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news
New Forest horse riders (Flickr Creative Commons - Wight Badger)Not In My Back Bridleway: Horse riders object to resurfacing of 50 year old bridleway for cyclists to use too
Horse riders in Hampshire have expressed their outrage at plans to resurface a bridleway to allow access for cyclists, disabled people, and children.
The permissive bridleway along the Old Meon Valley disused railway line has been used as a horse riding route for more than five decades, but now planners intend to make the 10 mile route useful to other users.
South Downs National Park and Hampshire County Council intend to upgrade the path in a £310,000 project which will see the park closed for several months while work takes place.
A local livery yard owner Kathryn Montague has set up a Facebook group named “Save Our Bridleway — Meon Valley Disused Railway Line” - and both cyclists and horse riders have registered their objections.
Mrs Montague told Horse and Hound: “Riders and cyclists have used the disused railway line for years and it is totally unnecessary to spend thousands on resurfacing it.
“The path is perfect for a trot or canter, but we’ve now been told we should only be walking.”
She added that disabled people would be unlikely to use it as there was no nearby parking.
David Deane, joint cycling projects officer for the South Downs National Park Authority and HCC, said: “The trail is in desperate need on an upgrade, with overgrown trees on steep embankments that are prone to collapse in high winds and a muddy surface that rarely dries out,” he said.
Mark Weston, director of access at the British Horse Society, said: “This truly is a multi-user route and, in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority, HCC is repairing the surface to accommodate other users.”
He added “as far as we are aware there are no proposals to tarmac any sections of the route”.
Horse riders in Hampshire have often found themselves pitted against cyclists in recent years.
Earlier this year we reported how New Forest MPs have once again called for statutory regulation of sportives — and it appears that cycle sports's national governing body, British Cycling, agrees.
The New Forest National Park Authority (NFNPA) has approved a cycling events framework that includes a 1000-rider limit on rides in the forest. Representatives of cycling bodies strongly opposed this move, and the only event organiser to have run events on this scale in the park has said he will not comply.
Faced with that opposition New Forest East MP Julian Lewis and fellow Tory Desmond Swayne, MP for New Forest West, say they will press for legal restrictions on sportives.
Mr Swayne told the Southern Daily Echo: "The charter is a step in the right direction but it’s voluntary.
“A limit on numbers is an important element. That is why we will continue to try to get enforceable regulations.”
And last year the New Forest National Park Authority decided not to go ahead with the planned implementation of a 'Boris Bike' style network of hire bikes. Had the project gone ahead it would have been the UK's first rural hire bike system.
In a statement, the authority said that its 12 members were concerned about the system's financial sustainability and believed that "the likelihood of the system receiving significant sponsorship had markedly reduced since it was originally conceived".
Just previously, UK Cycling Events, the organiser of two annual sportives in the New Forest, found a new base for the rides to put them out of the reach of New Forest NIMBYs.
Vociferous criticism from a small number of New Forest residents and councillors last year led UK Cycling Events to look for a new venue for the start of the ride.
There have been attempts to sabotage the rides, including tacks being dumped on the routes and signs being torn down.
After talking to other venues, including Gang Warily recreation centre in Blackfield, the rides will now start at Matchams Leisure Park, just outside the western edge of the New Forest and across the River Avon in Dorset.
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52 comments
I think that the SDNPA and HCC are doing the correct thing with these works. Previously the Meon Valley Trail had a range of surfaces stone chippings, compacted earth and thick wet mud all occurring at various points. At least now there should be a consistent finish and you can start a ride at Wickham and be confident of reaching West Meon. My understanding is that the large stone chippings which the horse riders are complaining about are not the final finish.
The campaign has also bemoaned the tree clearing but this allows the native downland plants to grow as well helping to ensure that the trail can dry out more quickly.
There is a blog on the works here http://southdownsforum.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=3epf5ekcfre0l
I rode a bit of this last weekend - it's on the Southdowns Way - I was riding a fatbike and it was awful. New chippings are best described as rough ballast. There's no way it's suitable for a wheelchair and anyone on skinny tyres won't be comfortable - I was being bounced around on my 4" tyres.
I'm quite happy to share the trails with horses - unregulated motorbike riders are a far greater menace.
Why are Road CC making this a bike vs horse debate? If you got your atlas out you'd see that this is in the Southdowns National Park and not the New Forest.
It was awful on a fatty? Fuck me, good luck anyone else!
Why has this started to degenerate into MTB bashing? All cyclists of all ages, horse riders, the disabled and walkers of all abilities can all use a way with a Macadamised surface.
As a side note horses being ridden above a walk or trot can cause massive damage to surfaces especially when the surface is wet. When I worked for Beverley Borough Council it took me four days to repair a wide verge after six riders thought it would be fun to use it as a gallop. The repairs had to be done to prevent wrecking the mowing machines.
And the Ottringham to Winestead section of the Hull to Withernsea cycle/footpath became unwalkable and unridable because of horse riders using it as gallops, damage that was never repaired.
It's also worth noting that riders are responsible for their horses actions, if the horse is too nervous to use on public rights of way it shouldn't be there. It's the horse riders responsibility to ensure the horse is properly controlled not other peoples. According to my late father in law who grew up farming with and training horses, skittish horses are the sign of a bad rider causing concern in the horse not a nervous horse, but then he only had 70 years of dealing with them so probably didn't know what he was talking about.
Bloody Horses! Why should they get their own roads, it not as if they pay road tax or nuffing!!!!
Thats because there were no doubt 10 of you on the Job. 8 Gaffers, 1 workie and 1 sent from the Job Centre on work experience. Then of course after starting work at 10am, at 10.30 it was break time for 30 minutes, then lunch at 12 till 2, then back to the yard at 3.30 for home at 4
There were four of us and I was the acting Ganger.
We started at 0700 and finished at 1630 (0715 to 1615 on site).
Our breaks were two fifteen minute breaks taken at the work site and a half hour lunch break taken at a local cafe.
We shovelled by hand and moved by wheel-barrow ten tonnes of materials (soil and turf). We got no thanks, no pat on the back, no recognition, just complaints from dog walkers that their dogs had nowhere to crap, horse riders because they had to use the road and local residents because the verge looked ugly whilst the works were on-going (I'm assuming it was the look of the verge but it could have been us - it rained all four days).
I hope that sets the record straight.
I dislike the constant paving of country trails. It's just a townie's idea of progress often blamed erroneously on health & safety. Much as I love cycling, paving over of our countryside should be resisted as much as possible. Just use a MTB or cross bike ffs!
As I understand, this is a disused railway line, rather than some ancient country path.
What if I dont have a MTB or cross bike, nor the money to buy one? That's being just as elitist and exclusive as those horsey types.
Frankly, if it opens up access to the path to more people then great.
Citation required. All faeces can carry pathogens so to say "completely harmless" is not only hyperbole but dangerous nonsense.
Im with the horse riders, bridleways wouldnt exist with horses and MTB's were invented to ride challenging routes and are allowed to use bridleways. Why sanitise every bit of path in the UK with 'improvement' ?
I do sympathise with the disabled but resurfacing for cyclists? Whatever happened to ride your mtb from A to B and just deal with whatever comes? Hell even if you have to get off and push the journey still continues,
Just because horse shit is benign doesn't make it pleasant to clean off a cycle, wheelchair or 5 year old, so I hereby propose the following regulation.
All equine quadrupeds to wear a nappy when in public areas.
(Horse nappies do exist. Just enter "horse nappy" into your search engine.)
The awkward crowing of the overprivileged as they try to justify themselves. Public spaces can be used by anyone for any legal purpose - the more people using a bridleway the better. And I loved her patronising, distanced view of the disabled.
Also, why don't horse owners have to clean up after them like dog owners do?
What a load of utter tripe. I can well understand why horse riders who regularly use this bridleway might object to it becoming filled with other users. Horses can be nervous creatures and the thought of the minority of idiot cyclists who don't heed this must be a concern to those who'd have to deal with the consequences. Perhaps they'd be more amenable to change if the proposals made the path wide enough so that they'd not have to worry about their horses being spooked? After all, isn't that what we cyclists also want - space and separation?
And horse owners don't clean up after their animals because unlike dog poo, horse poo is completely harmless.
No it's not - horse manure contains parasites, bacteria and viruses like any animal waste, including Clostridium Tetani, Giardia and Cryptosporidium. So, while it is less likely to make you ill, it can still be dangerous. It's also not pleasant to ride through.
Additionally I don't want space and separation, only to be treated as an equal and have my safety respected whether on the road, bridleway or anywhere else. Segregated cycle lanes are important to get people cycling because the behaviour of motor traffic puts people off. One viewpoint is that segregation/separation validates this behaviour - much like needing a separate bridleway because of the "idiot cyclists" you describe.
Public space should be available to be used by as many people as possible - increasing activity levels etc. I'm not saying that we should pave the countryside but the council in question obviously feel that this is a valid use of public money.
Ultimately I think we should only fund things that have a social benefit - I know cycling falls in to this category but I don't know if horse riding does. Should society subsidise the pursuits of those with privilege and protect their chosen areas of public land?
People make huge sacrifices to own horses on quite modest budgets. My aunt has a horse, she teaches special needs kids. A friend has a horse on her nurses salary and one of the secretaries at my mums work has two. Hardley the 1%.
Aside from riding, which is physically more demanding than it looks, looking after horses is proper labour. I don't think you can argue that sports cycling is less privileged or more socially beneficial than horse riding.
Hardly the 1% but hardly the typical horse owner either. I don't really have anything against horse riders but I do have something against elitist thinking and non-democratic use of public spaces, which is how I took the comments in the article.
As to your points I absolutely think you can argue that sports cycling is more socially beneficial - I'd venture that the health benefits are greater and the carbon footprint is far far smaller, not to mention the damage to trails as others have outlined above.
As for privilege, it costs a couple of hundred quid to start cycling and you're not going to own or regularly ride a horse for that.
Income is irrelevant. They choose to make those sacrifices. We all make sacrifices (AKA choices).
Replace the term 'horse rider' with another group and see how it reads.
People make huge sacrifices to own horses on quite modest budgets. My aunt has a horse, she teaches special needs kids. A friend has a horse on her nurses salary and one of the secretaries at my mums work has two. Hardley the 1%.
Aside from riding, which is physically more demanding than it looks, looking after horses is proper labour. I don't think you can argue that sports cycling is less privileged or more socially beneficial than horse riding.
So does soil. Should we ban soil? The natural world isn't sanitised, if you don't like that then feel free to stay at home.
Dear Peowpeowpeowlasers,
As a child growing up in rural techno-poverty, horses eggs were a hugely important constituent, along with cow pats (best when crusty on the outside but retaining a sludgy soft centre), of the arsenal of weaponry used in conflict resolution. I can assure you horse poo is most certainly NOT completely harmless!
"What larks we had, Pip."
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