British Horse Society secures new funding to protect England's bridleways

The British Horse Society (BHS) has signed a new agreement with British Equestrian to draw on funding from Sport England's partner investment scheme, announced in August 2026. The award runs for 12 months, to 31 March 2027, and supports the BHS's long-running bridleways project, which has been working since 2018 to record bridleways and byways that are missing from the Definitive Map & Statement, the legal record of rights of way in England.

A route missing from the Definitive Map has no formal legal protection and can be lost to obstruction, development or neglect. Recording it requires researching historical evidence and submitting a Definitive Map Modification Order application to the local authority, work carried out largely by BHS volunteers. Over eight years the project has generated more than 4,400 such applications across the country. The new funding will pay for additional applications, the training of 20 new Historical Research volunteers, and new online training resources built on the BHS's Restoring the Record programme.

Once recorded, a bridleway becomes a permanent, free-to-use route. BHS Head of Access Will Steel said every route saved benefits "not just equestrians but also pedestrians and cyclists", and the charity has previously pointed to its horse-incident reporting data as evidence of how dangerous many roads are for riders. Safe off-road routes reduce riders' and horses' exposure to traffic, one of the more serious everyday risks in horse ownership, making this the kind of infrastructure work that supports welfare quietly, over the long term, rather than through any single dramatic change.