Are Track Liveries a Fad?

20 April 2026

Sometimes, against my better judgement, I get pulled into, how shall I say, animated disagreements with people on social media. I try to avoid certain pages or platforms because I know the type of discussion that will ensue is unavoidable and generally fairly cut-throat.

One day I was feeling positively risqué and actively posted on one such group about track systems offering a discussion about the subject, after all, I genuinely love to share knowledge about what we do and I do spend a lot of time preaching to the converted so I thought why the hell not mix it up a bit?!

Now I got the usual and not unexpected replies from some. It was a very ‘traditional’ page so not a surprise to have people saying tracks are cruel; that horses like being stabled and I was clueless etc.

But I got one response that really interested me. One lady said as part of her barrage how she thought tracks were:

‘just another horse fad and they would be gone just as quickly as they started’

This I really felt I wanted to address because actually, I can see why many people might consider tracks a fad. In my time of horse ownership I’ve seen a great many fads come and go, mainly based around equipment, tack and feeds but none the less, equestrianism does seem to revolve around fashions the way many things in life do…

….SO why is a track any different?

First of all, tracks aren’t really that new. They just weren’t particularly widely known about before but I know a few tracks that have been running in some way shape or form for twenty years now. In fact we’ve been tracking ourselves for ten years.

Our track journey is based upon ongoing research of horse behaviour, nutrition and welfare that lead us to our pillars of track living which are ‘friends, forage and freedom’. This is a very simplified way of looking at things and of course it’s much more nuanced than just those three things. But what I’m saying is that the basis of our tracks are formed on the continuing research into what causes stress in horses; physiological and psychological welfare and continued studies into diet and applied nutrition, NOT a trend based upon the latest fickle fashion.

Now of course, tracks are absolutely not the only way to achieve these things. I’ve seen some wonderful set ups where horses have many acres of scrubby and challenging land to roam across. Sadly though, this kind of landscape, terrain and vegetation is not widely available to the majority of horse keepers and even if it were, keeping this type of land healthy requires knowledge of ecosystems and input, we can’t always just take, take, take from the environment around us and expect it to stay balanced and productive.

If I look at my own situation I can see how acres of land for horses to free roam wouldn’t work for us, at least not in the short or medium term. It’s not about availability, we have the land if we wanted to use it. We are based in Kent on grade 1 agricultural land. There would be nothing ‘scrubby or challenging’ about our terrain were we to offer complete free range of our acreage to the horses. We would very quickly have obese, lazy and sick horses living on rich or overworked pastures in summer and a boggy mess in winter. The land would gradually become more unhealthy as we moved forward.

So what tracks offer us is a way to utilise ALL kinds of land and make them suitable and safe for our horses to use all year round. You don’t need vast acreage to make tracks work. You need a modest space, imagination and an open mind (of course, money is always helpful but I feel as that’s the case for all equestrian pursuits I’m not sure there’s any point detailing that).

Every year we see people talking about this having been ‘the longest, wettest winter ever’ and we have to consider the impact climate change will have on how we keep our horses. One winter being stabled 24/7 to save the fields for summer can easily turn into two winters, then three….at what point do we admit that isn’t tenable or fair to our horses? I’ve seen many commercial track liveries open in the last few years and many of those are working towards being surfaced so they can provide 24/7/365 turnout. What’s not to like about this?

Tracks also offer us the ability to concentrate on the health of the land too. This may sound like an oxymoron as we’re purposely adding stone and surface to areas previously set to grass but what that allows us to do is ‘sacrifice’ small areas of land for the betterment of much larger areas. Instead of having 20 acres of poached and barren land we can have 1 acre which is surfaced as a track and 19 which can then recover, rewild and become much healthier in the long term. In eight years at Graveney we have planted over 1000 hedge plants, 200 trees and sown over 200,000,000 meadow grass seeds and healthy meadow plants into our modest acreage dedicated to our track. We’ve seen a big increase in biodiversity to fauna and flora in our direct area because of this. Just another part of the (often overlooked) jigsaw creating a healthy environment for our horses to live in.

I see first hand the difference they can make to our horses AND the humans who love them. I see how many other people have benefitted from them. At this point in time, I don’t see a better solution.

So do I think tracks are a fad?

No.
I really don’t.

They are here because they offer a solution to some very real and pressing issues in modern day horse keeping and also they have the ability to resolve or improve many of the illnesses and disorders we see our modern day equines living with. I only see them becoming more popular and accepted.