anyone else have no off road hacking ?

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tessybear

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Until the stubble fields are ready that a group of farmers allow us to ride on we have zero off road hacking... and i mean zero. The majority of it is lanes that join up with bigger roads however all of it is relatively quiet. The only issue being the roads are flat and straight ( Lincolnshire) so you always get the few idiots who insist on flying past at 60mph luckily my horse is traffic proof and doesn't bat an eyelid at this.

Is there anything we can do , such as contacting the council ? Its a small village but there are numerous horses in the village so not like it would be for a minority. As i said it's not to bad once the stubble fields are sorted but until then its all on road hacking !


Anyone else suffer with poo hacking ?
 
we can reach off road hacking but no without going along the roads first.

Even though we are in some green belt we are sandwiched between Birmingham and Walsall and our lanes are a rat run for commuters and, well, everyone really!

That's why one of my criteria for new horse was must be 100% hacking as you never know what you are going to meet!
 
Our hacking is ok once you go up the main road for half an hour and over a motorway bridge which I think is quite far as I hate road work! It's not particularly inspiring once you do get there, I might be more enamoured if there was a mountain or a beach :-)

Do you really have no bridleways? Like not even if you hack for an hour to get there?
 
We have non whatsoever :( I've asked the local farmer if we could ride at the edge of his field but although he appreciated us asking, has said no. Fair enough. The only thing we can do is get on a quiet road & have a canter on the grass verge or hack a mile down through the town to get to the woods :(
 
You could contact the Council and also the Local Access Forum, which meets to give advice to the Council. There should be one or two equestrian representatives on the LAF, so ask them to put something on the Agenda for discussion. There should also be a Council document outlining their plans for access over the next 10 years. The LAF and these access strategys were something brought in by the Labour Government, but I guess there is a lot less emphasis on them since the current Government came into power.

You could also contact TROT - toll rides off-road trust - which is a charity which helps riders arrange rides for payment. The riders pay a subscription and this goes to the landowners. Trot is very successful in some parts of the country where there are few, if any, bridlepaths and little prospect of any coming from either landowner dedication or Lost Ways.

There is also the model of the Cross Trails Trust, which also can help local riders to pay landowners to upgrade footpaths to bridlepaths. This has also been very successful in the Somerset area, where there are an additional 80 new bridlepaths been made. However, I guess the land in Lincolnshire is rather different to that in Somerset.
 
Paint Me Proud said:
we can reach off road hacking but no without going along the roads first.

Even though we are in some green belt we are sandwiched between Birmingham and Walsall and our lanes are a rat run for commuters and, well, everyone really!

That's why one of my criteria for new horse was must be 100% hacking as you never know what you are going to meet!
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Oh gosh sounds manick ! Yes i can understand that :)

mandwhy said:
Our hacking is ok once you go up the main road for half an hour and over a motorway bridge which I think is quite far as I hate road work! It's not particularly inspiring once you do get there, I might be more enamoured if there was a mountain or a beach :-)

Do you really have no bridleways? Like not even if you hack for an hour to get there?
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Nope :( There is one maybe 2 hour/2-half hour hack away but its beside a main road and always worry should anything happen horse could easily get ran over beside this 60mph road !

tinap said:
We have non whatsoever :( I've asked the local farmer if we could ride at the edge of his field but although he appreciated us asking, has said no. Fair enough. The only thing we can do is get on a quiet road & have a canter on the grass verge or hack a mile down through the town to get to the woods :(
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Sounds like ours but luckily a nice farmer lets us use one huge stubble field about 3 miles all round once he has cut it to hack on :)
 
Orangehorse said:
You could contact the Council and also the Local Access Forum, which meets to give advice to the Council. There should be one or two equestrian representatives on the LAF, so ask them to put something on the Agenda for discussion. There should also be a Council document outlining their plans for access over the next 10 years. The LAF and these access strategys were something brought in by the Labour Government, but I guess there is a lot less emphasis on them since the current Government came into power.

You could also contact TROT - toll rides off-road trust - which is a charity which helps riders arrange rides for payment. The riders pay a subscription and this goes to the landowners. Trot is very successful in some parts of the country where there are few, if any, bridlepaths and little prospect of any coming from either landowner dedication or Lost Ways.

There is also the model of the Cross Trails Trust, which also can help local riders to pay landowners to upgrade footpaths to bridlepaths. This has also been very successful in the Somerset area, where there are an additional 80 new bridlepaths been made. However, I guess the land in Lincolnshire is rather different to that in Somerset.
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Ooo thank you so much ! Will look into this tonight :D
 
Hacking's not great where I live as my village is sandwiched inbetween a busy dual carriageway and a wide river which mean lots of deadend bridleways to each as we can't cross either.

In your situation I would look at:

1. Any wide road verges which you could arrange to get topped so that you can ride safely on them? Cost of topping could be local highways/rights of way at your local county council (Lincs), could be done by arrangement through local farmer through your parish council's P3 (Paths Partnership scheme) whereby parish council can claim the cost of topping from a P3 grant administered by county council (parish should know all about P3 and how to claim it), or by arrangement with local farmer (adjacent landowner) with group of riders paying for diesel/time.

2. Is there any opportunity for year-round tracks on field edges left to grass rather than cultivated? Are any of your farmers interested in the DEFRA schemes, at least one of which includes them being paid for providing permissive bridleway access. That way, they are compensated for the loss of cropping land, and you get somewhere to ride.

3. Any disused railway tracks or old drove roads where you could negotiate with the owner for a padlock key (or a horse-sized gap alongside any locked gates with 2 sleepers (motorbike stile)) for permissive access in return for some amicable arrangment. (In respect of padlock keys, combination padlocks are good as no keys to lose).

(For (2) and (3), this gives you an opportunity to go and meet your local farmers/landowners, get to know each other, have a chat. Something good could come of it. (I have agreements with a couple of local farmers for riding on their land and always give them a decent bottle of wine each at Christmas, and it's nice to know each other by name as well as face and give each other a wave whenever we see each other too).

4. Any new developments comng your way - houses, industrial estates, etc? If so, then get into your parish council with letters from local parishioners who ride horses to say a circular bridleway around the new development would be wonderful and please can the parish council support this initiative, road safety as less neds on road, lots of local young schoolchildren ride neds, etc. And get letters into the planners, county council, etc.

5. If you can band the riders together to form a named group with a contact point (name, email, phone), then even better as landowners, councils and other riders will have someone to contact, and you can provide them with statistics (how many riders/horses). If you do that, have a launch photo-opp with a small friendly pony with a child on its back (small children on small ponies on leadrein are much more inviting-looking for non-horsey people than formally-attired adults on 17.2hh horses) and get that in the local paper, and write letters of introduction (can be emails) from your organisation to the parish, district councils, also any local farmers/landowners, also to your county council's rights of way and highways depts, saying you are a liaison group to represent local riders and to safeguard and develop safe offroad riding in your area.

Your liaison group should be registered with British Horse Society as an affiliated bridleway group (£30 or £35 a year) as that gives you third party insurance and means you are covered if you do things like organise any pleasure rides or tack sales, or if you put together a working party to go out and clear an overgrown route, etc.

BHS send out useful magazine, Tracks, all about public rights of way. The only thing about BHS bridleways is that it is geared towards permanent public rights of way, and they offer free training in how to claim rights of way via historic or public use, etc. In reality, some of us in small villages would feel most uncomfortable about submitting claims on routes on land owned by fellow villagers who are, in most cases, (esp in the fens!), related in some way via 2nd cousin/etc to us. So my local group, for instance, does not currently submit claims. Instead we work either for permissive routes or for mutually-agreeable public rights of way done via creation agreements.

6. With (5) in place, you can then write to any larger landowners - National Trust? Environment Agency? English Heritage? RSPB? sayng you'd like to meet them, and with an OS map sit down over a cup of tea and discuss the pros and cons of "wouldn't it be nice if we could ride here and is there any way that's possible and if so what would be the issues, the pros, the cons, what would be needed to make it work for you and for us?"

7. Are there any other local groups/initiatives you can work with - ramblers, cyclists, naturalists?

Hope that helps. No instant answers sadly. And nobody's going to do it for you either. If you want change, then you need to instigate it yourself. And don't expect all the local horseriders to be as enthusiastic as you are either, a few will be, the majority will be grateful too for any extra riding you can arrange, but by and large you should tackle this is "I am doing this because I want extra riding and it benefits me" and that way, when you're at your nth parish council/planning/etc meeting, wondering why it is always you who go to them and never any of the other 120 local horseriders, you won't get frustrated. ;-)

good luck!
 
Same. We do have a quiet 2 mile loop on country lane,but couple of factories on the loop so can meet big lorries,and also have to cross very busy A road. Three quarters of an hours hack takes us along said busy A road,and a manic rat run,to a bridleway.but, mostly too dangerous to take your life in your hands to brave it. Occasionally in summer after 7pm, it is better.
We usually just end up doing the loop, or boxing up and riding somewhere safer.
Do you have the option of boxing up to go somewhere?
 
We have one route which I suppose I should be grateful for, but the rest is on road, and there are so many blind bends and idiots around here that I dread to go out on the roads :( There's a woodland over the main road but you have to pay £75 a year to ride in it :(
 
The DEFRA scheme is not available to farmers now. Current ones will continue, but there is no funding for new ones since the current Government came to power. There are two near me, and I use one in particular a great deal. It will be a huge blow when it is closed.
 
"But you have to pay £75 a year to ride in it." - Isn't it worth it, to have somewhere nice to ride? If you work it out over a year that isn't very much per week.
 
Orangehorse said:
The DEFRA scheme is not available to farmers now. Current ones will continue, but there is no funding for new ones since the current Government came to power. There are two near me, and I use one in particular a great deal. It will be a huge blow when it is closed.
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Yes we've got a local one due to close in Sept this year which will be a blow. It was created under the original Countryside Stewardship scheme, not the follow-on Higher Level Stewardship schemes.

I know the CS scheme doesn't exist anymore. Does the HLS scheme still exist or is that now closed too?

I wondered if the farmer would be able to transfer his CS scheme to the HLS scheme in Sept, esp as part of his original setup was also creation of woodlands on previous arable land. Or would he now be expected to plough up the woodland and revert to arable?
 
FlaxenPony05 said:
We have one route which I suppose I should be grateful for, but the rest is on road, and there are so many blind bends and idiots around here that I dread to go out on the roads :( There's a woodland over the main road but you have to pay £75 a year to ride in it :(
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I'd be paying if it were me! I pay an annual fee for off road riding access and it's worth every penny :)
 
I was thinking of buying another riding horse but I am put off by very few bridleways around here. I too am in Lincolnshire near Horncastle. I would have to have a horse who is 110% traffic proof as we have huge farm vehicles around here all the time. It puts me off getting one.
 
We are spalding way ( teenie village near by) luckily our girl is 110% with anything had a combine harvester up her bum last year lol ! But I wouldn't go out on anything that wasn't traffic proof here :-(
 
lelly said:
I was thinking of buying another riding horse but I am put off by very few bridleways around here. I too am in Lincolnshire near Horncastle. I would have to have a horse who is 110% traffic proof as we have huge farm vehicles around here all the time. It puts me off getting one.
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Depending where you are near Horncastle , there are quite a few bridle ways out that way. Towards Louth I think. I once went on a pleasure ride out that way, though it was about 20 years ago!! May be worth boxing up to if you have transport.

I'm near Sleaford and we have hardly any off road hacking. The farm tracks we can use are only accessible by road initially. I share your frustration.
 
Found a bridle way near me the other day... one hour by road and across then alongside the dual carriageway for a bit, for a few short canters :o

However when pony is fitter about an hour and a half hack away across the main road there's lots of bridlepaths, but that's hour and a half each way so it soon adds up!
 
My OH and I are shocked reading this thread! We have direct access to bridleways from my yard without touching a road and you can hack for hours without crossing a road. Most farmers are horse friendly and allow us extensive access to tracks which are not bridleways. I'm in East Hertfordshire, by the way, and really appreciate our lovely hacking even more after reading this thread! OH (not naturally horsy!) wanted to know why people would want to keep horses where there's no hacking, but I can understand your predicament. I'm still stunned by lack of good riding in so many parts of the country!
 
keeperscottage said:
My OH and I are shocked reading this thread! We have direct access to bridleways from my yard without touching a road and you can hack for hours without crossing a road. Most farmers are horse friendly and allow us extensive access to tracks which are not bridleways. I'm in East Hertfordshire, by the way, and really appreciate our lovely hacking even more after reading this thread! OH (not naturally horsy!) wanted to know why people would want to keep horses where there's no hacking, but I can understand your predicament. I'm still stunned by lack of good riding in so many parts of the country!
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No choice parents very well paying job here, home here, couldnt take the finacial fall of them giving up good job to move :(
 
Try living in Ireland where there is no such thing as bridleways!
All my hacking is on the road, results in a horse very good in traffic anyway!
 
We have amazing off road hacking, can go for twenty miles in three directions into woods/hills/along a railway line. However I do need to go a short distance along a generally quiet road to access these off road tracks, and if I have less than an hour to ride then I'm stuck with roadwork. At least our roads are quiet though, and Geoff is used to tractors/lorries/cars/motorbikes/cyclists/snowplows...
 
It's 45 minutes hack to a Bridleway for me - then there's a few fun fields to gallop in. It will certainly get her fit, but we do largely end up hacking a shorter route on all road after work.
 
Suechoccy that was a great post btw.

One other suggestion is to google police rural mounted volunteers. If a group of riders do this with the police, hacking and reporting incidents eg fly tipping vandalism and other dodgy stuff then local landowners start to see horse riders as useful eyes and ears not just a nuisance wrecking the fields and risking them being fined by farm payment officials as the margins are supposed to be for rare species.

In my old place they wanted to ban horse riders from the old railway line (for no reason, no complaints no incidents , just in case it might not be safe - had been safe for 30 yrs!!) next thing paper had big article about local riders patrolling the route after a school kid was mugged along there... Its all about the perception of horses being a good thing, there have also been pics of them out being patted by children etc.

Definitely the local access forum is a good way to go.
 
The British Horse Society (BHS) is the only national organisation that represents horse riders and does a lot of good work to create new public rights of way of bridleway and byway status which can be used by horse riders.

The advantage of a bridleway or byway is once they are created they are there forever.

Every county has a BHS access officer who would be only too pleased to help you to create off road riding routes.

Why not join the BHS as you are helping them to fund this good work.

www.bhs.org.uk
 
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