Calling All Adult Amateurs with Horses at Home. Where do you ride?

[Minuet]

[QUOTE=Iride;8526046]
Those of you who use your pasture to ride in, how do you locate and deal with holes?[/QUOTE]

This is what I obsess over. I do the same as SmartAlex. I walk the field after it’s mowed, and SO does the mowing, so he looks out for me too.
I have about 13 acres. No trails around me, but I have taped off the flat part of the pasture to the size of a large dressage arena. Outside of that, in the pasture, I mowed a track that I could do trot sets and canter sets on. I try to keep the track mowed and I look out for the holes. I worry about the tunnels too, but then, I worry about everything.
That track is a distant memory since summer. The ground here gets alternately muddy, then frozen. I rarely go faster than a walk in the arena.

[showidaho]

Not to be contrary, BUT…I would be grateful to have anywhere that lets you haul in and ride for $20. Arenas are expensive, insurance is expensive, maintenance is expensive, wear and tear on an arena gets expensive to fix. I think $20 is a totally reasonable fee. Perhaps you can work out a monthly fee with them if you think you’ll be a regular rider there?

[Jersey_Fresh]

[QUOTE=chelzee22;8525757]
Thanks for the advice/support. It’s nice to hear from others in the same boat.

I’m located in Lex, KY and we’ve had snow and frozen ground for the past few weeks and next week will be snow and more crap. I haven’t had the weather to get on my horses in over a week–it’s either frozen or slop. I’ve got about a half acre in the back with an old tennis court base that I am hoping to/plan to make into an arena at some point, but with just having bought fencing, stalls, etc, I can’t afford it right now.

As for hauling out, I did that the past weekend to a farm who charged me $20 for a ONE TIME fee which I think is too much. I’m still searching around to find a place nearby with a reasonable fee. When the weather is nice, I can always to go Masterson Station where they have XC and arenas. Unfortunately my neighbors do not have any additional riding space.[/QUOTE]

We just bought a place in Lex too! (who did you use for fencing?). Our plan is keep my guy at home for a long as possible during the winter. We’re going to try to put lights up and that should get me through most of December. Ill either give my horse January/February off, or move him to a place with an indoor for those months (we have one where I am at now).

Look into Hodge arena in Versailles and see what they charge. Mastersons indoor is like $20 and I think thats about the going rate.

[saddleup]

I was hauling to a local county-owned arena, but I’ve finally cried “uncle!” and am taking my show horse back to the trainer’s. We’ve had a ton of snow this year, and even hauling him the 1/2 hour to her place can be scary, so he’s going to stay there for a few months until things are usable here. Sigh. My other two can hang out until the thaw…one’s retired and the other is happy to be ridden a couple of times a week, if the roads are clear and I feel energetic. It’s tough this time of year. I sure hope the groundhog was right and spring’s on its way in a hurry.

[kashmere]

I don’t have my horse at home, but I board at a backyard-type place. They are putting an arena in this year (!!) but up and until then, I ride: everywhere. There are some nice flat pastures which are great. There are hills, which are also lovely. There are swampy little corners when it rains and we truck through those too. We also go on the roads and on the trails and hike all over the property and through the woods.

As long as it’s safe, I ride. That includes in the snow and rain etc. I’m in eastern Canada with no indoor or outdoor, and the longest I’ve gone without riding this winter has been a week (and that was mostly my schedule, not weather).

[Pennywell_Bay]

I haul my kid for winter lessons to an indoor, she rides in PC and I teach her in the summer. I give them enough business and attend their shows that they let me haul in when there are not lessons for $15. Another neighbor has an indoor and would let me use it for $20 on off hours. Totally reasonable to me.

[fordtraktor]

You need to locate and eliminate holes in your pasture anyway before the horses get hurt on them, so holes are not really an issue in any of my pastures.

I do have some holes elsewhere on the farm. I deal with them by knowing exactly where they are, and I leave their occupants alone so they don’t move to build new ones as long as they aren’t in my fields. I mow frequently so if there is a new one I will be able to see it long before it is an issue for riding.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Libby, what do you use for a drag to maintain your rubber/sand mix? I’m really interested in rubber, because the dark color will thaw faster, but am worried about it floating.

I gave up and quit riding on my grass. It rains all spring here. I started boarding my horse when I wanted to be serious/consistent. I’m also a lot further north than you. I’m hoping to get an arena started this fall.

I don’t think $20/time haul-in fee is outrageous or unusual.

[Sheri]

[QUOTE=Iride;8526046]
Those of you who use your pasture to ride in, how do you locate and deal with holes?[/QUOTE]

We have fox holes that swallow riding mower tires and make my big Tractor bounce terrible.
I am terrified of the critters breaking a leg
Some of them are rabid too.
They are hard to trap. Hubby shoots at them and eventually they decide to relocate to our next hay field.
I mow end of season and leave tall grass around their dens so I can watch for
activity. They tend to make dens in a straight line maybe about 400’ apart. Find one, find another and you can plot where others will be.

We also have woodchucks, ugh big holes by our stream.

I wonder if putting mothballs or something like that would encourage them to move on?

[keatssu]

Welcome to Lexington. We love it here. Our farm is near Midway, about 20 minutes from Masterson. We were here 4 years before we put in our arena. We used our neighbor’s indoor and outdoor arenas. He is a reining guy and they ride on quite deep footing and of course don’t have jumps. We also used the fields and still do.

While we LOVE our arena, it’s funny how it becomes important to get out of the arena and go places. Our mares get kind of sour if we ride in the arena every day.

The weather was great last weekend so we went to Masterson. It’s nice to have access to such a great facility. The weather fluctuations have been crazy though!

Generally They get about 4 weeks off sometime in January or February. Then we ride when we can.

I’ve mentioned this in other posts, and you may already be familiar with them, but the local AgCredit is a good resource for low interest loans. Perhaps taking a loan would help speed along your arena plans. We borrowed about half of the cost of our arena.

Feel free to PM me if you’d like some more specific info. I’m wondering where exactly your farm is. I got lots of help from a friend with a farm - it’s just such a learning process.

[Jersey_Fresh]

[QUOTE=keatssu;8529944]
Welcome to Lexington. We love it here. Our farm is near Midway, about 20 minutes from Masterson. We were here 4 years before we put in our arena. We used our neighbor’s indoor and outdoor arenas. He is a reining guy and they ride on quite deep footing and of course don’t have jumps. We also used the fields and still do.

While we LOVE our arena, it’s funny how it becomes important to get out of the arena and go places. Our mares get kind of sour if we ride in the arena every day.

The weather was great last weekend so we went to Masterson. It’s nice to have access to such a great facility. The weather fluctuations have been crazy though!

Generally They get about 4 weeks off sometime in January or February. Then we ride when we can.

I’ve mentioned this in other posts, and you may already be familiar with them, but the local AgCredit is a good resource for low interest loans. Perhaps taking a loan would help speed along your arena plans. We borrowed about half of the cost of our arena.

Feel free to PM me if you’d like some more specific info. I’m wondering where exactly your farm is. I got lots of help from a friend with a farm - it’s just such a learning process.[/QUOTE]

Not the OP but we just bought a small farm here in Lex. Who did you use for your arena?

Love Masterson!

[ReSomething]

Kentucky Cowtown is $75 a month unlimited (well there can be user group conflicts) arena use for one horse, I don’t know what Masterson charges, $20 per use might seem steep but if you factor in fuel and whatnot . . . Does that include use of jumps?

[keatssu]

We used Todd Jenkins. You are welcome to come check out our arena. He built one for a friend of mine as well. His company is Jenkins and Orange paving. Feel free to PM me.

[keatssu]

[QUOTE=Jersey Fresh;8530388]
Not the OP but we just bought a small farm here in Lex. Who did you use for your arena?

Love Masterson![/QUOTE]

We used Todd Jenkins. His company is Jenkins and Orange Paving. You are welcome to come check out our arena and feel free to PM me. We use Shuck Fence for our fencing.

[Jersey_Fresh]

[QUOTE=keatssu;8530935]
We used Todd Jenkins. His company is Jenkins and Orange Paving. You are welcome to come check out our arena and feel free to PM me. We use Shuck Fence for our fencing.[/QUOTE]

Awesome. Ill shoot you a PM.