Do you ever ride your horse on the pavement?

I do on a particular ride. There are 2 weird drainage points on a bad bend in the road (like storm channels) they spook Bob on he's right in the middle of the road - it's on a brow on a bend - so we go on the pavement. It is in a 30 zone but people drive far too fast on that stretch of road. I don't want a dead horse!
 
as a rule no, but i have done on country lanes when theres been traffic behind and they cant overtake, so for safety reasons ,yes but made sure there was no pedestrians
 
At my old yard I used to regularly - the yard was on a busy main road, the footpath/cycle lane was very wide and rarely used & if anyone else came along I would tuck right over out of the way. I used to have police cars drive pass me regularly and none ever stopped - probably because they thought I was doing the most sensible thing on that road! After the 1/4 mile stretch where I could come off that road on to a more normal, country lane I would be back on to the road again. In my present yard, I saw a fire engine belting towards me with lights & sirens going & I will admit I tucked my horse up someones driveway for that to go past
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As a rule no, but if it means putting myself or the horse I'm riding out of danger on a particular bend, or if some idiot is hurtling towards me and I know the horse may spook or a tractor is not slowing down etc etc then yes I'll bob onto the path while its passes, providing nobody is actually walking on it.

Otherwise no, because people already moan about too many horse riders on the roads in our village anyway so ridnig on the paths when your not supposed to would only give them reason to complain and fuel their anger even more, plus its bad enough dogs leaving presents on the paths let alone great big steaming pile of horse poo, so I kinda see both sides to be honest.
 
Yes, on 2 rides. the first is for only maybe 6 strides, to get to a bridleway. The second is along a dual carriage way, again to get to a bridle way, why they put bridleways where acess is god awful I dont know!
 


Yes. I've only ever done it a handful of times & only when I've really had to & there's been nobody else on the pavement. If it came to be that there were people on the pavement & I had to get out of the way then I would politely ask them to mind out while I got my horse out of the way.

That's never happened though & it would take a lot for me to do that.
 
I do sometimes, especially if it's busy or on a bad bit of road.
Incidently I was on the pavement near some houses when a policeman came round the corner, i went to get off the pavement (as I would for any pedestrian) and he said " no need to get off the pavement on my account" !!? Not what I was expecting.
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I quite often ride past the local police station on the pavement as there are usually parked cars by it and I'd rather go on the pavement than pass the car's on the outside when it's busy. I think (hope) our local bobbies are quite horse friendly.
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Yes there is road parallel to my yard which leads to all out hacking - it is single yellow lines and on saturdays there is a language school at the local school and the whole lane is used by people parking. It is narrow and there is not enough room for people to park and cars and people on horses to go down at the same time so if a car comes I have to go on to the pavement or one of us will have to back up till there is space to go past.
 
I do on a particular hack that goes near my house as the road is narrow (made during the 1880's before there were cars!!) so the only way to stop blocking the traffic and the numerous buses that pass on this narrow road, it's safer if I stick to the pavement.

On the way back on the hack, I have to follow a busy road where boy racers often speed but the pavement is VERY wide on that road so again, it's safer for everyone concerned for horse riders to ride on that!
 
only if necessary etc but there is one rider near me that always rides on the pavement and leaves mes behind
 
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