researching bridleway routes

Researching the routes

and keeping them up-to-date

Each summer we spend a lot of time - mostly happy, some frustrating - researching new routes and checking old ones.

We ride all the bridleways we recommend as well as many that we don't. Each year, we check any reports of changes or difficulties on customer feedback forms - and if it's urgent we do it at once, sometimes on foot or by mountain bike. If not, we either wait till the season closes in the autumn or the next routine re-ride of the network concerned (whichever is soonest), and we do all the minor feedback checks at the same time, in one hit.

Customers don't always bother to tell us about minor changes (eg. bridlesign no longer there, gate now metal not wood), or even some quite major ones if there's no problem and the route is well waymarked (eg. bridleway re-routed round a new building) - so we re-ride each network in full every 4-5 years.

Most of the time the changes we need to make to our route-notes are minor, but sometimes we're amazed that riders have been using directions which seem to us quite inadequate in the light of changes to the route - for years, without any of them ever telling us !

The photo above is of Bobbie from Bridle Rides research riding in the Yorkshire Wolds. Her husband, Phil, also researches and checks our routes by mountain bike (below right).

Some bridleways get badly overgrown - especially after a wet spring/early summer as in the photo above left. Mostly there's a cycle of growth lasting several years which starts when the vegetation is cut back. The path then gets gradually more and more overgrown until the next cut-back, when the riding gets more difficult, especially for riders on big horses (bridleways are meant to be clear of overhanging branches up to a height of 12 feet).

We can sometimes speed up the cut-back cycle either by getting local volunteers, the relevant County Council Rights of Way staff to do it when customers report problems to us. We also cut back the odd branch ourselves when we're re-riding!


		Researching the routes and keeping them up-to-date

Each summer we spend a lot of time - mostly happy, some frustrating - researching new routes and checking old ones. We ride all the bridleways we recommend as well as many that we don't. Each year, we check any reports of changes or difficulties on customer feedback forms - and if it's urgent we do it at once, sometimes on foot or by mountain bike. If not, we either wait till the season closes in the autumn or the next routine re-ride of the network concerned (whichever is soonest), and we do all the minor feedback checks at the same time, in one hit. Customers don't always bother to tell us about minor changes (eg. bridlesign no longer there, gate now metal not wood), or even some quite major ones if there's no problem and the route is well waymarked (eg. bridleway re-routed round a new building) - so we re-ride each network in full every 4-5 years. Most of the time the changes we need to make to our route-notes are minor, but sometimes we're amazed that riders have been using directions which seem to us quite inadequate in the light of changes to the route - for years, without any of them ever telling us !

			The photo above is of Bobbie from Bridle Rides research riding in the Yorkshire Wolds. Her husband, Phil, also researches and checks our routes by mountain bike (below right).


	Some bridleways get badly overgrown - especially after a wet spring/early summer as in the photo above left. Mostly there's a cycle of growth lasting several years which starts when the vegetation is cut back. The path then gets gradually more and more overgrown until the next cut-back, when the riding gets more difficult, especially for riders on big horses (bridleways are meant to be clear of overhanging branches up to a height of 12 feet). We can sometimes speed up the cut-back cycle either by getting local volunteers, the relevant County Council Rights of Way staff to do it when customers report problems to us. We also cut back the odd branch ourselves when we're re-riding!