Following on from angry Farmer

honetpot said:
I think the reason people seem apathetic about bridleways is the lack of b****y time!
The majority of people I know with horses are women, who also work, who also have children, who also have to cook, clean ,shop and provide a card and a birthday present for a party that your child has only just told you about. Not forgetting we are supposed to be slim,atractive and sexy in our spare time.
It can not be just a coinsidence that the only people I know who are active in bridleways have no children or they are paid to be or they are men and have a wife to do all the boring work.
Having last Sunday passed a 200 cycleists on club ride, guess what, most of them were men and only a couple had kids in tow. Before a women does anything she has to find a babysitter or organise her day so those left at home do not feel neglected as they may not be able to work out whats for dinner.
I am a member of the BHS for 30+ years and I think they spend far too much time on vocational qualifications and not enough on ordinary riders and their needs.
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That's because you're spending too much time on H&H and not enough here :D:D: http://www.thetrailstrust.org.uk/
 
lazybee said:
Looking at many of the attitudes on this thread. I'm not surprised there's hardly anywhere to ride. You certainly don't do yourselves or your fellow riders any favours. I find it quite bizarre :confused::confused: Most seem to want to restrict access even more, weird..................... :confused:.com.

The way forward in my mind is to join all the self interest groups together and campaign for rites or way as a single body. The trails trust seem to be the way forward and the Somerset example sounds superb. If this scheme was wholeheartedly adopted nationwide, the UK's problems would all but disappear.

For the record I have 12ha and don't have a problem with our track being used. We get walkers, cyclists, quads, runners (one runner :D) trail bikes, rough shooters and yes horses. The point is. Here all the lanes/tracks are open, therefore the pressure is off. I do get these visitors, but not very often. I can go out for hours and not see a soul. There's so much more to choose from so we don't get the 'hotspots' and inevitable conflicts. For example if you had one of two lanes in your area, everyone is forced to use the same space; no wonder you're falling over each other. The UK is criss crossed with thousands of miles of tracks and nearly all are closed.
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Do you have the same kind of problems in France as farmers do over here with travellers, scrap thieves and diesel thieves? does France have the same 'where there's blame there's a claim 'culture that we do over here? do the french have respect for other peoples property that sadly seems to be lacking over here?
There are a multitude of reasons farmers don't want all and sundry wandering around their farms, it's not because they're all grumpy old sods but because they work hard for what they have and see no reason why they should work to provide a playground for other people who often have no respect for the land they are riding on:rolleyes:
I livery on a farm and we are all free to ride around the farm as we please, the only thing the farmer asks is that we shut gates and keep away from the maize and barley fields, even so last year a livery left a gate open and the cattle got onto maize field and already this year someone left the cow gates tied back and the cattle were caught heading to the road:rolleyes: it's idiots like that who confirm to the farmers that we can't be trusted:rolleyes:
 
As far as I can tell there are many, many more designated paths for riders in France adn equestrian centres are often placed right next to huge networks of bridleways across mountains, national parks etc. (with no planning restrictions, so they also have lovely indoor schools!).

In some areas, depending on the crops you can also have very easy access over farming land. For example, the area south of us all the way to the sea is mainly vine growing country and vines need small tracks everywhere for maintenance access. These tracks seem to be used by all and sundry with no problems whatsoever. Here, on the other hand, we have crops and I have not seen any walkers, cyclists or horseriders ride on those fields even when stubble.
 
I agree that it only takes 1/2 people who leave gates open/damage crops to make landowners resistant to letting people across their land.

The land we have is up for hay/haylage from now - july and we have recently put up signs stating "Keep dogs on leads" & "Fouling is illegal - fine up to £1000" because we are fed up of people letting there dogs run all over the field / throwing sticks & pooing everywhere! :mad: Every year we put up a politely written sign explaining the dangers of dog mess in hay, sticks in machinery and the fact this grass is actually a crop & people ignore it, so we've gone for the direct / blunt approach this year.

We wouldn't have any problems with people using our "track" that runs up one side of the fields... wouldn't be much use though as it dead-ends! Also it's pretty rutted so wouldn't risk anything other than walking up it... in fact I don't know of any other "tracks/lanes" around by us that aren't open to all traffic.
 
Thats the main problem, this nation is full of individuals suffering form CADD, closing a gate seems difficult enough for some liveries, never mind Mr and Mrs Modern innit, as it's soooooo complicated to do after walking through it, so many people can't quite read the keep dogs on a lead or no parking, couldn't possibly mean them, the litter bins just aren't close enough to to be able to walk 2 feet to put litter in, the hedgerow obviously needs it, it's sooooo difficult after picking up dog poo to put it in the dog poo bin, it's far easier to throw it into a tree to swing in the breeze in it's non biodegradable bag, and be there month after month after month, but of course we will complain about a bit of horse poo on the bridleway, if I was a farmer I wouldn't want Headicks on my land either.

Enshrine of Tools.
 
Regarding the post about not having time to do any hands on rights of way work then if this is the case then may I ask you to please join the BHS as a Gold member.

Increased membership will result in increased funding for the work done by the BHS (please note that the volunteers give up their time at no cost to the BHS) but also the higher the membership of the BHS then when the BHS negotiates with government and local authorities they can demonstrate the number of riders they are representing by quoting their membership numbers.

The sad fact is that with the new planning laws announced today far more of the countryside will nbe built on and their willl be increased trafic along previously quiet roads.

As riders we need to get our act together and support the one national equestrian organisation that does so much for access and road safety. Please please join the BHS as a gold member. www.bhs.org.uk
 
lazybee said:
Looking at many of the attitudes on this thread. I'm not surprised there's hardly anywhere to ride. You certainly don't do yourselves or your fellow riders any favours. I find it quite bizarre :confused::confused: Most seem to want to restrict access even more, weird..................... :confused:.com.

The way forward in my mind is to join all the self interest groups together and campaign for rites or way as a single body. The trails trust seem to be the way forward and the Somerset example sounds superb. If this scheme was wholeheartedly adopted nationwide, the UK's problems would all but disappear.

For the record I have 12ha and don't have a problem with our track being used. We get walkers, cyclists, quads, runners (one runner :D) trail bikes, rough shooters and yes horses. The point is. Here all the lanes/tracks are open, therefore the pressure is off. I do get these visitors, but not very often. I can go out for hours and not see a soul. There's so much more to choose from so we don't get the 'hotspots' and inevitable conflicts. For example if you had one of two lanes in your area, everyone is forced to use the same space; no wonder you're falling over each other. The UK is criss crossed with thousands of miles of tracks and nearly all are closed.
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But it's not just that some of the tracks are closed - it's also that we have more people crammed into a smaller space than you do . . . we have less land and more people. While I think it's wonderful that you have all that glorious space, I don't think you're comparing apples to apples.

P
 
We've just had another one of our pitiful amount of bridlepaths hardcored by the council. It leaves us with just two that are grass, the rest stone or hardcore (all 5 very short stretches of them!). One of the two grass paths has a line of sharp stones all the way up the middle of it, leaving you trying to be one side or other and with no option but to cross over it no matter which side you ride. Council don't care, near us it's all about cyclists as Bristol is 'cycling city of the year' or some other stupid thing.
 
honetpot said:
I think the reason people seem apathetic about bridleways is the lack of b****y time!
The majority of people I know with horses are women, who also work, who also have children, who also have to cook, clean ,shop and provide a card and a birthday present for a party that your child has only just told you about. Not forgetting we are supposed to be slim,atractive and sexy in our spare time.
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It needn't take much time to be involved in the background just adding your voice. I'm not on the committee of our local bridleways association, just a member. We meet up once a month at a local pub for a night out and have speakers and a bit of a social. The people on the committee who have more time to pursue the issues will let us know what's going on and we may be asked to write a letter of support or whatever - it doesn't really take that much effort but you're adding to the numbers so that it doesn't appear that a bridleway is just a minority interest. Sadly the truth is that if we're apathetic then it's no good complaining when bridleways are lost as then it's too late!
 
We seem to be losing all our riding - on 2 of our local bridleways a golf course is being built and although they have to provide an alternative route lots of people waving golf sticks, golf buggies etc isn't my idea of a quiet hack....

Another has already been turned into a drive for a school and national trust centre so it is EXTREMELY busy - there was a very wide verge but they have now put an electric fence along the verge leaving about 70cm of it left - I know two people whose horses have taken fright at the traffic (narrow drive)and ended up crashing through the electric fence - it also does not have the yellow signs it should have and is very thin grey wire so in all honesty I don't think the horses see it.

We used to be able to ride on a few tracks around the estate around our yard but a new farmer has started renting the land and has fenced everything off and put gates up - the farmers have just applied for planning permission to turn the one remaining bridleway into a track for dirt-bikes and quad bikes as well which I think they have managed to get. They are the same people stopping us from riding on the other farm tracks around the estate and quite frankly if they are going to tear up and down a bridleway on quad-bikes I will use their alternative farm tracks. Respect earns respect.
A friend of mine has already seen people zooming through the woods on dirtbikes on a bridleway and I am 99% sure it is not yet open to them.

Riders around here are brilliant for shutting gates and not tearing up the land - I have NEVER seen gates left open or muddy hoofy tracks and I hack a lot so plenty of opportunity to see anything amiss. I just think if the farmers did less to try and make the existing bridleways harder to ride, the riders would have so much more respect for them ( and they already have a lot) and everything could be a lot more peaceful!

We also had a case where a rope fence was put straight across the bridleway - I took it down on a number of occasions and it was put back up, In the end someone (not me!!) cut it and it has stayed down.
We also have a ploughed up bridleway with no room left around the outside of a field to take an alternative route (which I am sure no one would mind doing.)

A lot of us have been discussing about trying to stop all this ruining of the bridleways - as if the bridleways are developed people will go where they are not meant to and it will just be an ongoing battle. We just have no idea who to contact - letters have been sent to the council by an awful lot of people, there was even a newspaper article in the local paper but nothing has changed. It seems the school, the national trust and the estate owners are too large and influential...
 
I seem to be one of the few people who live in an area where the bridlepaths are being expanded! A lovely (and sizable!) new path has just been opened as part of the Trans Pennine Trail and according to someone from the council, they are planning to extend it further. It's very exciting, it's a lovely place to ride with a wonderful surface for cantering :D
Originally the land was owned by National Rail, I think it was either the route of the old railway, or abandoned railway sidings, and there were lots of sandy tracks so we used to ride there even though it was technically private land. And now it's officially a bridlepath :D
 
We've got tons of areas to ride down here, perhaps people need to pick where they keep their horses a bit better if they want a load of hacking?
 
Posie said:
We've got tons of areas to ride down here, perhaps people need to pick where they keep their horses a bit better if they want a load of hacking?
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I have to say, for me, that is probably one of my most important factors when looking at a yard - what is the hacking like? However, when I moved from Surrey (where the hacking is just brilliant) to the Midlands I was totally gutted, I presumed I would have miles and miles unfortunately not! The amount of common ground in the Midlands is absolutely non-existent! However, I also found the horsey people in the Midlands very different? Not so many happy hackers around here but then maybe that's because we don't have the hacking :D
 
people rather often need to live in certain areas for their jobs etc though ;). Ours are kept in a family owned field and if we were at livery they wouldn't be in our current location.

A very nice local rider has negotiated riding rights for us on some environment agency land, so although we have to go up it and turn around and come back again it is nice to get on grass for a bit! We have to apply and show evidence of 3rd party insurance before we can use it.

Bridleways:
We have one bridleway which is walk only and requires a trip down the main road to reach,
we have another which on the OS map starts as a bridleway for a few hundred yards then turns into a footpath!
we have a footpath which is a wide drove which connects a loop to two roads, this is used by the entirety of the large horse population locally and has never been closed off.

As we are on the somerset levels there are actually a fair few droves and tracks about, some are owned, for some the ownership is questionable because it provides access to land owned by several people. Getting access would be of limited use though because they are all dead ends!
 
BringoutheBest said:
Another has already been turned into a drive for a school and national trust centre so it is EXTREMELY busy - there was a very wide verge but they have now put an electric fence along the verge leaving about 70cm of it left - I know two people whose horses have taken fright at the traffic (narrow drive)and ended up crashing through the electric fence - it also does not have the yellow signs it should have and is very thin grey wire so in all honesty I don't think the horses see it.
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Electric fencing must, by law, have signs every x ft or metres. Bridleways should be a minimum width (wednesday brain means I've forgotten the value for either, but it's definitely more than 70cm!). Report this and it HAS to be rectified.
 
I always check the hacking out first but I can't move house/job etc just to have more hacking. The hacking in my county is appalling. My horse now lives in the next county which is a bit better. But short of having an hours drive away I can't move anywhere better.
 
Fransurrey said:
Electric fencing must, by law, have signs every x ft or metres. Bridleways should be a minimum width (wednesday brain means I've forgotten the value for either, but it's definitely more than 70cm!). Report this and it HAS to be rectified.
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It has been reported at least 3 times that I know of - the thing is I suppose they count the school drive as part of the width - not that you can ride on it when there's countless cars speeding along!!
 
bringingthebest have you contacted the BHS about your situation with the electric fence? If not do so.
As for the dirt bikes a land owner can let anyone they like use there land (subject to planning ) ITMU they can for instance let riders use a footpath but would have to rectify any damage caused.
The BHS has a wonderful resource of knowledge and amazing volunteers some of whom dedicate a huge chunk of there leisure time to these issues any one using bridleways should join the BHS for this reason alone, and if interested get involved with work in there area.
 
I live on a farm. I never ride through crops, leave gates open, ride through game covers or ever go in a field with machinery in it, i care for my partner's livelihood and i know exactly how much an acre of good grade arable land costs. I hate horsey peoples attitudes to it, farmers work hard for their business, why should riders be allowed free for all to land we ourselves do not ride on? Peoples attitudes round here stink, my parents farm had a nasty claim a few years ago from a horse rider who fell in a field she had no right or reason to be in. Last year my partner drilled 40acres min till to find some clueless rider schooling on it, it makes my blood boil.
 
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