Footpath use?

[HaplessHorse]

No, you cannot take a horse on a footpath- ridden, led, driven, whatever!
That’s why most have stiles/ kissing gates on them.

My mother had an interesting policy of “where the horse fits, I can ride” when she was young.

Lead to various interesting stories about squeezing her tb x horse of a lifetime through stiles and getting chased by farmers

Luckily(?) my lovely cob would have no hope of squeezing through a stile!

ETA: this is obviously not particularly legal, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I reckon that I’m a law abiding cyclist, and I’ve always believed that it is fine to dismount and to wheel my bike along a footpath as long as space permits. Ditto to walk it along pavements in town eg to avoid a busy intersection.

If in doubt I always give way to pedestrians. No one has ever challenged me.

 

[BSL2]

My fear is public liability will be void if on land one does not have permission to ride and something goes wrong. Ie a public foot path. Happy to be advised otherwise?

 

[foxy1]

You can with landowner's permission

 

[tda]

I'm not lifting my fat pony over a stile!

It's a jump, just pop over it

 

[adamntitch]

I'd have to slim her down a bit first. And eat an extra Weetabix.....

jump it lol

 

[Beausmate]

I reckon she'd get her lardy arse wedged in it somewhere

 

[Orangehorse]

You are not allowed to ride a horse on a Public Footpath, unless you believe that it is of a higher status, such as a Bridleway, Restricted Byway or a Byway, in which case you should contact your local BHS Access officer and ask them to assist you in getting it upgraded to a path of a higher status. The real problem is that the authorities could stop you from using the path, in which case that is the end of it, so it is always best to attempt to make an application to make it of a higher status. To contact your local BHS Access Officer: https://www.bhs.org.uk/bhs-in-your-area/

You can ride on a footpath if given permission by the landowner. But then that stops any possible claims as a higher status (i..e bridlepath) in future.

 

[Juniper Jack]

I'm not lifting my fat pony over a stile!

This reminds me of a line from some very old children's story/rhyme: "Piggy won't get over the stile and I shan't get home tonight."

 

[planete]

You are not allowed to ride a horse on a Public Footpath, unless you believe that it is of a higher status, such as a Bridleway, Restricted Byway or a Byway, in which case you should contact your local BHS Access officer and ask them to assist you in getting it upgraded to a path of a higher status. The real problem is that the authorities could stop you from using the path, in which case that is the end of it, so it is always best to attempt to make an application to make it of a higher status. To contact your local BHS Access Officer: https://www.bhs.org.uk/bhs-in-your-area/

Sorry, I was hoping you would reply but I had missed your post. I would not ride but lead and was hoping it would make a difference but it does not seem that anybody has really considered the possibility of leading nowadays as opposed to riding as it is only mentionned in an out of date text. If we were to be allowed to lead we could link many of the exisiting dead end bridleways now in evidence on the OS maps. I would fight for footpaths to be reinstated as bridleways if I was younger but I would very likely be dead before I saw any results at my age!

 

[PeterNatt]

Planete! At the very least you would be providing Bridleways and Restricted Byways for future generations of horse riders. In hertfordshire alone we have made an application for about 250 paths to be upgraded to Nridleways and Restricted Byways and future generations will reap the hard work we have put into this.

 

[planete]

Planete! At the very least you would be providing Bridleways and Restricted Byways for future generations of horse riders. In hertfordshire alone we have made an application for about 250 paths to be upgraded to Nridleways and Restricted Byways and future generations will reap the hard work we have put into this.

Ok, I will make enquiries, I guess health and age are no excuse!

 

[Fullers1845]

My fear is public liability will be void if on land one does not have permission to ride and something goes wrong. Ie a public foot path. Happy to be advised otherwise?

Also if you were to bump into an out of control dog on a footpath, that caused you to fall etc. The owner's argument would be that they didn't expect a horse to be on the footpath.

I must confess that recently I did lead my shared horse along approx 200 yard footpath at the edge of a field, that joined the end of one bridleway to the next available one.
The only alternative route was to be spat out on a NSL road and ride over a notorious humpback bridge right on a blind corner, one that is bad enough when in a car, let alone someone's heart horse that I'm responsible for.

 

[Exasperated]

Also if you were to bump into an out of control dog on a footpath, that caused you to fall etc. The owner's argument would be that they didn't expect a horse to be on the footpath.

I must confess that recently I did lead my shared horse along approx 200 yard footpath at the edge of a field, that joined the end of one bridleway to the next available one.
The only alternative route was to be spat out on a NSL road and ride over a notorious humpback bridge right on a blind corner, one that is bad enough when in a car, let alone someone's heart horse that I'm responsible for.

I should keep doing it if that is the very unsafe alternative, and see if you cannot motivate your local authority to consider upgrading. What do the local mountain bikers /cyclists do? Or are you the only rider?
Edited to add: are the other two bridleways ‘old’ or recent creations?
Because if of long standing, there’s a fair chance the 200 yard middle FP section once was, too. You need to do some archival research to confirm whether this is indeed a ‘lost’ right of way ( at the higher status, obviously is still an FP), which would certainly make things easier!

 

[Burnerbee]

I heve just read that leading a horse along a footpath is allowed. Is there any way of checking whether this is true? According to the writer it is only riding that is not allowed. I cannot help feeling that if this were true it would be a well known fact but a very slight glimmer of hope in me is prompting the question. We have a total absence of bridleways in my area and joining the local lanes by leading along a footpath would mean some nice circular rides would become possible.

You could apply to have the footpath changed to a bridle way. When I googled this it brought up loads of links to discussions on here - I didn’t follow them but several were several years old so an outcome should have been arrived at by now - it probably does take ages.