BHS Highlights Reporting Issues on Rights of Way

The BHS’s Ride Out UK (ROUK) campaign celebrates the joys of riding out in our beautiful countryside, as well as raising awareness of the great work they do to protect and extend safe places to ride and carriage drive off-road.

The British Horse Society has recently been investigating the biggest challenges that riders and carriage drivers face whilst riding off road. In the feedback, this included damaged, impractical or slippery surfaces, dangerous and impassable gates, lack of maintenance on off road tracks, disjointed bridleway networks, and the lack of support from councils and authorities on reopening and maintaining bridleways.

The BHS Ride Out Fund has helped provide multi-user routes across the UK since being launched in 2015. The fund welcomes applications from BHS local committees and affiliated equestrian access groups to access the Ride Out Fund for projects focused on improving equestrian routes.

Below are some examples of the projects considered for funding:

• Linking existing off-road equestrian routes or public rights of way
• Removing riders and/or carriage drivers from a dangerous section of road
• Improving infrastructure (e.g. repairing/new gates, fencing, bridge anti-slip strips)
• Waymarking
• Surface improvements
• Restoring an existing route that has fallen into disrepair

If you have identified a potential route that would benefit from the fund, or have already completed the reporting steps for issues on routes and continue to have problems, then please get in contact with access@bhs.org.uk

You can find out Road Safety Guidance here on the Yard Owner Hub, including the useful BHS guidance on various aspects of riding on and off the roads, as well as their Reporting Issues on Public Rights of Way in England and Wales information.