11/11/2025
Today everybody believes that to train horses you must have a round pen and an arena. However, the very important training tool of the Schooling Field has been almost completely forgotten. I have posted several times about schooling fields but this one in Bedford UK is one of the best I have seen. It belongs to Keystone International. www.facebook.com/KeysoeInternational It has everything, a ditch, a skinny, water, and more.
Notice that the jumps are low. This is because a schooling field is primarily used to develop a horse's rhythm, balance and consistency, more than to teach jumping. While this one has a catch fence, it is large enough to make the horse feel it is out in the open. I think that is important.
We have started to build a schooling field in south central PA and it is helping us retrain and train horses. So far it is big logs in an open pasture with slopes with space enough for a gallop. In the spring we plan to build a drop or small Irish bank and a ditch. A schooling field need not be expensive to build and the value from it can be huge.
Back in the day, every Army post or fort had a schooling field as did every hunt club. Then came the horse industry with its focus on ring riding, and the schooling field began to disappear. We need to bring them back in order to raise the quality of US horsemanship.
