I recently had to move and I can no longer keep my horses at my house. My brother graciously has let me keep them at his place. Only draw back is he really has no good ground to ride on and he utilizes all land for cattle as well so I cannot ask him to disk up a place just for me to ride. That all being said, I have found a spot that is pretty flat and I normally just long trot and lope very minimul. My question is this, the ground is hard right now, all I do is ride about 30-45 mins long trotting and MAYBE loping a few hundred yards. Am I really working enough to keep her in good enough shape to run? I do not run a whole lot maybe a race a week, although next week I am running twice. I ride several times a week. I am so afraid of hurting her with the bad ground but I have no other choice to ride any where. I feel like I am at a rock and a hard place. 

I do not have an arena at my house and have never had an issue. I always do my dry and slow work in a large pasture. If I need to lope the barrels, I haul to town. You should be fine!

If your horse is finished, I think I would just ride around the pasture without doing any drills. 

I have a professional arena at my small farm that’s for sale. I am moving them to a much larger farm with no arena and I just plan on riding around the pasture with my finished horses. There are hills and I think I can keep them in better shape with pasture riding 

......but I’m going to follow your thread to see what others say! :)

I think it would be fine to just do a lot of long trotting in the pasture as long as it's pretty flat and no holes to worry about.  I ride mostly in our pasture, I have an area that's been worked up but with all the rain we've had it's gotten so bad we cant get it to turn to soft powder anymore it's just all cloddy and hard no matter how many times we go over it with the tiller or disc.  I'm currently fitting my horse back up and I spend about 30-45 minutes a day in the pasture long trotting and loping and doing roll backs along the fence line. You do what you gotta do. 

I rarley ride in an arena, you can get a lot done out on the ranch, hills, uneven ground, dead down trees, water ext get a horse really fit and REALLY aware of thier feet and help them stand up and work on all types of rodeo grounds. 

Like be smart, I'm sure somebody is roleing thier eyes at me but I'm not saying run like all get down a hill and through deadfall lol. 

My horse I'm just starting to haul this summer had been in an arena 4 times before her first jackpot, and ya we we off the pace but she went in and worked all 3 barrels like the rockstar she is and has gotten better every run. I just work small circles and "pretend" barrels where ever feels good that day on the farm. 

Have an arena - prefer to ride in pasture.... checking cattle, fences, teaches them where their feet are...  ride year round - mud, snow.... up and down the hills... up thru the washes... etc.

better for them... long trot in the pasture , lope in the pasture, circles on the grass.... lope around trees.... I work them in the pasture - 

then we go to the arena to make a run.....

What about asking your brother to allow you to have a trotting track disced up around the perimeter of the pasture?  It would work for fire break, helps keep the cattle off the fence that way too and a trotting track...

The less you are in an arena the better off you and your horses will be.  The more you pound them into the ground in an arena the more you will make them arena sour.

You'll be fine. Although I have plenty of space to ride in, it's hard black dirt. I've never had an issue doing anything, as long as I'm not doing high speed maneuvers. I'll even lope through barrels and poles. IMO horses need to learn how to handle themselves on all kinds of ground, they're usually better at handling themselves than we give them credit for

All we have is a pasture to ride in as well. Our pasture is sandy though. If not in the pasture well go ride edges of fields, which is down the road, and is mostly sand so can do anything including letting them breeze a bit. Ive trotted barrels and poles, and even slow loped my one horse (the other is older and doesnt have a slow button) but if i want to work barrels or cruise through ill haul somewhere.

Thank you everyone for the comments. I am so glad to know I am not the only one riding in the pasture. Even when I did have an "arena" to ride in I very rarely worked the barrels. She knows her job and does it well, I am the one that needs the training LOL. I am just running barrels again after not doing it in over 15 years. Thank you for all the ideas, I am always looking for drills and things to do to keep her mind fresh and not bored.

Honestly you will be fine, this is the spot I work the most "on barrels" I keep saying I should get some but never have LOL

I ride 80% of the time in our pastures, however, I have an area worked up close to the house in one of our pastures that I can do arena/barrel work in (sandy and grass didn't grow much anyways). Nothing fancy, but gets the job done!

youre fine and besides if not turning or running the barrels theres nothing wrong with hard as long as their are no holes!  once shes fit youre doing plenty to maintain that.. the long trotting will keep muscles toned and if you are running once a week even that will keep her wind in shape.. you gain more explosive muscle from long trotting than loping anyway... QH at race track lope or gallop until they are fit but once fit (race ready) they hobby horse couple times a week if that and long trot once or twice a week and walk the the rest of time and breeze or "work" (full run) once every couple weeks if not racing and if racing they dont breeze just run race...  

I grew up with a vet who vetted endurance rides. Horses maintain their shape much longer than humans do. So even thought i think what you're doing is sufficient, if she was in good shape before, she for sure will be fine. 

I have an arena but it gets hard easily. I prefer the grass fields when it hasnt rained/been worked up. and my mare prefers it. She is only 5 but taking to patterns well where we are at the point of just needing to haul, not do tons of drills. I ride her 30-40 min 4x a week and I think she is in excellent shape. I show about 1 day per week also. 

When I first started out, I had one acre-and-three quarters. The house was on it, the barn was on it, and four horses were on it. We got the horses when they were colts. That's where we trained them and that's where we learned to barrel race. We made a little path--I can't even call it a track--and we'd run back and forth there, sometimes get a couple of strides in at the lope. We rode them in and out of trees and around the picnic table. Sometimes we walked down the street (on a sidewalk--this was suburbia) and go to the church after hours. They had a big lawn and we'd run across it. Once a week we'd haul out and go trail riding with some friends. Every now and then we'd go to a trainer's place. We rode at least four times a week. Our horses were very fit. But I have to say, we had sandy ground. These four are in their twenties now and they don't have a blemish on their legs. I'd be concerned about pounding, but not the space. Where there's a will, there's a way.