go in there to school I just do it out on a hack! I don't use proper markers, just use natural markers, or if I'm doing something specific I'll just put a jump stand or something similar as a marker!
I've found they work better in the field than a sand school, and jump 100 Xs better in there, its also good as theres usually stuff going on, so they learn to work well with lots of potential distractions around them!
 
I dont section ours off, we use different bits of the field (bout 4 acres) depending on the time of year, where the horses are, how long the grass is for hay cut etc. so either school in random bits or we do have some white gutterin to lay out (though it can disappear int he hay field!) manage to school pretty much all year round, have lesson once every 2-3 weeks.
 
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