Bridleways and gates - article in Your Horse magazine

dollymix

dollymix

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I've just been reading an article in Your Horse magazine about bridleways, it says;

"It should be possible to open all gates while mounted and no gate shoudl be narrower than 5ft"

Where I stable the local council seem to be particulary keen on narrow gates..I would say they are approx 4 ft wide (If I am riding my welshie, I have to watch my knees) - they are horrible to ride through, and depending on which bridlepath we're on, it can be hard to get a straight approach, meaning the horses have to kind of bend round them (lots are situated in corners of fields, hence with lots of use they turn into quadmires and the horses wont go through the deepest parts).

I am therefore wondering the the above is advice/guidance or an actual law? Would LOVE it if this was a law and we cold approach our local council about installing safer, wider gates.
 
One we use is only about four foot with a sigh on it starts about one inch above top rail which catch martingale on and one side track has ditch on side so can't turn to shut it.
 
Well it's an ideal and finances etc affect how many gates get changed our council have just rebuilt a bridleway bridge that they built three feet wide and with steps up to it I joke not it took about ten years to get it changed ! It is on a well used and very ancient right of way,
 
Faracat are you referring to the same bridleway that has barbed wire either side of a narrow path, endless clunky gates, rubbish from a nearby farm, horses in the bridleway field that chase you etc etc? The sheep hurdle gate def added to the bridleway from.hell!
 
You can open most of them near us if you have really strong arms, are very flexible and you're happy to put your legs up near horse's face. There is one gate which is spring loaded so you have to get off unless your charge through so horse doesn't get hit by gate behind.

I can only hope for wide gates that aren't narrow that aren't on a jaunty angle. Would also be good that you can just pull or push rather than lift before lifting/pulling.
 
dollymix said:
I've just been reading an article in Your Horse magazine about bridleways, it says;

"It should be possible to open all gates while mounted and no gate shoudl be narrower than 5ft"

Where I stable the local council seem to be particulary keen on narrow gates..I would say they are approx 4 ft wide (If I am riding my welshie, I have to watch my knees) - they are horrible to ride through, and depending on which bridlepath we're on, it can be hard to get a straight approach, meaning the horses have to kind of bend round them (lots are situated in corners of fields, hence with lots of use they turn into quadmires and the horses wont go through the deepest parts).

I am therefore wondering the the above is advice/guidance or an actual law? Would LOVE it if this was a law and we cold approach our local council about installing safer, wider gates.
Click to expand...

I think the key is the word 'should'. Like in the highway code, shoulds are usually not legally enforceable but represent best practice and what ought to be the case esp when upgrading or building new gates.

It would be unrealistic for all bridleway gates to be actively replaced with those openable from horseback given that such fasteners can cost 20 or 30x the cost of a normal latch. Plus the fact that it isnt unreasonable for us to get off our horses and open them after all we do get on and off when mounting/dismounting, and its an important skill.

The exception I would say is where a new gate is put up, they should have the highest standard, and also gates which are too narrow for you to get off due to fencing around them or ones where they are right next to roads where there is no room to safely mount.

I think a bigger and more immediate issue than mounted opening is gates which are so knackered and dropped or rusted that you struggle to open and close them even on the ground!! I put up with them up here in Scotland as we have access to most places not specific bridleways so we just manage in return for those rights, but on a bridleway in Eng and Wales any bridleway gate should swing freely on its hinges and there should not be steps!!
 
The ones on or ride aways are all easy to open if you dont have a gate-challenged horse :p

Here in Yorkshire we like to do it the cool way however and you can jump most gates/ dividing heges :D
 
Bridleway near me has a grand total of 5 gates that are off their hinges in half a mile!
The alternate route is slightly better with 2 you can just about manage on horseback and 2 you cant! Shame as when i was (a lot) younger it used to make a lovely little half hour ride.
 
oh lordy some of those gates sound horrendous! With my current horse is the first time I've had any real hacking nearby, places in the past have been restricted to lots of roadwork with one short bridleway somewhere in the middle - fortunately none had gates, I'm terrible at opening them and even worse and getting off & back on without finding something to stand on!

These days we've got the park nearby and have to pay £170 a yr for a permit but the hacking is fab and all of the gates are electric with buttons mounted high up on posts for the riders ~ I'd pay so much more for those buttons :o
 
I'm really not worried about them being openable from hoorseback...if I do say so myself, my and my horses are expert gate-openers and we can open every single one on the rides we use, including the one you have to lift on its hinges. I am not adverse to getting off if I find one I can't manage though....my welsh is well trained to stand next to any height-lending object I can find :) If I do have to get off the ID though, who is 17hh...well my spring isn't what it once was and unless I find a fallen tree, large bank or rock...well I am walking home! lol

My real question was re width. Sometimes I feel like I am in real danger of losing knee caps on some gates as they are so narrow, and when teamed up with those 'delightful' spring mechanisms, and quagmires strewn wth razor sharp rocks....well you can imagine what a treat they are!!!

Like someone said above - I imagine that the width is 'advisable' and therefore the advice is actually no help whatsoever!
 
dollymix said:
I'm really not worried about them being openable from hoorseback...if I do say so myself, my and my horses are expert gate-openers and we can open every single one on the rides we use, including the one you have to lift on its hinges. I am not adverse to getting off if I find one I can't manage though....my welsh is well trained to stand next to any height-lending object I can find :) If I do have to get off the ID though, who is 17hh...well my spring isn't what it once was and unless I find a fallen tree, large bank or rock...well I am walking home! lol

My real question was re width. Sometimes I feel like I am in real danger of losing knee caps on some gates as they are so narrow, and when teamed up with those 'delightful' spring mechanisms, and quagmires strewn wth razor sharp rocks....well you can imagine what a treat they are!!!

Like someone said above - I imagine that the width is 'advisable' and therefore the advice is actually no help whatsoever!
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Many of these gates are manufactured to be adjustable, but the people putting them in either dont know it or dont have the instructions. If they are on a bridleway they should be set so there is enough time for horse and rider to go through; if might be worth contacting the local council rights of way person for them to assess them as adjustment might be possible....
 
treacle_beastie said:
Faracat are you referring to the same bridleway that has barbed wire either side of a narrow path, endless clunky gates, rubbish from a nearby farm, horses in the bridleway field that chase you etc etc? The sheep hurdle gate def added to the bridleway from.hell!
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The sheep hurdle is on the bridleway on the opposite side of the valley to the one where you have to ride through the farm with rubbish everywhere. The sheep hurdle one, is the one that is super steep with tough terrain that I fell over twice while trying to walk it when leading the two year old. ;)
 
Bridleway gates should be at least 5 feet wide (although it does depend on the recorded width of the track at that point). It should be possible to be opened from horseback. If not under rights of way law it can be treated as an obstruction and removed.

My advice would be to measure the actual un-obstructed width of the opening and also take a photo of it from both sides Write to the senior access officer of the County Council concerned enclosing a photo, the measured width, and a map which shows exactly where it is. Ask them to confirm receipt of your letter and advise you what action they intend taking. Send by Royal Mail Recorded Delivery so that there is no doubt they have received it.
If you require any further advise contact your local BHS Access Officer
Best of luck.
Peter Natt BHS Access (Bridleway) Officer Hertfordshire
 
There’s a gate I know of, that you have to jump over. It's one of these ‘horse friendly’ gates, that is designed to allow horses and pedestrians to step over it, but it's padlocked and prevents vehicles from getting in. The one near me has been mounted quite high, and the part you step over is just over 2foot, of course reasonable riders on sensible horses would literally be able to trot and pop it without giving it a seconds thought - BUT this is a solid metal and wood gate that comes out onto a road, which has a narrow grass verge in front, so anyone with a very highly strung horse, or novice riders are not going to be able to tackle this safely. Also, 2ft is the sort of height that many horses don't respect and fumble over, which is even more likely to happen when you are not able to approach it well because of the road.

I posted about this gate on here a couple of years ago, and I got completely ridiculed and basically told that anyone who can't jump a 2ft fence should not be riding. Well I can, thank you, but plenty of people wouldn't feel it's safe for the reasons above. Before this gate was erected the bridle path was well used, and used to get quite badly churned up due to the numbers of horses using it. Now it's virtually unused.

I did express my concerns to the council, but nothing was done.
 
What about an untended un marked cattle grid there is room to go round it but one spook and could have leg down it.
 
MissMincePie&Brandy said:
There’s a gate I know of, that you have to jump over. It's one of these ‘horse friendly’ gates, that is designed to allow horses and pedestrians to step over it, but it's padlocked and prevents vehicles from getting in. The one near me has been mounted quite high, and the part you step over is just over 2foot, of course reasonable riders on sensible horses would literally be able to trot and pop it without giving it a seconds thought - BUT this is a solid metal and wood gate that comes out onto a road, which has a narrow grass verge in front, so anyone with a very highly strung horse, or novice riders are not going to be able to tackle this safely. Also, 2ft is the sort of height that many horses don't respect and fumble over, which is even more likely to happen when you are not able to approach it well because of the road.

I posted about this gate on here a couple of years ago, and I got completely ridiculed and basically told that anyone who can't jump a 2ft fence should not be riding. Well I can, thank you, but plenty of people wouldn't feel it's safe for the reasons above. Before this gate was erected the bridle path was well used, and used to get quite badly churned up due to the numbers of horses using it. Now it's virtually unused.

I did express my concerns to the council, but nothing was done.
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The fact it comes out straight onto a road turns an inconvenience/training issue into a real and clear danger in my eyes. I would write to the council (recorded delivery) asking to meet with their RoW person on site, ideally with someone on horseback to demonstrate the risk. It can really focus their minds. It doesnt easily solve how to stop motorcycles/fly tippers while letting us horses in, but at the very minimum it should be moved back from the road junction and lowered.
 
lachlanandmarcus said:
I think the key is the word 'should'. Like in the highway code, shoulds are usually not legally enforceable but represent best practice and what ought to be the case esp when upgrading or building new gates.
Click to expand...

Yep it's all in the phrasing. If you check the highways code it says you 'should' stop at a red light- but if you can run a red if you can prove there's no hazzard to other people e.g. at 4am when no one else is at the junction...! little snippet there! ;)
 
There's two narrow Spring Gates on the Bridleway near me and even on the ground I had trouble holding them open so Picasso could go through!I really think the nitwits in the offices where they designate these things should be put up on a horse (preferably young TB ;) )and be made to ride them :D
 
I'm sometimes amazed at the gates we have to deal with on bridleways. A new path has been opened locally and, while it is generally brilliant (and I don't like to complain about people giving us new bridleways!), the gates are seriously awkward. They are light swing gates, so if you lose your hold on them they will swing back like lightning and slam shut with a clang. I'm lucky, because my mare is a good size for navigating gates (14.2hh) and she is super smart and quick - in fact, she's something of a star at doing gates! But my sister rides a variety of horses for local people and she has had no end of trouble with the gates. The problem is that because they swing shut so quickly, if you open the gate but then lose your hold (which is easy to do if your horse is large/ gate-challenged, they will slam back with such a loud noise that it can spook even the calmest horses, which obviously makes persuading them that they can do gates even harder! My sister says that my mare is the only horse she can be sure of actually getting through the gate first time on. But when my dad saw some maintenance people on the trail, he asked them about the gates, and apparently they opted for gates rather than horse stiles as they said most riders complain about stiles :confused:. Which I thought was weird because most riders I know would take a stile over a swing gate any day.
 
PeterNatt said:
Bridleway gates should be at least 5 feet wide (although it does depend on the recorded width of the track at that point). It should be possible to be opened from horseback. If not under rights of way law it can be treated as an obstruction and removed.

My advice would be to measure the actual un-obstructed width of the opening and also take a photo of it from both sides Write to the senior access officer of the County Council concerned enclosing a photo, the measured width, and a map which shows exactly where it is. Ask them to confirm receipt of your letter and advise you what action they intend taking. Send by Royal Mail Recorded Delivery so that there is no doubt they have received it.
If you require any further advise contact your local BHS Access Officer
Best of luck.
Peter Natt BHS Access (Bridleway) Officer Hertfordshire
Click to expand...

That is great advice Peter - thank you.
We have a particularly gorgeous bridleway that I can't use because of the gates. You can ride for miles and miles off road - but the handful of gates on the route are horrendous. None of them have rider friendly latches. Some of the gates you can't open unless you get off and wrestle them open (some of them heavy 5 bar wooden gates that you have to lift)
I have a 19hh horse and have no chance of getting back on again if I have to mess about with the gates. (nothing to climb up on)
One gateway is very narrow and leads onto a concrete bridge just wide enough for a horse - if it wasn't so impassable with overgrown hedges and weeds. You couldn't turn around to shut the gate anyway as you haven't got the room. The bridge is about 10 feet long with narrow gates either end.
Some of the gates are knotted shut with baler twine. I know all of this because I make a habit of walking all my bridleways with my dogs before I take the horse.

If I do what you suggest above - do you think changes can be enforced?
 
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