Riding on footpaths

[Greylegs]

I keep my horse on a yard which is part of a farm where we are lucky to have a lot of off road riding on site: woodland and fields/field margins. The whole area is criss-crossed with tracks and paths and we ride freely where we choose on the property, with the full permission of the land owner.

The farm has a public footpath running across it. The footpath crosses a stile onto one of our turn out fields (which we use as grazing, but do not ride on), before accessing a track (via another stile) passing through a woodland area and eventually onwards through a kissing gate onto the neighbouring farm land. We regularly ride along the track which forms part of the route of the path, as well as elsewhere on the property, as it is essentially the route which links the stables area to the off road riding. It is also used regularly by the land owner (in quads, 4x4 or tractors) to access the woodland and fields on the farm.

Chatting to a fellow livery today, she suggested that - legally speaking - we should not really be riding on the route of the footpath, even though she had just returned from a hack along the route in question. Someone else said that it was ok to use the route if we have permission from the land owner (which we do). My quick Googling of the issue has shown contradictory views on the matter.

Any legal experts out there who can clarify please. (We will still ride on it regardless, of course, but it would be nice to be in possession of the correct legal knowledge).

 

[little_critter]

Pretty certain you can ride on it with the landowners permission.
There are plenty of footpaths that follow the line of farm tracks / peoples driveways, if what you say were the case then the landowner would not be able to drive up their own track.

 

[Sossigpoker]

If you have land owners permission you can ride wherever they allow you to. It's the general public who are limited to only using the thr footpath on foot.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I have wondered the same. I’m allowed to ride on the farm here where we live. There’s only one foot path that I can actually use as the others have stiles/styles (which is it?)
I usually ride a tram line over in the crop just incase anyone complains.
OH says it’s fine though.

 

[little_critter]

Or put it this way. If there was no footpath on the land, and the landowner said you could ride over their land, would you still be questioning whether you could?

 

[Errin Paddywack]

stiles/styles (which is it?)

Stiles

 

[Reacher]

Pretty certain you can ride on it with the landowners permission.
There are plenty of footpaths that follow the line of farm tracks / peoples driveways, if what you say were the case then the landowner would not be able to drive up their own track.

These were my thoughts though not a lawyer

 

[Boughtabay]

We have a couple footpaths that cross our farm - I ride along them & would be pretty nose-out-of-joint if anyone told me I couldn’t because “it’s a footpath”!

That said I also have (had?) permission to ride a woodland which I’ve since stopped doing because of some conflict between the owner and walkers who regularly strayed from the footpath. I could see the walkers taking great offence to us being allowed to “roam freely” and didn’t fancy testing the land owners willingness to put up with complaints (low) vs his kind heart letting us be there!

 

[Widgeon]

If you have land owners permission you can ride wherever they allow you to.

Of course, if you have the landowner's permission you can ride wherever they're happy for you to, regardless of the public access rights. It's their land!

 

[Widgeon]

That said I also have (had?) permission to ride a woodland which I’ve since stopped doing because of some conflict between the owner and walkers who regularly strayed from the footpath. I could see the walkers taking great offence to us being allowed to “roam freely” and didn’t fancy testing the land owners willingness to put up with complaints (low) vs his kind heart letting us be there!

We have a local permissive route which is strictly horses only. It's padlocked with a combination code. The local bridleways group negotiated access for horses in order to to reach the bridleways on the other side of the main road, but the farmer absolutely did not want walkers, dogs and mountain bikers on his land.

ETA - so I would have a polite talk with the landowner before giving up on your woodland hacking. He may be fine with you riding it. The general public will just have to lump it.

 

[Goldenstar]

You can ride anywhere on someone’s land with their permission .

 

[criso]

I've been on yards where we've ridden on what are technically footpaths, I've alos been on 2 yards where access was via a private road which was also designated a public footpath so we rode on it.

The small exception was one place where the owner asked us not to ride on one path across a field as it churned it up too much, there were complaints from walkers and they were expected to keep the footpath reasonably maintained. There were lots of other fields we could ride round the edge of so this one wasn't a loss.

 

[Boughtabay]

We have a local permissive route which is strictly horses only. It's padlocked with a combination code. The local bridleways group negotiated access for horses in order to to reach the bridleways on the other side of the main road, but the farmer absolutely did not want walkers, dogs and mountain bikers on his land.

ETA - so I would have a polite talk with the landowner before giving up on your woodland hacking. He may be fine with you riding it. The general public will just have to lump it.

I think the issues between landowner and “public” has made the landowner quite bitter so I’m more likely to be added to the “annoying public” if I re-approach at the moment … I will do when everything blows over though!

 

[Greylegs]

We have a couple footpaths that cross our farm - I ride along them & would be pretty nose-out-of-joint if anyone told me I couldn’t because “it’s a footpath”!

That said I also have (had?) permission to ride a woodland which I’ve since stopped doing because of some conflict between the owner and walkers who regularly strayed from the footpath. I could see the walkers taking great offence to us being allowed to “roam freely” and didn’t fancy testing the land owners willingness to put up with complaints (low) vs his kind heart letting us be there!

This is pretty much the situation at our yard/farm. The public footpath goes straight through the wooded area, but we (as resident riders) use the paths on both sides to ride. Our land owner has installed clear "Please stay on the footpath" signs at the junctions of the footpath with the side tracks we use. He also tackles anyone he sees on foot in the "no access" areas and has gone as far as to ask the liveries not to walk them on foot too (some of us have dogs!), even though we are free to ride, in case we are seen by passing walkers and they get the idea they are also free to roam anywhere. So far, the system seems to work, we all stick to the rules and we are free to enjoy our lovely off road riding.

 

[Jambarissa]

I had this just the other day. Long reining down the fence line which is also a footpath and someone having a go at me for churning up the path (just grass). It's our bloody grazing field!

 

[HopOnTrot]

You can with landowner permission, we used to pay £25 a year for a key so we could ride on a footpath that meant we could cut out about an hour of road work to get to the common!

 

[teddy_]

Provided you have permission from the land owner, you can ride on a footpath - because you not accessing the footpath as a public right of way, you are accessing the footpath having been granted personal permission.

 

[PeterNatt]

Although the land belongs to the landowner the surface that the Public Footpath lies on must not be damaged in such a way that it may prevent members of the public from walking along it. Therefore best advice would be to ride to the side of the public footpath so as not to damage the surface of it.

 

[dominobrown]

I live down a lane that is partially a footpath and I have footpath that is a 'road' across my field. I obviously ride on it, and I allow anglers to drive on it to access a lake for fishing, united utilities who own the lake the other side of the fields and the forestry commission are allowed to drive on it too. The 'big' gate is padlocked and there is a footpath gate next to it.
Since this set up was agreed on by plenty of lawyers its legal to drive or ride on a footpath providing you have an agreement with landowner. A 'random' person couldn't drive or ride on this path, and it is padlocked for them, but a 'random' person could walk along it.

As to regards the surface... I, the landowner is not responsible but the national park are. (Lake District national park) weird, as I am responsible for gates/ stiles but not the surface. I was told this by rangers and access officers themselves as I did question it! (they were on about putting a drain in potentially as one footpath gets waterlogged in winter).

 

[blitznbobs]

I was once walking my dog on my land and someone yelled at me for not being on the footpath…(I was both pleased and vaguely amused at the same time) and that they would tell the landowner… i Asked if they knew the landowner and they said they did… I said “that’s odd cos I have never met you before in my life” it took him about 5 minutes to catch on …

 

[Rowreach]

I was once walking my dog on my land and someone yelled at me for not being on the footpath…(I was both pleased and vaguely amused at the same time) and that they would tell the landowner… i Asked if they knew the landowner and they said they did… I said “that’s odd cos I have never met you before in my life” it took him about 5 minutes to catch on …

I've probably posted this before in years gone by, but when I owned a property with a bridleway running along the driveway and my fields either side, I was amused when a certain tv gardener's wife demanded to know if I had permission to ride in the fields. I was less amused by her tendency to take her muddy GRs into said field and encourage them to jump into the water trough so she could wash them off.

I would never again buy a property with a right of way over it, far too much hassle all round.

 

[TheHairyOne]

We have a very angry lady who lives overlooking a footpath that is on the land belonging to the livery yard. She built a wall clearly intended to stop walkers being able to look into her garden, but riders are a fair bit taller.

Perfectly allowable for us to be on it as land owners permission. Doesnt stop her shouting!