Got a 1hr pass today to go for a spin in the Sun, decided to head over Cleeve hill (Cheltenham way), set off round my usual quick circuit having climbed up the road, within 100yards I passed 6 horses, never normally see any, within the first mile I had passed more than a dozen and the trail was shredded. I don’t just mean a few hoof marks, I mean deep deep churning of the trail, about 3 meters wide, the whole width of the trail. Rode for another 2 miles and it was pretty much unridable. I climbed up a large bank (hill) carrying my bike to another trail I know, which was rideable but still carried a lot of hoof marks. Came to an electric fence, found a gate and rode through. Long an short of it is I got chased by about 5 massive wooly rare breed cows…..

Made a hasty retreat, back the way I came, past the horses…….

Cows are cows, but surely you would hope horse riders would not just keep on the same track churning it up over and over again, lets face it, bike riders get bad press (Cranham…) and we are able to self regulate and use common sense. Does this not apply to horse riders?

Avoid riding bridleways, stick to footpaths. 😉

were you on a ‘bridleway’?

Horse rider have even more limited access, much less than us, add in their chances of cheekiness is limited in the extreme, as well they have to suffer idiots on the roads and trails who have no consideration for them. Horse rider IME don’t want to ride in churned up mud, it can contribute to mud fever & other problems
.
Also just remember, without them having blazed these trails, our access would be what exactly?

Your be losing a battle there Horses they have been around for a long time.No what you mean.What can you do??????wait till the back of Lecky is fenced off what state that will get into with all that livestock.getting abit of Nightmare around here.Soon you might not be allowed up cleeve hill on a bike!!

I beat they don’t even pay road tax.

Cleeve is Common Land, I understand that means free for all.
Leki is getting just as bad, no Cranham (wouldn;t ride it in Winter anyhow). FOD / Ashton Court could soon be our nearest riding.

Mind you, south side of Bredon hill is still ok… (for now!)

They don’t even pick up the giant piles of steaming s*#t after them.

monsteryeti,

maybe painswick beacon or randwick…i know its not on your back door but…

or talk to corrective roger about the chelt cycling club track at bushy (looks over bishops cleeve)

Just get an appropriate bike. That sort of stuff is no problem with 4″ tyres.

On-One are coming out with one soon so price should be reasonable.

If you don’t like the mud and wild life, maybe you should stick to the trails they already tarmacked over?

fourbanger – Member
If you don’t like the mud and wild life, maybe you should stick to the trails they already tarmacked over?

Nice post at FOUR am FOURbanger. Nothing wrong with mud and certainly no problem with wildlife, but unridable trails (with normal tyres) is what I have an issue with. Maybe you need some sleep chap. 😕

Problem round here is that the entire width of the trail is getting mashed up. Unwalkable, let alone unrideable 🙁
Can’t imagine the land owners are too pleased either, since the paths are getting made wider and wider by people trying to find some ground they can walk on.

Not keen on cows since a bad experience with a field of bullocks a couple of years ago. I rode round the edge of the field to avoid them but they ran across the field and were trying to butt me and kicking out at me. Not fun.

Then only a few weeks later had a run in with a rather angry bull near Pickering. Whoever said keeping a bull with cows and calves makes them quieter hadn’t met this one.

We do actually have to share the trails.

Cows, Horses, Tractors, Logging, 4×4’s, Motorbikes etc all have to share the same limited tracks and can cause a mess.

I would just ride somewhere else. There are loads of great trails in your area, some cheeky, some not. This time of year you just have to anticipate soft ground and stay away from the busy spots.

Get a map out, study it and go exploring.

Move oop north. If we see cows or horses on the trails, we butcher them and get a fire going

Had a similar experience on a few bridleways yesterday, it’s normal in winter that horses churn up the full width of a trail into an unuseable mess. Feet do similar things on muddy paths to a lesser extent. But come spring, greenery grows on the churned up bits like a ploughed field, tyres pack down a new skinny singletrack line and the trail cycle begins again. In Summer a fairly straight bridleway can have a nice hardpacked wiggly line along it.

I think it’s good mixed trail-use synergy, or something like that. Apart from when I’m pushiing a clogged-up bike along one in winter, swearing at the ground..

Maybe a polite letter to a few local stables outlinign which trails you believe are being overused in the winter and could they look into more sustainable routes over the winter? Maybe point out that as a responsible mountain biker you wouldn’t take groups down certain trails when theyre muddy and could they show similar consideration?

Or is it just easier to tell STW how angry you are?