Creating Your Track System

Starting your track system may feel like an overwhelming task at first. You are delving into a world that is almost the opposite of what you may have been taught so far about equine husbandry, so, where do you start? What should you focus on? How do you even make a track?! Here are my favourite tips to get you focused and started. From then let it develop organically as you learn about what your horses really want. 

𝙏𝙤𝙥 𝙏𝙚𝙣 𝙏𝙞𝙥𝙨 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙎𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢

1. 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝘽𝙄𝙂 𝘽𝙪𝙩 ‘𝘿𝙤’ 𝙎𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙎𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧. There is no harm in creating a vision of your ‘ideal track’ but as far as building goes, if you start simple and leave room to adapt, your track will grow organically. As you develop things, you will gain a better understanding of how the track needs to work for you and how it works for your horses so you will make less mistakes (which usually means you will waste less money!).
   
   
2. 𝘿𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙛𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙮. We have made SO many changes over the years which would have been a real kick in the teeth if we had spent all that time and money putting in permanent fencing only to have to change it all again. Of course, get a secure external boundary fence in but I recommend plastic posts and electric until you’re really happy with the layout and space. You may choose to keep electric fencing permanently if that’s your preference. Make sure you get a good energiser, one that will easily power the distance of fence you will need, earth it correctly and keep foliage off the fencing to stop it shorting.
   
   
3. 𝙂𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙. This will inform your planning decisions and help you prioritise jobs. Really wet areas will need addressing or avoiding first and you can look for natural shelter that can be utilised from a variety of angles. There may also be hazards that need bypassing as well (certain trees for instance). I usually advise people to go through all four seasons first to help them learn about their land. Again, this can help you avoid costly mistakes.
   
   
4. 𝙎𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙞𝙘 𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙩. First of all I advise creating a ‘base’ where you have some flat, level and free-draining ground. You can have storage for equipment here and a dry/clean space to tie horses for care. Then remember that movement is key, don’t keep all of your other resources together. Keep hay away from shelters, keep water away from food and keep other enrichment spread out, the idea is by always having something else for the horses to do, they keep up their movement momentum.
   
   
5. 𝙏𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨. If you’ve decided you will need to put surfaces down on your tracks, plan to do smaller amounts ‘well’ rather than large amounts poorly. If I were to start at the beginning again, I would have concentrated on making a fully surfaced smaller winter track first, then expanded to the larger summer track. In this vein, make sure you plan and put into place any changes needed for the winter during the spring and summer. By autumn it’s harder to get heavy machinery in, and during winter it becomes a lot harder to achieve anything without creating a big mess. If you’re not able to surface your tracks think about making tracks wider or repositioning them in the wetter months to avoid poaching and dangerous muddy areas and keep stocking densities sensible.
   
   
6. 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙠 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙥 𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜. It needs to be a large enough area and easily accessible for yourself or a farmer to come in and remove it. You can manage your own muck by creating bays that are left to rot down once full while you move along and fill the next bay and then use that to fertilise your own land, trees and hedges – it’s a brilliant addition to the land!
   
   
7. 𝙈𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙮. You may never need to get down your track with a tractor but if you’re eventually planning on putting surfaces down you’ll need sufficient space and manoeuvring room for heavy equipment.
   
   
8. 𝙂𝙚𝙩 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙤𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙨 𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚. This is one thing I wish I had started sooner, we put some hedging in early on but I wish I had planted more trees too. It takes a long time for these sorts of plants to establish so the sooner they’re in, the sooner they can get going! If the land is not your own, utilise planters and troughs to grow supportive plants for your horses. Don’t forget, if you are in the UK, planting will really help towards your biodiversity net gain goals too!
   
   
9. 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮. Look at lots of pictures and take inspiration from other tracks but don’t compare your track to others, this can be demoralising, if your track works, that’s the most important thing! If you try something and realise you’ve made a mistake, don’t be afraid to say something isn’t working and change it. Be prepared for things to go wrong, they do, and don’t beat yourself up over it, make a plan and move forward. Try and visit other tracks and find other ‘trackies’ locally, their support will be really helpful, you can perhaps even help each other out with jobs that need more manpower.
   
   
10. 𝘿𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣. I get asked this a lot. Firstly, a grass or bare earth track won’t need planning permission (unless you’re in a very tightly controlled area). Otherwise there isn’t a standardised protocol for planning for tracks, they are not really on the radar of most planning departments (which may be a good thing or a bad thing!) so you will need to speak to your own borough council for advice on this. They will be able to tell you what will and won’t need permission in your specific case. If you want to add permanent surfaces and buildings, you will need permission (if in the UK, many other countries are much more relaxed than the UK). If you do have to apply for permission, you can strengthen your case by discussing animal welfare and the positive changes you will make to the land too, improving unused meadow-land and planting hedge wildlife corridors and woodland is a big positive.

How much space do I need for a track system?

The space needed for a track system is less strictly based on number of horses per acre than traditional horse grazing. This is because the main restrictive factor in traditional horse keeping is availability of forage and damage to the land. On a track system the amount of forage is controlled by the caregiver which means more horses can be accommodated if needed. The focus then moves to the design of the track and making sure there is sufficient space for the number of horses to move away from each other freely and safely, shelter, access water and other resources. The other main factor is wear and tear on the ground. With a surfaced track system, this is instantly remedied while the other areas of the field which aren’t incorporated can be allowed to flourish.

Some owners have implemented successful track systems for a small number of  horses on as little as half an acre while others choose to take advantage of much larger plots of land and have tracks covering many acres. The average size of most private tracks is around 2-4 acres of land (as discovered in a large owner survey conducted by Graveney Equine in 2022).