Horses grazing on bridleway... rights?

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Christmas_Kate

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Just come back from taking ponio for a hack with a girl who rides him for us.
We were coming a/x a bridleway and halfway through a field, two horses appeared. One appraoched us and started going at ponio. Luckily girl was on foot, so i told her to go quickly to the gate and leave me to sort it out.
This horse just went loopy, coming at us, cantering round, snorting and screaming. There was a kerfuffle and i've now got a hoofprint on my ribs
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I'm not sure exactly which horse caught me, but suffice to say I was terified. I had hooves flying round my head and the big horse was about 17hh. Had i got my 7yo son with me I don't know what I'd have done. I managed to get ponio out of the field but all 3 of us were left shaking.
This horse has apparently caused problems in the past, but no-one's sure who owns the field or who owns the horses.
I'm so angry. Who do I contact to report this???
 
I would have thought your local bhs bridleways officer might be able to explain the situation best. Try looking on the bhs website for contact details.
 
Luckily I was just 'caught' by a hoof, so nothing broken or cracked, but OH has taken photos as proof.

I'm a BHS member so will contact my local officer on monday, thanks.
 
Provided you are on a proper bridleway the horse owner is liable for any injury caused to you just as if you were using a footpath.

You need to trace the owner and at least make them aware as they need to put up warning signs and take steps to stop the horse having access to walkers/riders. A simple electric fence would suffice.
 
What a horrible thing to have happend and TBH I think you had a lucky escape. This could have been very nasty. If you don't know who owns the horse, do you know who owns the land? If not, a simple search at the Land Register on line (think it costs a small fee) will tell you who owns the field. The land owner has a duty of care to those using bridleways/footpaths etc. Your local County Council should do something about it, but probably won't, so the BHS are the people to contact. Peter Natt who is a bridleways officer for BHS is a forum members and he might well reply to this post.
 
I think local councils have some responsibilities concerning bridleways - might worth a phone call on Tuesday. They also might know who owns the land and therefore the horses. Good luck.
 
There is some useful information here, bhs access notes
the one about stallions on bridleways is interesting as the legislation quoted may also apply to other loose horses. If you search on BHS areas you should find your local access person, or as others have said, your local council also have a person who deals with this
 
Okay, I've now found out who owns both the horses and the land. He's unapproachable
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. The sort who would know where he stood within the law and if he could get away with it would just ignore anyone having problems. He's also rather a prominent figure within the local hunt, which does pose a problem for me. I've now come across two other people who have had accidents as a result of this horse, and have encouraged them to speak up so fingers crossed the council might have a quiet word with him and at least get him to electric fence off the bridleway track.
 
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