Yikes I guess it depends on the general outlook of folks in your area and the type of countryside. Makes me grateful for kind southerners 
Although it will make no difference to anyone I still want to clarify that we were surrounded by farms in just about every direction. I rode out several times a week, but I alternated places so each one saw me MAYBE once a week. And these were huge farms with many adjoining crop fields so miles of trails. I hardly ever came near a home. It was a small agricultural town with a large percentage of good ole boy tobacco (or formerly tobacco) farmers and my father knew several. I assure you that if they were displeased at the idea of a horse trail riding in their back field, word would get around. I figured the signs are more to protect them from liabilities associated with their irrigation ponds or wildlife that might tempt people for hunting. The kids riding ATVs spotlighting deer and littering beer cans on a farmers land, and the herds of deer eating their corn, are probably more of a concern than a girl on a well behaved horse. Manure? Well our closest farming neighbor fertilizes with cow or chicken $#!t that you can smell from a good distance…I doubt a few piles of horse poo along the edge of the treeline among his hundreds of acres is much of a concern. Yes there are holes. Do some folks really not trail ride in a place that might have holes?
I am going to ask the woman that readily rides along edge of the fields if she ever asked any of the farm managers or owner of land…as I asked her one time about riding along edge of fields and she said the people who own the farm don’t mind. I don’t know if she ever talked to them, or just assume since she has been doing it for so long (over 2 years) that if they minded someone would have said something.
I was surprised at vehemence of some of the replies but also understand it, as the signs are there…in my area, owners of fields don’t want ATV’s and people dirt biking etc…perhaps many of them don’t mind the occasional rider but as many said, better to ask and find out if possible. I also see people fishing off the canal banks of these farms with signs and nobody ever says anything to them either.
Our property is posted, and we have a game camera on a deer feeder. Imagine how you’d feel to see complete strangers traipsing through your ‘backyard’, whether that is 30 feet from your back door, or 30 acres, or 300 acres.
I used to be more cavalier about it- if it was timber company land, obviously hunting land, we’d stay out of it near deer season and obvious IN deer season, we’d stay out. But mid June? We’d ride. Having my own place now I’m much more aware/sensitive. Now the 300 acres behind me, that’s in foreclosure and literally just sitting there- yes, I ride it.
The signs don’t mean don’t trespass more than once a week. They say don’t trespass.
What part of private property do you not understand?
Why do you think it isn’t something to worry about if it is farm land?? Would you be less likely to march across someone’s manicured lawn with your hooves? IMHO trespassing on ag land is worse. It needs to be maintained for a reason, not vanity.
If you think they don’t mind, then you can take the time to ask. And if they say no, it is probably b/c of inconsiderate horse owners who have already tramped through the place.
I hope any trespassers get caught & ticketed. I would not hesitate to report trespassers on anothers property. In fact I would thrilled to.
I have a suspicion that those that think traipsing through other’s property is ok did not grow up in a rural area.
Well I recently got yelled at by a farmer who was raking cut hay on his leased land because my friend and i were walking our horses 3’ off the edge of the (public) blacktop road on “his” property. We weren’t in any sort of a planted crop, just walking along the road in what was basically his mowed hayfield. (And no, we weren’t messing up his windrows or anything; that field had already been baled.) I was flabbergasted, and honestly a little pissed… Isn’t there an easement for a certain distance off the edge of a public road?!
Easements can vary. It could be right on the edge of the road, could be 20’ off the edge. I bet that farmer has had problems is the past with trespassers and you just got the brunt of his anger.
FYI, according to my friend who is in the ag research industry, there is a new law that will go into effect in the next year or so that will prohibit horses and other livestock from being in orchards. I don’t know the whole story behind it yet but it has something to do with food safety. For some reason orchards are a no-ride but it would be ok to ride in the vineyards. I think it’s because apples are eaten “as is” but the grapes are processed first (all grapes around here are for wine). We just touched on the subject the other day. Will post more when I find out more.
I have a friend who does not respect the No Trespassing signs, and I just don’t get it. How rude, disrespectful, and rude can you be? I don’t know how much more clear you can get than “No Trespassing” yet you think the sign doesn’t mean you? WTF?
As a land owner (as is my friend), I have NT signs up on my property and I expect them to be followed. You never know when a gun-toting crazy person is on the other side of that sign and I see no reason to intrude upon someone’s privacy.
There is also the liability issue. You fall, you sue the farmer ( or, these days, your insurance company sues the farmer, no matter if you personally don’t want to sue), farmer loses his farm.
Meanwhile at my horses’ farm, the half the land is agriculture and I’m always on pins and needles trying to keep the horses from placing one hoof on the seedlings in the fields right next to the trail.
The attitude of the OP’s is unfortunately common around here and the reason I refuse to ride with some people and the reason why landowners close their land to horses.
It took DH and I three years or being good neighbors and cultivating good relationships with local landowners for me to secure enough permissions to be able to really ride out. And we continue to plow driveways and gardens, cut trees, share vegetables from the garden, etc. with those landowners to keep the relationship positive. That includes dismounting and scraping manure off driveways or other highly visible areas when we ride.
It would just take one person like the OP to get some people to close their land.
I have an acquaintance who has been charged with trespassing and taken to court twice because of that sort of entitled attitude about other’s land.
Recently I had a friend of a friend approach me at a party and ask if she could come riding with me as she heard I had lots of places to ride out and she didn’t. She lives 10 miles to the west of me, where there’s more open land. Let’s see, I don’t know you or your horses from Eve, don’t know what kind of horse person you are and you either haven’t gone to the trouble of cultivating a good relationship with your landowner neighbors or have pissed them off and are not allowed on their land any longer.
Sure, come riding with me! How about never? Does never work for you?
Sorry, this thread hit a nerve for me.
Riding on private party is NOT one of those situations where it’s better to apologize later than ask permission first.
I won’t ride anywhere that I don’t have direct, explicit permission for the landowner. If you do otherwise, you are endangering open land for riding for EVERYONE.
If I saw you riding on posted property, I would notify the landowner and law enforcement immediately.
[QUOTE=Murphy’s Mom;7068188]
Easements can vary. It could be right on the edge of the road, could be 20’ off the edge. I bet that farmer has had problems is the past with trespassers and you just got the brunt of his anger.
FYI, according to my friend who is in the ag research industry, there is a new law that will go into effect in the next year or so that will prohibit horses and other livestock from being in orchards. I don’t know the whole story behind it yet but it has something to do with food safety. For some reason orchards are a no-ride but it would be ok to ride in the vineyards. I think it’s because apples are eaten “as is” but the grapes are processed first (all grapes around here are for wine). We just touched on the subject the other day. Will post more when I find out more.[/QUOTE]
The orchard thing applies here already. I live above two orchards and always thought they’d be great conditioning rides since they have cut paths for equipment and the ground slopes so nicely. So I asked the owner and found out there are rules about manure control in these orchards most of the year (since they’re growing food they have to follow very strict rules about poop). He was very nice and said I could ride in November after the harvest.
I don’t understand what’s so hard to understand. It’s private property -respect that. I don’t see that as being overly sensitive, just well-raised, respectful and civilized. I find it interesting that some posters have this sense of entitlement about riding OTHER PEOPLE’S PRIVATE PROPERTY.
Paula
Okay, I hear you all loud and clear!
I will give this serious thought and make a decision soon. I want to be sure of my decision, because once I make it, I don’t want to go back on it.
Deciding to honor the no trespass signs means I will give up riding out on trails with some people, or will ride out with them along permitted areas, and turn around and go back to the barn once we reach the no trespass point.
I hope to see the woman who regularly rides out on these lands and ask her if she has ever asked permission. I can predict the answer is no, but I want to be certain of that as well. I can try to find out who owns the land and write them a letter asking, but if they never answer or it’s no, I need to make the decision not to.
We have designated trails to ride on, they just don’t go on forever but they are enough. We also have a race track to ride on after 2 PM in season and all day off season.
The people who ride out on trails here, most of them, do whatever they want. They ride around chains put on posts with a no trespass sign to keep people out and laugh at anyone who says that’s not a good idea. They ride on the track in the hours they are not supposed to. So I need to make sure of my decision before I stand up to them as once I do, it’s for keeps, I won’t ride with them or only on limited outings up to the allowed points.
Thanks for input, understand the viewpoint!
Wow, being able to ride on a race track would be cool! How lucky you are to have that kind of access!
Paula
It is cool. It’s not the best surface for certain types of riding as it is hard packed (for standardbreds, not TB racing.) The good part though is when it rains it absorbs water and the surface softens nicely and never gets puddles. We acutally have two tracks, one smaller track is inside the larger track and circles a lake.
People here that ride out are insane. I mean mentally ill or something. We are not supposed to ride on track before 2PM when the trotters are training. But some insist on doing it anyway. I won’t do that (we have a grass area along track we can ride on).
These people do it anyway, and then are surprised when a trotter or pacer comes up behind them and the driver yells at them. It is so high risk and crazy, I don’t get it. But yes, we are lucky to have the track to ride on, it is owned by owners of the barn. I think everyone around here has a daredevil mentality…vehicles except maintenance vehicles are not allowed on track either, but sure enough some cars sneak on property and drive on it after 5 pm racing around. I live n nut land so started to take on that mentality myself.
Oh I’m so jealous! In my fantasy if I ever had enough land (I only have 2 acres) I would cut a track around the perimeter -graded, dirt just for training.
Paula
This thread really hit the hot button to me as a landowner as well.
Consider this…
I am a carriage driver.
We use the tracks through the forest for conditioning.
One day we were doing canter sets.
So…here you have a large pair of Warmbloods galloping along the track. We come around a bend and here is a woman on her horse with a dog. She starts screaming, her horse is spinning and ready to get the heck out of there and her dog is threatening my horses.
This woman had to have dismounted, opened a gate with four NO TRESPASSING signs on it, close the gate, remount and ride on.
And now she is screaming at me because her horse is freaking out.
Oh, and my dogs are ready to jump off my carriage and take out her dog.
My horses stood quietly while she got it together and left the property.
Another time we were driving out there and come upon a woman and her teenage son riding their bikes.
Once again they had come through a gate with no trespassing signs.
I asked her where she was from. Seattle.
I asked her if she would mind if we came traipsing through her yard.
Oh yes, she would, that’s different.
Why exactly is that different.
She had no answer for that.
The sense of entitlement of some people is utterly astounding.
I really would be interested to hear WHY they think it is fine for them to ignore No Trespassing signs.
Go get a better job, earn more money, buy your own darn land to use as you see fit.
Sorry for the rant, but this is obviously a hot button issue for me.
We have had to put locks on all of our gates now, which is an inconvenience to US.
[QUOTE=Countrywood;7068402]
The people who ride out on trails here, most of them, do whatever they want. They ride around chains put on posts with a no trespass sign to keep people out and laugh at anyone who says that’s not a good idea. They ride on the track in the hours they are not supposed to. So I need to make sure of my decision before I stand up to them as once I do, it’s for keeps, I won’t ride with them or only on limited outings up to the allowed points.
Thanks for input, understand the viewpoint![/QUOTE]
This is where my Grandmother would pull out the old “…and if all the other kids jumped off a bridge, would you do that too?”
I’m pretty limited in who I can ride with here, unless I lower my standards. Plenty of trespassing, littering entitled jerks who misuse and mistreat everything given to them and then whine when the city/county facilities and trails aren’t kept in tip top shape. And any field that has a fence that can be broken down to make a hole for a horse to fit through = theirs to use.
I ride alone rather than stoop to that level.
We are surrounded by Timber Company Land with high tension power lines running through our property and for 5 miles before hitting another road. When we moved here 12 years ago we started riding out from our property along the power lines and found numerous trails to ride. From our direction there are no No Trespassing signs posted. Even in NJ we never rode out during hunting season, it was too dangerous to even ride along the roads unless it was a Sunday. About 2 years after we had moved here we came across a gentleman on an ATV while riding out on a Sunday during hunting season. We said ‘Hi’ talked for a few minutes and found that he was the president of the local hunting club that leased the property from the Timber Company. He gave us permission to continue riding on the leased property after finding out where we rode from and why we never saw any signs. (We never crossed onto any of the ajoining properties that were posted). There is one hunt club member who gets upset (when he’s been drinking too much) that has complained about us riding, but the other members are happy that we maintain the trails year round, just staying off the property during hunting season. And while they are logging.
I agree with everybody else. If it’s not your land and you don’t have permission and it isn’t public space…don’t ride there. Doesn’t matter if there are ‘no trespassing’ signs or not.
Where I board, the actual ‘riding spots’ on the actual farm are few. There’s the arena (which is a nice, biggish, grass arena that I’m quite fond of but it’s nice to get out of it, too)…and there’s a bit of a small ‘track’ (not big enough for cantering around the corners or anything) around one row of pastures. Handy dandy visual aid. The blue lines are the circle we can make. The long line on the left is about an eight foot space between the pasture fences and the neighbor’s fence. There’s another ten foot space between the front pasture and the arena (the top square).
Down in the bottom, right hand corner, there’s a straight trail that goes through the woods about almost a half mile until you hit trees and no path. We’re allowed to ride down there without asking anybody’s permission, but even though there are paths off to the side we can take, they lead to somebody else’s land that hasn’t given permission so even though they aren’t posted…we don’t ride there.
The big open fields at the neighbor’s to the left are hay fields, we can’t just ride in them. We do have permission to ride up the long driveway, around the field, and over to the woods on the left (they’re actually a lumber tree farm over there so all the ‘trails’ are really logging roads. So we cannot ride off-trail because there are too many possibilities for falling into a hole where a tree once was but the stump rotted. The person who asked about if you’ve never ridden in a place with the possibility for holes has never ridden in a place where every couple of feet you could be dropping your horse’s foot into a hole, obviously). Anyway, even though we have permission, we still have to call the landowner and let him know first that we plan on going, every time we plan on going over there. Sometimes he’s got relatives out there practicing shooting or riding ATVs or maybe they’re cutting down trees or whatever. Then we can’t ride out there. And between about November and January, we can’t ride out there because of hunting season. We’re basically given a blanket, “you’ll have to wait until hunting season is over” no ifs, ands, or buts.
And if one of us messes that up and gets in trouble…we’re messing it up for everybody at the barn.
So yeah, don’t ride where you don’t have permission.
This whole conversation reminds me of a diagram that was in one of my pony club books about what ‘not to do’ when riding out. Pretty sure riding on posted land was one of them.
All you generally need do is visit the landowner and ask permission to ride, thereby demonstrating that you are a responsible person.
[QUOTE=Countrywood;7064499]
Dilemma…some really nice trails along agricultural fields here have “no trespassing” signs posted. And sometimes…I’ll admit, we ride there, mainly on Sundays , when the field workers are not out there…
Anyone else do this? Is it terrible or not? ( I know it is illegal but the trails are so nice…some riders do it all the time, some refuse to so I am in middle)[/QUOTE]
I’m really shocked that anyone would consider it ok to traipse across someone’s property that is clearly marked without permission. I get making a mistake. I’ve been there, riding through an area after storms had done their damage and signs were down. Where did it get me? My horse and I stuck in quicksand up to his belly. Signs are sometimes there for a reason, to protect you as much as the landowner’s property.
I have a fence around my property to keep people out and my dogs in. But I don’t have 100 acres that I would need to fence. If I did, my signs would be my fence. And I would expect people to respect that clearly marked invisible barrier just as much as I expect people to respect my fenced in yard.
