Stubble fields- do you go in them with/without permission??

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We used to have permission to ride on the farmers land but 2 years ago, some silly twerp was caught tearing across it (its a very stony field too, so I don't like to think about the state of the horse afterwards) and so all local riders got banned from riding on it.
My YO has recently been in contact with the farmer again and they are coming up with a plan with restrictions. He doesnt mind us riding across it, but doesnt want anyone else to and as it is an open field, it is very hard for other riders to not see us and try to follow suit. I think he is going to put in place a sort of pass systme, where you have to have a toggle on your saddle that shows you have permission and if you do not posess that when stopped you must turn around and go back the way you came.
 
I think her point was more along the lines of the amount of horses, and the lack of control/manners they would be displaying.

I would have thought anyway...
 
When I was first hacking out at my old yard, I was riding along a designated bridle path. Directly accessing the bridle path through a gap in the hedge (no gate) was a huge field containing a cross country course. You can imagine my excitment. However, I steped through the gap in the hedge and stood for about 2 mins looking down the field wondering if it was 'private' or whether it was a sort of community 'projec' that had been tacked onto the bridle path.

In the end I decided it would be rude to risk it and went back to the yard. I asked someone there who it belonged to and if we could use it only to be told that it belonged to a local farmer who hated horses and was known to come out with a shotgun if he caught anyone riding on his land.

Thank god I erred on the side of caution and manners rather than diving it to the XC field. As I said, it was completely open access onto a registered, signposted bridle path... I could easily have assumed it was ok to 'risk it'.

Other people's land is just that. As a child, my friend's dad owned most of the fields round us and he had a deal with us that as long as we stayed off the crops (!) we had total access to the stubble. We used to LONG for the end of summer
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but these days I just have to look over the hedge...
 
I use some fields by me with permission from the farmer, I would never without permission
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I wouldn't expect people to ride over our fields without permission either
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QR Nobody really owns land, or sea, or sky. We own temporary rights to in during our life times, or when we want to drill for oil, or fish or fly a plane. Every bit of the planet and the bit above is technically owned by someone, yet not owned. Fields are part of an outdoor factory, so not really comparable to gardens. They are a place of work, and take a great deal of maintenance. However, most fields have stubble for a matter of days, often less than 24 hours, and it isn't always practical to contact the farmer. Round here we keep animals out of the crop while it is growing and make use of the stubble, and everyone seems quite happy with that situation. There is one farmer who objects, so we have to use his field at night. (Okay, that last bit was a joke). There are always going to be unaccommodating landowners and rude horse owners, but the majority of countryside dwellers seem to get along.


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I don't really get that argument Soots, to be honest.

Personally as we paid vast sums of money to buy the land that is our farm, I would say we have more rights over it than any other member of Joe Public. Whether it's temporary or not in your eyes the deeds are in our names, the entitlement is ours alone. Yes, we all die and therefore our ownership is temporary (for our lifetime) but the land is then passed down to our children as our legacy. I realise compulsory purchase orders can get slapped on anyone, but all of those who own residential houses consider themselves to be "home owners".

Always gets to me how other people without land have this idea/gripe that us farmers are selfish for not letting other people share our land. Most of you in the same situation as us, with the inability to indemnify yourself against injuries caused to people riding over your land, especially with your consent, would also feel the same way as we do. It's just not worth the risk, given the state of today's "no win/no fee" culture.

I don't share anyone else's garden...or expect any other type of business to let me store our machinery in their premises "just because". Having access to the farmland to ride over is, in my eyes, a perk of a damned hard lifestyle.

There are days when I would trade my lifestyle for a "normal" one...but on the whole I enjoy it.
 
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Too bloody right!

Lots of people ticked the first option and aren't admitting it....
I go in fields wherever it's easy and won't get caught & would never do any damage or ride on crops. Certainly as soon as it's stubble & before it's ploughed I'm in there for a good blast. Think we should have right to roam across the whole of the UK.

Oh and if anyone wants to come & play/picnic/ride in my garden, they're welcome to.

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To be fair, if we just had arable crops, I can imagine that we wouldn't have any objection to anyone riding around the headland.

Problem is we don't grow any crops whatsoever. Our land is all permanent pasture. You can't risk people leaving gates open etc or riding through fields with stock in.

Not directed at you inparticular here but...

To me, it'd be like anyone with a horse expecting to be able to come and use my manege (if I had one that is lol) free of charge because they wanted to ride in it. Erm... nope...my manege, if you want one install one! My field...if you want one, buy one...we had to!
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I think Little Flea, who is from Sweden, concept of "allemansratten" may help you understand Sooty's post. There is a similar mindset in Scotland, when it was always 'King of the Scots', not 'King of Scotland' as the land was considered a common heritage. It is just part of the national pysche that you grow up with, which is why the access rights work in Scotland. I appreciate it would take a major paradigm shift for the English to undertand.
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I think Little Flea, who is from Sweden, concept of "allemansratten" may help you understand Sooty's post. There is a similar mindset in Scotland, when it was always 'King of the Scots', not 'King of Scotland' as the land was considered a common heritage. It is just part of the national pysche that you grow up with, which is why the access rights work in Scotland. I appreciate it would take a major paradigm shift for the English to undertand.
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I just don't see how it would work with the mindset of some folk to have free access to ride in the fields we keep stock in.

There is no way on this Earth you could indemnify yourself for any injury or aaccident, livestock being let loose on to roads etc.

I don't want to go to my field to fetch the cows in and be met by thundering hooves.

I know what you're saying but it's not something anyone who doesn't own farmland will understand until/if they have the privilege to own it.

Farmland is sacred to us. If we don't have decent land, we can't keep livestock or grow crops...which means we go hungry!
 
To the OP I seem to remember making this very post about a year ago!
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And it provoked the same response
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Yes I ride along stubble fields
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I am getting to know the farmers 'field annual diary' and I know by now which fields I can ride in or not. I had about 4 adjoining fields which we always used to canter in, but he's ploughed them all so they are out of bounds for a couple of months. However there are another two which are know stubble fields and everyone from dog walkers to horse riders go and the gate is always open.

I would never open a gate to go into a field, and I would absolutely never go in if there were crops in there of it has been seeded etc. I always keep to the edge and if it is wet I don't even go in.
 
We are allowed in some farmers fields, and we are the only ones. However some other local horse riders that think they have a god given right to go everywhere they want, constantly trespassing on the fields despite being told not to. They really wind me up
 
i ride round stubble, but i know all the farmers and i only go in if there is no work being done and i know we are allowed, i always walk around first and the fastest i go is canter cos he doesn't like to stop if a hedge is in the way, he prefers to jump it
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I would never ride on a stubble field if didn't have farmers permission because at the end of the day its their land i do have a stubble field up the road which we have permission to go in and he also lets us know when we are allowed to go in it
 
It's all parture land in Shropshire so no stubble in sight! When we used to live in Yorkshire I would only ride with permission, but very few farmers allowed horses on their land, while when we used to live in Berkshire almost every farmer allowed horses on the verges and stubble!
 
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I think Little Flea, who is from Sweden, concept of "allemansratten" may help you understand Sooty's post. There is a similar mindset in Scotland, when it was always 'King of the Scots', not 'King of Scotland' as the land was considered a common heritage. It is just part of the national pysche that you grow up with, which is why the access rights work in Scotland. I appreciate it would take a major paradigm shift for the English to undertand.
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I just don't see how it would work with the mindset of some folk to have free access to ride in the fields we keep stock in.

There is no way on this Earth you could indemnify yourself for any injury or aaccident, livestock being let loose on to roads etc.

I don't want to go to my field to fetch the cows in and be met by thundering hooves.


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Well it does work, round here anyway. Almost every bridlepath I goes through cattle fields. We of course always close the gates, but there is one gate that is mere metres from a main road, yet it is very very difficult to close the gate... hmm how shall I explain it? There is a cattle grid on one side, and a 3m fence, a gate, and then a hedge, forming a sort of path, but the problem is that the "path" is not wide enough to turn a horse, even worse now its overgrown, meaning we have to rein back the horses about 6 strides after closing the gate, which is downright difficult to do on a horse that doesn't do rein back.

But anyway, that aside, it does work with people riding through cattle fields in my experience, the riders close the gate, and the cows and calves soon get used to us. Though it can be a bloody pain in the arse when a calf starts to chase you
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Great post, have loved reading it - soo many pages more since I left work too!

As I said before where people live differs. I am in Yorks too and in hunting country but I myself do not hunt and also know the hunt doesn't always stick to fields it has permission to be on either!

I shall continue to have my annual gallops on stubble fields as I have done for the past 20 odd years. I won't however jump hedges between fields anymore when I'm too lazy to open the gate (well you get older, you're less brave!! hehe)
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if someone 'borrowed' your car without asking, would that be OK as well. Suppose they scratched it and left it with an empty tank... Share and share alike, eh?

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Must remember not to scratch stubble fields in future....


I just think it shows a very... selfish? Not selfish, just miserable *something bad* attitide. I stay out of crops, I ride round the edge, I wave when they're in a tractor, and compete in PC with their kids. The countryside just seems to be losing the thing it was good for - courteous, thoughtful and polite people. Its all "get out of my way" "keep out" "go away" what happened to honesty boxes, helping with the lambing, having a natter as you're going past.

There's so much unneeded anger and hostility now. My yard bales its own hay, and we are allowed to ride round the edge, down the path, dog walkers are welcome, other people sometimes come up to ride around the field. It's fun, and you get to meet people and develop a good local bond.

The only farmers I could think of who made you stay off the field were 60+ and completely miserable, rude and lived alone.
 
Crikey, so many pages on this topic! Sorry, I have skipped some pages, just to say that I think it is completely wrong to use ANY field, regardless o fwhether it is stubble or anything else, unless you do have permission.
 
Sorry just another point - also, how are you supposed to fin dout who the farmer is? I keep my horse with me at uni, and I don't have a clue which farmer owns what field, where they live, what their telephone number is...
 
God I wish that I had the cojones to do it, but no, I was brought up to never go on land that I do not have the express permission to cross. The farmers around here are all very much against riders sadly and they would be able to recognise who it was trespassing and they would go ballistic. Lots of fields by me have no gates, and yes, we yearn to ride over them and yes we feel bloody hard done by that we have to ride on the 60mph road rather than go up the headland/stubble ajoining, but I still wouldn't do it. One farmer makes sure that he ploughs as he takes the bales off his land so no one can trespass
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Oh and to the person who said "if I see hoofprints then I think it is OK to go on that land" - what a dreadful attitude
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Our farm is for liveries only, no one else is permitted onto the land and there are loads of fields that even we are not permitted round...if my YO caught you believe me you would quake in your boots LOL!
 
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I think you'll find the hunts have the landowners permission,

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Actually, my FIL is a farmer in Yorkshire and has told the hunts that they DO NOT have permission to ride on his land. Yet the day after the hunt what do we find but hundreds of hoofprints through the middle of one of his fields... Its happenned more than once too.
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TBH i really think there is a BIG difference to riding on a stubble field which is going to be ploughed up anyway, to riding on someones pasture which i wouldnt do unless it was next to a bridleway and not wet!

I am very considerate even on bridleways and never gallop about if its wet. I personally think it is very petty and mean of farmers to moan about responsible people riding on stubble. Live and let live!
 
I do ride over my local stubble fields I'm afraid.
There is no decent hacking in my area and it's about the only time you can get a good canter round some big fields.
I haven't asked permission cos I wouldn't know who to ask but I have ridden over stubble fields whilst tractors are working nearby and nothing has ever been said to me so I assumed was ok ??
If anyone ever asked me to leave then I would no problem and i would never ride over a cropped field or cause any damage.
I always thought it was the done thing to ride over stubble fields cos they were just waiting for ploughing.
 
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I think you'll find the hunts have the landowners permission,

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Actually, my FIL is a farmer in Yorkshire and has told the hunts that they DO NOT have permission to ride on his land. Yet the day after the hunt what do we find but hundreds of hoofprints through the middle of one of his fields... Its happenned more than once too.
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That is not on - what a stupid huntsman to allow that
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The funny thing is is that the biggest land owner by me DOES allow us to hunt on his land, but we are not allowed to hack around it!
 
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Oh and to the person who said "if I see hoofprints then I think it is OK to go on that land" - what a dreadful attitude
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Our farm is for liveries only, no one else is permitted onto the land and there are loads of fields that even we are not permitted round...if my YO caught you believe me you would quake in your boots LOL!

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Indeed. I have permission to hack round my YO's crop fields, but I couldn't imagine what he think of it if all the other riders around our way did the same!!
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I have got to say I am slightly amazed at some of the replies in this thread. I can see this from both sides and personally wouldn't ride on someone elses land without permission. But my dad farmed for years and never turned anyone away who asked permission to ride round our land or have a blast at stubble time.
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We mixed farmed so relied on people not disturbing stock etc but on the whole most people were very considerate, often offering help or support in other ways. In fact my siblings and I were the ones who got the telling off for building straw bale XC courses!!
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It was some time ago but we always had a policy of live and let live.....I miss those times!
 
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Its mine and I dont see why you should (and no other reason given)........downright selfish in my book.....obviously weren't taught to share as a child
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Do you feel the same about all property? I mean, if someone 'borrowed' your car without asking, would that be OK as well. Suppose they scratched it and left it with an empty tank... Share and share alike, eh?
TBH I used to ride across stubble fields on occasion when I was in the UK and assumed it was fine. I was on friendly
terms with the farmer and I assumed he would've asked me not to ride across them if he didn't want me to. I hadn't thought about it from Rosiie's POV and I totally understand and now feel a bit bad about NOT asking the farmer as it would've taken no effort at all and would've been the courteous thing to do. If he'd said no, then that would've been fine too.

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See the little smiley...with the tongue in cheek? Phew.......

I am SOooooo glad I live where I do with nice farmers and big stubble fields to play on......as I have said previously...the fields I ride on are owned by my YO.
 
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