Are horses and traps allowed on bridleways?

I met some delightful people on a horse and trap today on a local bridleway (which is also a Sustrans route) – it’s singletrack about 2 feet wide with another couple of feet of grass either side and then verges.

They saw me coming from a good 100m away and continued to drive up the middle and didn’t make any attempt to move over. I rode partly up the grass verge at the side to pass them. At this point the driver erupted into a flurry of Irish accented obscenities. I politely pointed out it’s a bridleway and they shouldn’t be there. Is that the case?

I did very well not to shout a well known line from a Guy Ritchie film.

No, bridleways do not give rights to pull anything behind the horse.

Mind you, I may use the occasional footpath so who am I to speak?

Rachel

Correct, there is no legal right to take a carriage on a Bridleway

However I would caution that a route being recorded as a bridleway on a definitive map is without prejudice to any unrecorded higher rights that may exist in law, and there are a great many routes that have historical evidence supporting restricted byway status that are recorded as bridleways on definitive maps.

what was he complaining about?

The people you met would probably be happy to drive a horse and trap up a motorway if they wanted so why should they worry about whats right or wrong.

I’ve given up riding local bridleways due to the amount of damaged sections that you can’t ride through.It’s not the cheeky 4×4 people either as not a tyre track in site just great sections of horse hoofed swamp, the riders don’t seem to even care/acknowledge its them that’s causing the damage 👿

My experience too Muke.

as Muke, even nurse, caring, sharing, giving gf had a go this afternoon – ‘ why can’t they just leave a bit to the side for others’ (40 ft wide path and they’d horsed the lot …..

just great sections of horse hoofed swamp, the riders don’t seem to even care/acknowledge its them that’s causing the damage

bits up near chobham common where there have built up several feet or more where the horses have dug trenches.

Doesn’t stop the warden from lecturing me about how mtbs cause more erosion.