would you ever or have you ever ridden on public footpaths

lincolnlady

lincolnlady

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as title really. we have loads of public footpaths nearby which actually look more like bridleways. we have about 4 bridleways near these footpaths and i know some riders do use the footpaths but im too chicken lol. what sort of trouble do you get into for going on these paths?

im such a big chicken that i darent go on them but always see other riders on them whats your opinion on this? do you think they are bang out of order or would you join them? lol xx
 
I've seriously thought about it!!
I can to the conclusion that if no 'yellow footpath' signs were clearly visable then I would use them... but to date I have not.

If someone told me off for doing so, then I'd make up a little story that I didn't know/didn't see the sign/just moved to the area... bad perhaps, but if you don't try ...:rolleyes::rolleyes:

I will add, that WHATEVER I do do, I WILL NOT be reckless, and unless path way is clear, I will always remain in walk and give way to other users. I would never consider it to be a right to use it for fast work, just a way of 'going somewhere different'.
 
This is a huge subject and rather a can of worms.

If you ride on a footpath you are committing a tresspass against the landowner, you are not committing a criminal offence, although if you damage the surface you are liable.
You can ride on a footpath if the landowner gives you permission, but walkers could well complain if the surface is damaged and the County Council would probably be after you and tell you to stop.

Most footpaths cannot be ridden as there are stiles, etc. in the way - deliberately.

If you say that the footpaths are being ridden, then there may be a case for applying to the County Council to have them upgraded to a bridlepath. But this might open up all sorts of problems and cause them to be physically shut against riders as the landowners would have to be informed that there is an application to have them upgraded and most landowners do not encourage bridlepaths.

All Councils have had to publish a Rights of Way Improvement Plan and that might include adding extra bridlepaths to the network to improve things for riders, in which caseyou can show them where you would like them! Look on your County Council website.

You could see how the Trails Trust have upgraded footpaths to bridlepaths - www.trailstrust.org.uk - 80 new bridlepaths.

You could also look into the history of the routes to see if they are incorrectly recorded as footpaths.

Contact your local BHS bridlepath officer and have word with them.
 
I ride on a short piece of a footpath in our village as it is a quick way to our yard without going on a main road. I often get off and lead if there are people around - but no one has told me off...yet!

I think as long as you are extra careful and polite if you meet someone you should be OK - but depends how militant the ramblers are near you :) I had one lady question why I was taking my horse down the path - but when I explained that the main road was very busy (BH Monday) she was fine.
 
Yes i have done. Mostly as a kid but more recently when i got a bit caught out on time and had to pick my daughter up from school, my choices were quickly scoot along a footpath and be home in 20 mins or a further hour either way along the bridleway. I felt bad though!
 
Yes - but only some very small stretches to rejoin a bridleway.

We've got a path that is also designated cycleway and bridleway (it is all one path and signed appropriately) - in a really random place it becomes cycleway/pedestrian only (no sign to indicate no horses though) and the bridleway starts up a short way away. Its all the same surface and there is nothing to tell it apart so I have to confess I do the extra 5 mins on it to rejoin the bridleway otherwise I could do no hacking without going onto a dual carriageway. This isn't rural - it is in the middle of town and no crops/land affected - it is an identical tarmac surface that randomly changes status part way along and then starts again with no discernable difference.

Never been told off as I'm sure no-one actually realises! You'd have to look very closely on a map to see that the short stretch is different so I will carry on and plead ignorance as there is no sign to say such. I know it is technically wrong but hey ho - otherwise I am very good about staying only on designated bridleway - wouldn't ever go into a field or on farmland that wasn't for horses.

Only other exceptions are if I've had to escape something dangerous on the road - I have occasionally gone onto a footpath/pavement for safety to get my not very traffic proof pony away from something, but I think that is different and it is for only a minute or so.
 
I ride on footpaths sometimes when the roads are busy/dangerous. I know I shouldn't, but sometimes its a lot safer. I wait for them to be clear from padestrians though first :)

Also if it's somebodies private land - no.
If there isn't a sign then I will ride there if it looks safe or I can see no problem, if theres a sign I'll stay clear. I only ever walk when out on hacks anyway, with the occasional trot on the roads.
 
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I do... but the yard uses it for field access, so we have permission from the landowner. Otherwise I wouldn't for the same reason as the OP!
 
Depends. On busy roads I will often tell my daughter to ride on the pavement unless there are pedestrians. Riding double would slow down the traffic & if its a flow of traffic I have no intention of putting my 7yr old daughters life in the hands of a driver that may or may not drive too close. Good as her pony is it only takes someone misjudging the distance. Do avoid busy roads but occasionally a small stretch can't be avoided. There's also a few council owned short cuts we use, some of which are subways, again, used to avoid busy roads. And what was once a derelict area is now classed as 'playing fields' most of its rough ground though & local riders have used it for as long as anyone remembers, so I do too. As a teen rode anywhere, barriers were seen as bonus jumps.
 
I wouldn't ride on a public footpath (presume you mean the none pavement variety) if it was just a single track and it's obvious that you would be churning it up, upsetting walkers etc as there is no room for passing, end of the day a public 'trail' footpath is just for walkers and I do respect that.

However, there is one Public Footpath that used to be a Bridleway (it's a farm track that is an old stone road) for reasons it then got changed back to a footpath and we did try to have it changed back with the council but because it was past the length of time you have to change it, it couldn't get done (legal reasons) but it was closed a bridleway due to poachers etc so gates were put up which I can totally understand. If the gates are open I will go on itand the farmers have been ok with this, plus there is plenty of room for walkers, bikers and riders so it's not like anyone is upsetting anyone and everyone is safe, you can only walk and trot on it, clear view 360 so there is no risk of mowing anywone down either.
 
I have done in the past and I do still ride one which up till recently was marked on maps as a bridleway, even though they have tried to put a horse-stopping obstacle in. It wasn't the land owner who had it changed anyway. I have ridden other footpaths with land owner permission.
 
There are a few paths around me where the os map, and the signs don't match up. I tend to go with whichever says its a bridleway! I used to ride on private land a lot when I kept my horse on an estate, so then I did ride on footpaths a fair bit, but I did have carte blanche to go anywhere within reason.
 
Theres a lot of public footpaths and bridleways around me where I ride regularly....the thing is, if you only rode on the bridlepaths then you'd have to levitate your horse accross the footpaths because they don't join up.

No-one knows the difference TBH and they are used regularly by dog walkers and riders and cyclists. We just move out of each others way when we meet.

I thought you meant footpaths as in pavements.....to which the answer is no.
 
I do with the landowners permission, in fact the only way on or off our yard involves going along a footpath so I drive along one too :p

We are allowed in some estate land as long as we keep the gates locked to prevent motorised vehicles getting in and a neighbouring farmer has said that he would be happy for us to use some of his footpaths as long as we can navigate the narrow gates as he isn't prepared to change them as he wants to keep trail bikes off. He has actually said he'd have no objection to it being upgraded and is fine with the mountain bikers using it it is trail bikes that spoil it for us.

I wouldn't ride on a pavement though, I don't think it is safe, you are better off in the road where the cars have to give you some space. I might consider riding on a verge if it was very wide but generally cars respect you more if you are on the road.
 
Round here, it's hard to tell the difference. There's a huge network of bridleways and footpaths (NT and FC), but they cross at so many places it's impossible to put signs at every junction, so we all muddle along. I'm very, very lucky. There are some which are obvious footpaths (don't cross anything) which I do ride on, but choose times wisely and take Henry well off the path if a group of walkers comes down. Never had a problem, but it's either townies without a map (so they don't know I'm being norty) or villagers, who love the ponies!
 
The way I look at it is- would you be happy for motorised scramblers to start using yuor bridleways? If not then I think you are being incredibly hypocritical to use footpaths.
 
SusieT said:
The way I look at it is- would you be happy for motorised scramblers to start using yuor bridleways? If not then I think you are being incredibly hypocritical to use footpaths.
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Well.....near me as I say EVERYONE uses them...cyclists, quad bikes, dog walkers and riders. If we were being strictly to the law I would assume cyclists and quad bikes weren't allowed either......on foot paths OR bridlepaths....

No-one gets their knickers in a twist about it....its how its always been.
 
SusieT said:
The way I look at it is- would you be happy for motorised scramblers to start using yuor bridleways? If not then I think you are being incredibly hypocritical to use footpaths.
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No I wouldn’t be happy if they went blasting about, however like the poster above says, if they slow down then it wouldn’t bother me if we had to share tracks, a lot of quad/motor cross riders can’t ride on the road as they are not road legal but they still do, many choosing to blast around the country lanes because there is less chance of them being caught ….again this does not bother me if they are sensible and go steady round blind bends and slow down when passing riders, I do feel sorry for them at times, better to see young boys enjoying a sport and making use of being outdoors than hanging around street corners getting up to no good because there’s nothing else for them to do (but that’s a whole different subject) but providing people respect each other on the tracks (as in old road tracks where the footing is suitable for feet, hooves and tyres) I can’t see why they can’t be enjoyed by all.

I’ve come across quad bikers and scramblers when I’ve been out on my horses and to fair, credit where it’s due, they have slowed down and even turned their engines off and I’ve always made a point of being very grateful, they are more than happy to do so next time.

Hypocritical or not, some folk don’t have the pleasure of riding on quiet roads or have bridleways at all and if the farmers don’t mind you going on the tracks and other people using the tracks don’t mind horse riders then are you saying given that situation you wouldn’t ride on the track?
 
95% of the time when on roads I ride double & when a car approaches in a sensible manner, I move infront of my daughter so there is room to pass. But on some occasions riding double would slow traffic too much, hence daughter goes on pavement if its otherwise empty. I have no wish to make a personal discovery as to the damage done to a little girl on an 11.1 by a careless driver. And most young kids ride their bikes on pavements permanently, so I see no difference in the odd time I allow daughter on it. Sure car drivers prefer only having to pass mine too. When all drivers follow the highway code, I'll never send daughter on the pavement either.
 
SusieT said:
The way I look at it is- would you be happy for motorised scramblers to start using yuor bridleways? If not then I think you are being incredibly hypocritical to use footpaths.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I think its really rude to ride on a footpath without permission. Thats one of the reason people hate horse riders! And of course they shouldn't be used by bikes or anything else - just because someone else does doesn't make it right.

But I'm lucky to have loads and loads of open hacking where I live. I don't think I would keep my horse somewhere that didn't. I lived in towns for many years, and didn't have horses in that period.
 
only one, we have a really wide open drove which connects two roads, it is technically a footpath but used by all local riders.

We also have a bridlepath in the vicinity that appears, on OS maps to only be accessible via a footpath I keep meaning to go and have a nosey at it.
 
We have a footpath up the side of our house that everybody rides along!! It's bloody irritating as really horses or bikes or cars(!) should not be on there. The council got fed up and further up the track where it goes onto the common they put posts down so people werent tempted to take their 4x4's up there.
It is bothersome sometimes as the local riding school use it as one of their trails which means it see's a fair bit of equine traffic but tbh I would feel rather mean as a horse owner or rider if I complained about it. Its also quite nice sometimes to be looking out of the window and see a horse go along. If trail bikes started using it that would be a different matter but I don't think they ever would.
Once when it snowed someone skiied down the path, now that WAS interesting :).
 
I think I've only done it once, that I was aware of anyway. There were some woods we could access directly from the yard but they weren't very big, you couldn't get very far and they got pretty muddy. The footpath was open at both ends, wide enough for horses and people and linked onto a fairly quiet road that you could almost immediately get off again onto either of two bridleways leading into the big woods which were far better to ride in.

I would prefer not to do it. As a regular user of footpaths as a walker I know how horrible they are when they've been churned up by horses. But sometimes it's the only option if you want to hack out somewhere other than roads. I've seen bridleways on maps that don't link up with anything other than footpaths so you've got no choice.

If it's your only option for a safe, interesting ride and you're considerate to other users and are aware of it getting churned up then I think it's okay.
 
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