Help Save Our Unrecorded Paths

This from the British Horse Society:

(and it applies to footpaths as well…)

2026: Why is it important?

In 2000, the Countryside and Rights of Way Act was introduced in England and Wales. Section 53 of the Act provides for a cut-off date in 2026, which means that many historic routes of use to horse riders and carriage drivers will be extinguished if they are not formally recorded as a bridleway or restricted byway.

These unrecorded routes actually exist in law but have been temporarily lost to the public and are in danger of having their rights extinguished. Our aim is to safeguard them for public use so that equestrians today and in the future have safe off-road routes to ride and carriage drive on.

Just because you currently ride on a route doesn’t mean it’s recorded and protected from extinguishment.

We need your help!

The BHS is committed to protecting and preserving the equestrian off-road network. However, there’s only so much we and our volunteers can do. Working together we can ensure that routes used by horses in the past are accurately recorded and reinstated as safe off-road routes to ride and carriage drive according to the evidence.

We’ve created a 2026 Toolkit detailing how you can ensure your routes are recorded so they won’t be lost after 2026. With generous support from Sport England through the British Equestrian Federation, we are now also able to offer a grant to volunteers to help cover the costs of making Definitive Map Modification Order applications to their local authority.

Find out more information about our 2026 Toolkit at the BHS website at: https://www.bhs.org.uk/