PREPARATION

weather
ground conditions
river crossings
tying up
tie rails
equipment
tack etc
equipment checklist
map reading
Parking, Access

During prolonged wet spells, in some areas going will be worse, particularly those near blanket bogs. Flash floods or consistent rain will make some rivers quite impassable necessitating very long detours. Areas we have marked soft or poor are best avoided unless it is reasonably dry. On the plus side the moor does dry out remarkably quickly when the sun and wind blow well often in just a few hours.

Sometimes such as at Riders Hill, south of Hexworthy you will see ahead of you well worn, 2 metre plus wide, green tracks leading clearly ahead for miles…..and wonder why we have said “poor ground”. The answer is that these are walkers’ tracks and not riders’ .They are often used by cattle roaming in good weather and may be fine in very dry weather. However when wet these tracks are soft, tedious, tiring for the horse and very slow going and the horse often starts to “go in”. These tracks can go on for miles and take a long time to get off so assess the risks beforehand and if in doubt take a safer better ground alternative.