Riding on protected headland/natural stewardship

[sophiebailey]

Hi all, after some advice if anyone has been in a similar situation. I'm moving to a new field at the end of August (right next to my house - hooray!!) And the hacking is fantastic and goes for miles, all off road grass bridleway.

After investigating the bridleway maps i sadly realised that the crop field between my field and the entrance to the bridleway network is not any sort of public access. The only other route to the bridleway is to ride out of the vehicular access to my field and along the A41 for 0.5miles. (The A41 is a 60mph trunk road connecting the A5 to a motorway, so as you can imagine its always really really busy, lots of HGV's and arctics, motorbikes, farm machinery etc and lots of cars zooming past at 60mph+)

I approached the farmer and asked for his permission to ride along the headland (0.3 miles of headland) to connect to the bridleway. He said he would have to approach the lord of the estate who owns the field as it is part of the stewardship scheme. He said the issue would not be me riding on it, it would be the (6 foot in some places!!!) tall weeds that they can only mow twice a year under the scheme. We would have to fight our way through the weeds and would most likely leave a track that other riders might then try to use.

My question is this; has anyone been in this circumstance before? I have considered offering to personally maintain a small strip a horses width in size on the side of the headland furtherest from the hedge, and then erecting 'no horses' signs at the entrance to the field, or perhaps asking the farmer if he could leave landrover/tyre tracks in the crop field that we could ride along to cross the field, if we promise to stick to the track and not to canter etc. Does anyone else have any ideas?

I want to co-operate with them as far as possible to create a solutio that doesnt inconvenience them or cause them hassle, but at the same time if i cant gain access across that field i become landlocked in my yard unless i put my brave pants on and ride down the A41, hoping people slow down for me and i dont meet any lorries of doom :-(

Sorry for the long one! Xo

 

[FfionWinnie]

Maintaining a horse wide strip on the area within the scheme won't be allowed. The reason they can't mow is for environmental protection. It will really depend what the rules of the scheme are as to whether you could ride on it.

You might be able to pay him to leave a tramline for you to ride on I suppose.

 

[benz]

We have fields protected under natural England and we can ride even through the most protected fields (HS1), in the agreement it states how much we can set aside for headland and when we can mow, graze etc. and we mow a strip weekly. Presumably it just depends on the agreement with NE and how much the landowner wants the subsidies?

 

[Suechoccy]

Have you let the farmer/estate owner know that you have full liability insurance for youreslf and your horse, that you will not ride on the land in such a way to damage it (ie cantering if wet and soft), keep the arrangemnt to yourself discretely, pay an amount if required? Also, Christmas a thoughtful token of thanks (eg decent bottle of wine and a card). Might be worth dropping a line in a card, with your full address and contact details. Good luck.

 

[sophiebailey]

I thought that might be the case :-( i had hoped if it was close to the crop and not the hedgeline it might have been ok. Thanks. I had also thought about paying a yearly 'toll' to be able to ride down a tyre track/tram line .....



ETA- thanks everyone, your replies didnt pop up until i posted my reply! I was going to write a letter to the farmer and to the estate office explaining what we want to do and with a map showing our 'proposed route'. I might see if i can find out which scheme they're under and then check what the handbook for that scheme says. Thanks if they give us a route then there will most certainly be a good xmas present!! We already started the 'schmooze' campaign by agreeing to collect a horse in our lorry for the farmers wife free of charge 😅

 

[Suechoccy]

if it's a private arrangement between you and the farmer then it shouldn't matter what scheme it is, as it's a private arrangement and you're threfore not a member of the public. The schemes often specify no public access but I think such ruling doesn't preclude the farmer or his family from access as it's their land, so long as the land isn't damaged anti-the-agreement for which they're being paid.