Turning round on a hack & asking Farmers to ride on their land..

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Becks01

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Hello! I'm moving to a yard where there are some bridleways to get to (I have been poring over an OS map!)....but no loops to do really (i.e. the bridleway ends in a really fast busy road so you would have to turn around and go back the way you came) ....even using the lanes, opportunities to do a loop are really limited, it's a lot of turning back on yourself. I am thinking this is just a recipe for teaching a horse to nap?

Be interested to hear if others have to do this, and how their horses react? On the very rare occasion I have had to do this before, my horse has MARCHED back home...

Also, I am considering writing to local farmers (we have a few orchards around our way) to ask if I could ride around the edges of their fields in the summer when the ground is hard, in exchange for a little cash...has anyone had any success doing this before? If so, how did you find out who farmed what piece of land (bar going to the land registry!!)

Thanks in advance! :o
 
My OH is a farmer and even I don't get to ride on our margins :-( sadly it's because people take advantage and issues around liability if there was an accident.
You can ask though as the worst they can say is no! X
 
There are toll rides local to me - you pay a (small) set fee per year and there are specific parts of various fields you're allowed to ride around which links up some beautiful rides. Riders stick to the 'paths' and tend not to ride when the weather is wet/ ground is soggy - they love the facility too much to risk losing it. Not sure whether there are enough riders in your area to make it worthwhile but might be worth asking around and seeing whether anyone is interested in setting up similar and then approaching farmers? Assume somewhere it contains something to do with liability - know we had to sign something when we signed up but can't remember what it said to be honest
 
I would suggest that what you need is to investigate the possibility of creating some new routes which you can link on to the existing ones so as to create circular routes.
This can be done by a number of different ways the easiest being by dedication of the landowners concerned.
Contact your local BHS access officer who will be only to pleased to assist you.
 
I make it a rule never to turn my horse round on a hack. I always try and find a circular route, trouble with round by us, although the hacking is FANTASTIC for a short hack, we only have a 25 minute circular route which is too short, or a 3/4 hour busy 50mph stretch of road, and another 3/4 hour route only really suitable in summer due to the fields. I'd love to find a 45 minute circular road route but we don't have one.
 
All my rides are out and back ones. My little horse, for all his flaws and the fact he's scared of everything, is always perfectly behaved about turning for home. If anything he seems a little disappointed each time we do, and slows a fraction. Cantering back is only an issue in company if the other horse is a bit naughty. some bridle paths I'll turn back again and do the whole thing a couple of times, or I'll ride past the yard gate on the way home and add another out and back section, so he's used to not just going straight home.
 
The response you get will depend on whatever dealings the farmer has had with horse riders in the past. We've had mixed experiences which makes us wary of allowing people to ride on the farm. Some people have been fantastic, sticking to the rules and not charging about but others have been less well behaved! Its worth asking though, you will have lost nothing by doing so. I guess you could find out who owns the land just by asking about locally maybe in any small local shops or garages?
 
Someone near us pays us to ride across our fields, as they have one field next to a busy road,surrounded by other people's land so don't have many options. They pay every year but I have NEVER seen them in our land, in fact I've never seen their horses ridden at all anywhere.
 
I often ride straight out,turn round and back the same route,never had problems with napping. When I turn round I do a few circles on both reins before I turn.
 
I paid a local farmer, just to ride round and round one field on the headland, but it is fantastic to be able to do so, as otherwise we would not get any canter work. I was careful to stick to the agreed area and not to ride when it was wet.

The farmer sold up, and I now use another field belonging to someone else, but they don't charge. In order to not have troops of people over the land the field is locked and I have a key. Again it is a hay field so I stick to just one track, and keep out when it is wet.

Nothing wrong with asking.
 
Unless I go for a very long hack I have no option but to turn round to head back home and although its not ideal it hasn't caused major problems. I tend to do quite a bit of fast work or trotting on the way out so that they aren't too full of it by the time we turn back. I always turn at different places though so they don't anticipate a turning point and get tempted to nap.
 
You can only ask :)

I believe if the land is set-aside they aren't meant to allow horseriders to use it but I may be wrong. You may also find that once you get to the yard, there are a lot more bridleways than you realise or are marked on an OS map.

Good Luck!
 
The problem from the farmer's point of view is (a) liability, i.e. what if someone falls off/has an accident or whatever, and then sues the pants off the landowner. The second problem is (b) frequency, i.e. it might be perfectly OK to let just the one sensible adult in the fields, who is considerate and will keep to the outside of the fields - but then the next thing is you get every galloping beastie for miles around in there, cutting up the pasture and leaving all the gates open :(

I would be very reluctant to give permission for anyone to ride here on my land: unless it was an organised once-off event like say Endurance GB or local Hunt/Fun ride where they would have their own insurance and some level of marshalling.

Otherwise, nope, sorry!
 
You can ask, I got permission to ride along the edge of a field next to a footpath (please note: not ON the footpath) it linked up 2 quiet roads meaning I didn't have to hack on a busy road.
I was very careful, only ever rode in walk, didn't use it if it was too wet.

Sadly the farmer had to fence it all off because other horse riders, who didn't have permission, took it upon themselves to ride along it as well.
They obviously cantered along the footpath & field in all ground conditions making it all churned up to hell.
Farmer was very apologetic but there were complaints about the state of the footpath so he had little choice but to fence it all off.

He said he would've liked to offer me some alternative riding but he was worried that again other horse riders would see me & take it as carte Blanche to trash his land. Definite case of the few idiots ruining things for others.

If the farmer does say no, it may not be personal he's just had a bad experience previously 😏
 
I don't have any problem getting permission from sheep farmers, because they know I'll spot problems and report to them or get off my horse to turn an upside down sheep. I can ride on land belonging to six different farmers. You can only ask.
 
Our yard is on a horrid twisty road but 50 yards along the road from our main gate is a field which joins up with a bridleway network and you dont need to see another road. The farmer is friends with our yard owner and has given permission for anyone on our yard to use one edge of it to access the bridleway. He did it without being asked when he saw one of us out one day and was shocked at the way traffic was whizzing past. I would say its definitely worth asking, offer some sort of recompense and reiterate that you simply want to use it as a connecting passage and will stick to a walk (if thats the case). He may well say No, it is his livelihood after all and the poster who said he may well be scared of being sued or attracting hoardes of inconsiderate riders charging about has a very good point Im afraid, but you have nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain.
 
We are very lucky, as the farmer allows us to ride around certain fields, and we all chip in to buy him a wonderful Xmas present each year :) since it's just us, we're all very respectful and as far as I know, neither parties have ever had a need to complain!
 
No harm in asking. A farmer near us fenced off a small section of field between the ends of two bridlepaths so that people could ride a circular hack without riding on a very busy road. On the other hand, another farmer has been livid to find people riding on his set-aside and galloping around his unfenced fields without permission. The land around the fields had been preserved as a habitat for ground nesting birds, which were obviously disturbed by hooves thundering past. Both farmers have liveries on their farms, so I guess it just depends on the individual and circumstances.

I try to ride circular hacks, but one of my favourites is a 'there and back hack'. Billy used to try to march home like a runaway train, but we practiced backing up at home, first on the floor and then ridden, and then if he began to pull when we turned round, I'd stop him, back him up a few steps, and then walk on again. The first time we spent probably a good ten minutes getting absolutely nowhere, just forward and back until he gave up trying to haul my arms out of their sockets, and he hasn't really bothered since!
 
I am lucky enough to have access to a local mixed orchard & arable Farm some of the farms arable headlands have been put into a DEFRA I think scheme to allow horse riders to use them & the farmer gets paid so its worth looking this up as well as it won't be on the OS maps. If you are near orchards as long as you keep to the perimeter & don't go up & down the lanes you may find they are happy to let you respectfully use them
 
I'm assuming you're in England OP? Otherwise, here in Scotland you can ride wherever you want although I never ride in farmers fields without asking them first. The one who owns most land round me, he let me ride round his stubble fields which was so helpful so I gave him a bottle of whisky.
 
Not sure about the farming etc! With regards to the marching home, yes something it can encourage that but if I'm going a short hack and turn back on myself I'll do a bit of schooling on the way back- shoulder in, collecting properly etc. Get the mind thinking about something else rather than home :)
 
Would say all depends on the farm and the farmer. Where we used to be we could ride round any of the fields etc and there didn't seem to be any concerns about subsidies etc. There is another farmer locally who does let local riders use his fields for a fee. Where I am now, none of the farmers allow people to use their fields. So would say ask away, as others have said can only say no.
 
irishdraft said:
I am lucky enough to have access to a local mixed orchard & arable Farm some of the farms arable headlands have been put into a DEFRA I think scheme to allow horse riders to use them & the farmer gets paid so its worth looking this up as well as it won't be on the OS maps. If you are near orchards as long as you keep to the perimeter & don't go up & down the lanes you may find they are happy to let you respectfully use them
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This doesn't happen any more, it went out with the Tories. Some of these agreements are coming to an end, but Natural England is writing to the landowners to see if they will continue to allow permissive access, but with no money (somehow I doubt it).

You can ask an individual farmer, some are OK, some are not.
You can also investiage Toll Rides (tollrides trust.org.uk) who are a charity which helps riders set up toll rides which actually answers most of the objections that farmers have about liability. The biggest problem is misuse/rudeness of riders. There was one local Toll Ride that had over 50 members, but the landowners often found riders riding where they shouldn't, and the final straw was a rider who was rude to the landowner's wife and the whole ride was shut down.
 
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