Riding in London & legislation

[Soot]

Got a strange e-mail from a friend ... need to know as much as possible to pass on to him!

Bit of an odd question this, but here goes... Do you know what the law
says about riding horses in London? Is it legal for private citizens
to do so? Are permits/equipment/etc neded?

Then upon being queired, he sent this

I'm not entirely sure of all the details, but let's just say it's a
publicity stunt designed to part-compensate for the fact that you
can't drive a tank around London...

He also specifically was wondering about riding in London parks, on London streets and on A-roads ... He has no horses, but is nosy about a situation!!!

[Little Tinka]

I ride in London. You can ride on the normal roads, not the motorways.
I used to drive my pony from North London to Regent's Park to do the London Harness Parade every year before it was moved to it's new venue. I have ridden up to Oxford Street and round Hyde Park. I used to have a permit for Hampstead Heath, but there are parts of it you can ride round without one, so I don't bother getting one any more.I also ride round Richmond Park, I don't need a permit for there.

[Doeylicious]

Can't help with any of the rules I am afraid.

But what he said about the publicity stunt has made me somewhat concerned...

As a nervous nellie who worries about everything, I really hope he and friends are not planning some mass ride into London in an army style manner (got this from the tank thing) as unless a horse is used to London traffic and bombproof as they come, I would be VERY reluctant to take it there, and you will have a lot of idiots who don't like horses or are scared of them adding to the general panic.

[Soot]

It's definitely nothing to do with him - I don't think he's ever even seen a horse before. I think he overheard someone talking about something and is trying to figure out what's going on. My first response to him was actually that anyone could ride in London if they were suicidal .... But I think I'm the only horse-person he knows (hopefully at all - I too am wondering what the heck is going on now!!) ...

[Iron Maiden]

I've ridden around London, including hacking down main roads (e.g. Hyde Park Corner in the dark! :eek:) I'm not aware of any particular restrictions on riding on the roads, and some of parks have bridleways. You can ride round the Serpentine in Hyde Park and Rotten Row is fabulous! Shame there's a speed limit - not something I've come across before :D I think it's fair to say that the horses needed to be bombproof, but they got used to the traffic fairly quickly - it was silly things like kids running round with ballons or window cleaners chucking water about that seemed to spook them. We used to hack past a few fairly interesting embassies & there were some funny electric bollards that buzzed and sunk into the road to let you through, the horses were :eek: about them! The biggest nightmare was coming across the Household Cavalry exercising their horses, that sent our horses completely nuts for some reason, I'll never know why but there you go :o

[Doeylicious]

It's definitely nothing to do with him - I don't think he's ever even seen a horse before. I think he overheard someone talking about something and is trying to figure out what's going on. My first response to him was actually that anyone could ride in London if they were suicidal .... But I think I'm the only horse-person he knows (hopefully at all - I too am wondering what the heck is going on now!!) ...

Let us know if you find out anything else!

IronMaiden, sounds like you had a very interesting time! I have seen a stables that do riding down Rotten Row but its £50 a time :eek: and don't think I am good enough a rider to fully appreciate it!!

[Iron Maiden]

IronMaiden, sounds like you had a very interesting time! I have seen a stables that do riding down Rotten Row but its £50 a time :eek:

The club whose horses I used to ride round central London had to sell it's horses a few years back & is just a saddle club now :( I had some amazing times with them though & I ended up buying one of their horses (my old mate JS). One of his friends tried to take the racing line home from the top of Rotten Row once, which involved going straight through Harvey Nichols - the bloke on the door had to chase him off :o And a lady in Belgravia came running out of her house screeching at one of the club members because their horse had a poo in front of her house. Her neighbour came out & scooped it up for his roses apparently. My fave moment was trying to cross the road to Knightsbridge Barracks, I was riding & leading and the horse I was holding got loose on the road, none of the cars would stop :eek: The a soldier came out with a great big machine gun and you have never seen the traffic screech to a halt so fast in your life. So Iron Maiden's top tio for staying safe when riding in traffic is....bring along a machine gun ;)

[icegirl]

[QUOTE=Iron Maiden;2064007] So Iron Maiden's top tio for staying safe when riding in traffic is....bring along a machine gun ;)[/QUOTE Good grief!!:eek:]

[jennywren07]

you RODE around hype park conter?!? :eek: I can't een bare dricing around it :o