bridleways and gates

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harrihjc

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In our area all of a sudden metal gates have appeared on nearly all the bridleways, I assume the reason is to stop people driving along them but could be way off the mark with that guess
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None of the riders are happy about it, as they're big heavy things, difficult enough to open from the ground let alone from a horse, some people have clearly showed their irritation by crashing in the the things, as one is bent and knocked completely off it's hinges
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Does anyone else have these along all the off road hacking??

Can you happily open gates from your horse?

Mine is a youngster and there's no way we'd manage, and I don't like to get off whilst out hacking.

To complain about these would you go to BHS or to the local council? Or both to be on the safe side?
 
Where my horse used to be kept, there was loads of gates, never had a problem with them, good training IMO. Most horses learnt quite quickly if you spend a bit of time training them.
 
We have lots of gates on our bridleways.The newest ones built by my council have been designed to swing shut... great if you're going in that direction, not so good if you're going from the other direction as they shut on you!

I can open (and close!) most gates from horseback, but will happily get off for the awkward gates. It's really curtailed my mum's hacking though, as she can't get back on, so can't hack by herself anywhere there might be a gate.

Regarding complaining - there may be a bridleways group in your area who are already in contact with the local council (and have some influence), so have a word with the bhs first to find out.
 
We have these on some of the bridleways near us and up on the ridgeway, most are ok but they are very narrow and some have really tight springs on them which makes it impossible to get through without getting off, even then they take quite a lot of holding back!
no chance they will be left open by mistake which is probably the point, but not much fun for us horsey types.
 
I'm lucky that I can get off for the difficult ones though I know people who can't get back on so they have to be careful where they hack.......unless I'm with them
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Perhaps ring BHS first and see what they advise - good luck!
 
PLEASE REPORT these "mousetrap" gates to your local County Council rights of way department - there have been horse fatalities caused by these swinging shut too fast and powerfully. Point that out to the Council Officer, and use the magic words "health and safety issue." They can be set to close, but not to snap shut to be dangerous to use.

As regards gates on bridlepaths - you can't prevent a landowner putting gates up if he has stock to contain, but they should be "reasonably easy to open" from horseback presumably. Therefore a gate that is too difficult might be viewed as discouraging use.

To say that you don't want gates because you find them inconvenient or don't want to get off - sorry these aren't valid reasons for having them removed. It is easy to say train your horse, but I went from a 15.1 to a 16.1 and it is a lot more difficult to manage gates from the larger horse! Still it is in the end down to training and it is useful to carry a whip with a crook - like a hunting whip without a lash.

It is best to contact the County Council direct. Your BHS person might not know the route and you are the user so you are best placed to tell the officer where the problem is. Offer to put the Officer on your horse and let them open the gate while mounted!
 
we have a couple of horsemans gates the ones with the easy handle to pull, which are good however they do swing back quickly, dunno how she managed it but my friend got her foot stuck and the lock went right through her boot and foot!!!! :O
 
I can't get back on my horse at all easily, so I try not to get off. I do carry a hunting whip though and can manage most of the catches. I've taught the horse to stand still while we fiddle about. Works most of the time. I'm in a National Park and we report iffy gates to the Park - they are very keen to come along and see to them. Mind you, I reported one as being difficult (because the latch is practically inside a thorny hedge, and you can't stand the horse alongside) and they couldn't see the problem!
 
all the gates on the country park I ride on are the ones designed for horseriders with the big handles at the top, but I struggle with those as George is 16.3 and he isn't very good with gates (we are practising with the manege gate when we can!), at the moment I get off and I now know where all the handy benches/logs are to hop back on, or I ask a friendly cyclist/walker!
 
All our hacking has a fair few gates on, many of them have weights on one side so it closes and so cattle cant get out, there hard at first but once you and your horse understand how to do them i find its usually fine
 
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