How to avoid being told off by landowners and take your horse on holiday with you in Yorkshire

From then Ride Yorkshire, a not-for-profit organisation, developed guided rides and self-guided rides for hundreds and hundreds of people, as well as finding out about places for people to stay with their horse in beautiful Yorkshire or to learn to ride or do trail-rides from.

But in the last few years, especially with the impact of COVID, the nature of what people want and what the group does has changed and Janet, who has worked in the travel industry for many years, as tour leader and organiser and then as a university lecturer, is looking to offer new things to members.

She is working on revising the Ride Yorkshire website with updated routes for people to follow, encouraging ‘park and ride’ type facilities where people can turn up places with their own horses and ride and even take them on holiday.

Mrs Cochrane, also the Executive Secretary of the North York Moors Association, is also in the process of writing a guide to riding in The Wolds. It will be the first publication of its kind for some time and will contain new and updated information, modern day issues for rising but also to encourage people to just enjoy riding for what it is.

Mrs Cochrane said: “There has not been one done for a long time, there were a couple in the past but they are well out-dated. That is a major plan for me for 2023.

"I understand from a rider’s perspective. Under the Rights of Way Act, a lot of things that should have been bridleways were designated as footpaths.

"I know old rights of way which stopped being bridleways and started being footpaths for no other reason than landowners didn’t want horses on them. All of a sudden it is a bridleway then a footpath.

"There are some places where there are lots of bridleways and some where there are virtually none. There are lots of people doing fantastic work getting them changed from footpaths to bridleways – but then it is getting it through to the general public.”

People are also reluctant to challenge wrong signage and route rights due to lack of confidence and map reading skills and Mrs Cochrane is also keen to encourage people to lead their own rides.

While she has been leading rides for years, the demand seems to have changed with more organisations offering similar services.

"A lot of people are so anxious about going out for all kinds of things. Roads are busier and drivers don’t always slow down for horses”, she added.

"We are trying to help people expand their comfort zones and ride within them and give them a good time and make it enjoyable for them and their horse.

"People are not taught to read maps anymore and don’t know the difference between a footpath and a bridleway, legal rights of way and unclassified routes. People go off exploring and get told off but the landowner or farmer and that is a problem.

"A lot keep horses in livery but don’t know where to ride or the best way to do things.

"We are now trying to provide the infrastructure for people to do their own self-guided rides, and a list of places that people can stay with their horse and ride.

"The area I want to move into is park and ride.”

Already the website has listings in The Yorkshire Dales, the North York Moors and Howardian Hills, Yorkshire Wolds and The Vale of York and the Yorkshire coast where people can go for a holiday and take their horses too.

She hopes that the new and updated Ride Yorkshire website will have enough information to help people go on their own rides but is also hoping to take some rides out with leaders in the new year.

Last month there were various factors she said that meant bookings were down for guided rides.

Mrs Cochrane said: “People have not been booking. This December is probably the worst month we have had. It is the worst December we have had. People have just not been booking.

"The weather has not helped, normally we carry on through the year but have not because of the weather. You can’t ride when it is icy or the ground is too hard.

"We have really noticed the decline and people are worried about booking for 2023 for the same reason (costs). That has been a challenge in terms of what we are going to do.”