A high fence and a mean dog help with that
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âCulturallyâ the norm in this area has been to seek permission from landowners before setting foot near their property on a horse. Longtime residents treasure their letters, signed by the late Paul Mellon, granting them access to ride through the Mellon estate.
As open land has sold to developers, the local hunts are instantly on top of the slightest complaint from land owners on social media channels. Itâs rarely-to-never one of theirs, but as they donât want to lose more access to open land than they already have, theyâve stepped into the role of ad hoc ambassadors, talking with riders who are new to the area.
For as many landowners here that hunt deer & turkeys or just target shoot on their property, Iâve always thought anyone blithely riding around must have a death wish. Even if it isnât legally hunting season that doesnât mean that a) the landowner is an upstanding citizen who follows all DNR rules, or b) isnât target shooting on their property. I think Iâve told the story of my old neighborsâ family reunion before. They were actually lovely people â the same ones that while I was helping to corral their loose cattle the octogenarian matriarch hollered at me to never trust an intact male of any species 
. Their farm was separated from my âback 20â by a mile long driveway. On the other side of that lay their houses & 150+ acres.
Anyway, theyâd been having fun target shooting intermittently all afternoon. I was in the shower getting ready to go out with a (now very ex bf) when their was a boom that rattled the whole house. Bf ran in wide-eyed to tell me that a huge plume of smoke & dust was rising heavenward from an undetermined area of the field. He couldnât say if the cloud originated on my property or theirs.
I checked on my cattle. Theyâd obviously startled but had largely forgotten the incident after finding green grass in the spot theyâd run to. Happy voices emanated from the neighborsâ , so obviously they were alive & well. We assumed theyâd fired an old cannon or an elephant caliber gun. Found out later from the granddaughter- in- law that the menfolk had over-served themselves & decided to remove a large dead tree by lobbing a hand grenade at it. (I swear to God I am not making this up.) It worked: they ended up with a minor crater with about 5 bajillion toothpicks scattered within. . But man, oh man, was I glad we didnât have horses on the property at the time. The noise wouldâve run them through the fence.
Long story short â you never know what people might be doing on their own property in the country. You know how people are. Sadly, framing it as concern for the clueless ridersâ personal safety will likely get you better traction than simply asserting your right to the quiet enjoyment of your land.
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I do hope somebody quoted Monty Python that was involved in the lobbing
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Thatâs a brilliant idea! From now on, if I have any problems with trespassers, Iâm going to flat out lie and say that we have a crazy old relative living with us that hates horses and likes to run naked through the woods randomly lobbing fruit at any horse he sees. Oh, and he also juggles angry poultry.
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Really?? Its technically trespassing and illegal at least where I live. I wouldnât THINK to ride on any property that I didnât already know I could without asking. Great way to cause problems.
As much as it is worth OP introducing themselves and explaining boundaries, these neighbors should have 100% approached OP or anyone else living in that area about what the deal is with riding in that area before even thinking of riding the property.
Audacity is assuming the world is yours to tromp about on.
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Reading through this thread has been wild. Unbelievable that people think itâs a default OK to ride on property they havenât been granted permission to do so. Nothing entitles you do to this anywhere.
The barn I board in on 900+ acres of long time owned family property. There are miles and miles of trails to be explored. It is ONLY accessible to boarders at our barn, and one other barn on the other side of the property (who have to pay a trail fee to ride and help with trail clearing). End of story.
More than 50 miles of trails are accessible from the stable property and on adjoining lands whose owners have shared riding privilegesâŠthrough an ESTABLISHED TRAIL ASSOCIATION. It is only open to those whose horse is boarded within so many miles of the trails. You have to sign up, pay dues, go to meetings and help clear trails etc and of course sign liability forms. You have a tag that goes on your tack at ALL times and you also have to be a member of the local arboretum as the trails run through their system as well, and have that membership card on you when you ride.
Yes it is nice these private land owners offer their property to riders but they do not HAVE to. People riding through in a trespassing capacity are the ones that ruin it for those who do follow the rules in situations like this.
Keeping trails clear and safe for riders is a lot of work and a lot of money! They donât maintain themselves and when they have rude neighbors riding through willy nilly, its just asking for more maintenance to be done at the PRIVATE property owners time and dime.
Riding private property is a privilege and not something any rider should just expect to be entitled to because they have a horse and want to ride it. Yeesh.
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Found out later from the granddaughter- in- law that the menfolk had over-served themselves & decided to remove a large dead tree by lobbing a hand grenade at it. (I swear to God I am not making this up.) It worked: they ended up with a minor crater with about 5 bajillion toothpicks scattered within
I really think the device was something other than hand grenade as the typical hand grenade only has about 7 oz of explosives which would not blow a tree into toothpicks
Also unless they had broken into a Nation Guard warehouse it is unlikely they they had access to one. Dynamite, even being a controlled item, is more commonly available and was commonly used to remove trees by farmers
I do have experience with hand grenades but not dynamite
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Itâs possible it was dynamite. Thatâs not the point, though. Whatever it was, (grenade, dynamite, cannon, etc) the impact & resulting debris was strong enough to injure or even kill & the accompanying boom enough to send livestock running blind. Doesnât take much imagination to guess what mightâve happened had uninvited riders accessed the woods unbeknownst to the neighbors. Itâs common for people here to shoot on their private property. Acquaintances with a 75 acre farm recently spotted uninvited riders on their land from â wait for it â one of their hunting blinds. And the riders argued with them when confronted 
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Are you calling me weird? So you too are capable of passing judgement, how interesting.
Oh my!
Now, @lenapesadie might say otherwise, but I read their post to say more that it (not you) is weird that things are so different from where they are.
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People also get ammonium nitrate fertilizer, pack a tree cavity with it, and blow up stumps.
At one time when a farmer bought the fertilizer, they had to sign they werenât using it as an explosive.
The Oklahoma City bombing used that type of fertilizer. They use it as part of testing of weapons to see if they are blast resistant. (No, I donât blow up stumps that way, Iâve just heard a lot about it).
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Um no. Itâs weird that your experience is the opposite of my experience.
But if you want to call me judgmental and interesting while accusing me of name calling, in lieu of responding to the substance of my post, I will presume that you concur my experience is the more common one and that your experience is in fact weird aka different, compared to the average.
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I see you are a âgreenieâ. Donât worry, I think you will fit right in with that attitude. Welcome to COTH, where snarkiness without cause is almost expected.
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@the DBYC Great! story!
We regularly get our muzzleloader neighbors cleaning out their guns from their back decks into the ravine behind us before deer season. It has helped make our horses less gun shy.
A stump blow up party sounds like a good idea.
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Full stop, riding on anyoneâs land without permission, esp land that is obviously âtended toâ (ie has the look of farm/crop land, will be or has been cut/mower, is bad etiquette.
I lived in âsuburbiaâ near the HS. The kids made a habit of parking on the neighborhood streets around the HS to avoid paying for the school parking pass. After picking cigarette butts and Starbucks cups out of my landscaping for a couple weeks from kids who would show up and park, smoke and drink their frappa-whatevers and tossing it out the window (and come out on breaks and smoke too), I went out and confronted the main group. Basically told them Iâd tow their car (a lie) because I was tired of picking up after them and their heathen friends who think littering is cool and smoking is cool. Ended the issue.
Is it really a wonder that entitled clueless kids whose parents didnât teach them better grow up to be entitled clueless adults who ride horses and four wheelers across other peopleâs land?
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I think this is a situation where different places think differently about this. No, I would not ever ride through crops. That said, in Vermont, unless property is posted, you are allowed to cross it. Vermont law allows people for recreation on private property without permission unless the land is legally posted. It also protects landowners from liability for all recreation use on their land where a fee is not charged.
Do people abuse this? Of course. Iâve had the game warden using our property as a base to catch poachers taking deer illegally in our forest. Does everyone love this âopen unless postedâ law? No, mostly because of conflicts around hunting. Do most of the main recreation clubs (ATVs, snowmobiles, riders) secure and maintain permission? Yes. In the general area where I live, recreation is a big draw, so landowner relations are a big deal and carefully tended. Because of these good relationships, I know I cross private land whose owners I donât know on well established trail systems. I also have explicit permission from some private landowners to ride on posted trails. And I have asked for permission that wasnât granted by another landowner and respect that.
I wouldnât ride this way in another place with a different ethos, but I did want to provide a counterpoint. There are definitely places where open access is more common than in other places with more of an orientation to fencing off private property. And I really hope that doesnât change here.
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I donât think @TheJenners is talking about laws. I know I was not. We are talking about common courtesy and being polite.
Laws allow lots of things that generally people consider to be rude.
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When permission is not needed from the landowner:
Vermont law allows people to hunt, fish, and walk on private property without permission unless the land is legally posted. Nonetheless, recreation organizations and agencies strongly urge individuals to obtain permission before undertaking their activities, as a courtesy and way of showing respect. Requirements for legal posting are in
10 V.S.A. Section 5201 and available from town clerks.
When permission is needed from the land- owner: *
ô°Permission is required for people to: (1) ride snowmo- biles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), and off-highway motorcycles; and (2) trap
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animals. For (1) above, permission given to an organization applies to all its members.
ô°Outdoor guides are also required to obtain permission, for insurance purposes.
ô°Any construction or other physical alteration of the land or vegetation requires permission.
- NOTES: Permission should be in writing. Even if permis- sion is granted to any individual or group for the above purposes, it may be withdrawn at any time. Such use of someoneâs property is always a privilege, not a right.
From the above: strongly urge individuals to gain permission
Also, interested to note horses not mentioned as needing or not needing prior approval
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We have 22 acres in a very rural area. The back 7 acres of our property is a 100 ft wide old railbed that runs between acreages on either side. There is a lane that runs on our property next to the county land and gives you access to all 22 acres. People who have lived here and should know better have assumed that the back strip of land is a drivable road which will take them out to the next street. We have fencing across the front and two gates, our driveway and this lane (itâs mainly so we can drive the trailer straight through and out). We just recently had someone unchain the gate (not locked) and drive a pick-up clear to the back trying to get through the 7 acres toâŠsomewhere? their house? It was extremely creepy to see the tire tracks when we were out with the dogs the next morning and this is an area where a friend moved into her house and the neighbor sat on his front porch with a shot gun watching them the entire time. Weâll hang signs, but weâd need to lock the gates to keep people out.
There are spells where people ride ATVs or dirt bikes or horses on the county land next to us which is marked no trespassing and they will dump crap over there as well. Once someone drove down there during deer season and was shooting at some. This is only a few hundred feet from our horses and our house.
Older people in the area have told me that they used to ride horses everywhere over all the farmland (not sure if they were destroying crops or not) but that farmers started to fence everything in and there is really no where to do that anymore. So there seems to be some history for this behavior. We have paddocks with good fencing for our horses, but people cross our land all the time as the perimeter is the old railroad fencing of net and barb wire and they twist the barbwire to get through it easier. We were out early with the dogs one year and nearly had strokes as there was someone standing on the edge of the lane wishing us good morning and asking if this was the shortcut he was told about (and then asking if this was our landâŠ).
The back 7 acres is wildly overgrown with Douglas fir, scotch broom (gag), and bramble and we like it that way to keep people out. Itâs very rough and hard to traverse when we go back to check on it (we have fence repairs to do) and since people have camped out on it and chucked crap on it in the past, the current impassibility is a plus.
Some riders in the development on the other side wanted an access point to cross over to get to the road to ride at a DNR property thatâs just a mile or so down. Iâm not opposed entirely to letting people cut through my land, especially if there was access to trails or something, but this would have let out onto Weyerhauser land and Iâm not on board with facilitating trespassing. Plus, it would do eff all for us and weâd have to constantly make sure any gates would be maintained and kept shut.
I donât know, talking to people first is best and establishing boundaries. I donât think Iâd really let people ride on my land, I would be willing to maintain a cross through to trails but itâd be fenced off and secure. Plus Iâd worry about liability.
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