Bridleways
By Christine Hardaker
The longest day has passed and my pony still hasn’t lost all his winter coat yet, that’s usually a sign of Cushing’s disease - but then it’s possibly just old age. But with current research finding that a very high percentage of equines over the age of fifteen have got Cushing’s, probably the old saying that elderly horses hold onto their winter coats would mean that those that did stay hairy probably had undiagnosed Cushing’s.On the other hand my retired gelding, who is twenty seven this year, has lost all his winter coat and I think he started to moult earlier this year. That got me wondering if, after his body has settled down now having stopped the medication for his Cushing’s, perhaps he’s getting back to a more normal hormonal routine. Cushing’s is a disease which upsets the hormonal balance. So in a normal horse the coat would begin to change as the days lengthen or shorten. The change in light received by the brain sends a signal to the pituitary gland, which then triggers the release of a hormone which controls the growth of the next coat change.
My retired gelding is still looking good for his age. I attribute that partly to the new diet I started him on over two years ago now. That was also when I noticed he was doing much better than in previous years and made me decide to try reduce his pergolide dose. I still had him blood tested at regular intervals to make sure the hormone that they measure as a diagnosis hadn’t risen back to dangerous levels. Each result has been normal, apart from one which was taken last October. This is the month when normal horses’ ACTH would rise but in a horse with Cushing’s, it rises dramatically. That’s what it did, it had spiked to higher than it had ever been. I made a calculated decision not to put him back on medication because his condition had remained exactly the same so I watched him like a hawk for the next few weeks, and he never changed. So I had him tested again in March this year, and the levels had dropped back to normal. That was very puzzling because usually, once a diagnosis is made, it is a condition you have to manage for the rest of the horse’s life, and the vets are amazed too.
I’ve had some worrying reports of horses being spooked by cyclists using an outdoor track in Esholt woods. It was first brought up by Pam who founded WHOA. She had walked her dogs in that area and had become very worried, not only for horse riders but also for the destruction to the forest floor by the cyclists digging ramps and banks on corners. Worst fear though was that the track had appeared to have been extended across the bridleway to the other side. The potential for accidents involving a bike and a horse just doesn’t bear thinking about but I bet many horse riders reading this will envisage their horses not getting anywhere near the cyclists if, as two riders recently found out, they are travelling a breakneck speed towards you! Two cyclists came hurtling towards them as they were on the bridleway and both horses spooked, both riders luckily just managed to stay in the saddle.
I’m appealing for anyone else who has had a fright passing in this area to call me or e-mail me please, we need to gather evidence that this track being so close to the bridleway is a hazard and it needs to be diverted away from it before there is a nasty accident. I’m sure no horse rider would begrudge cyclists pursuing their hobby but given that they tend to like to travel at such high speeds, and in general, horses would spook at them moving at such speed, there clearly needs to be some distance made between the cycle track and the bridleway. It is somewhat annoying that if horse riders had done this sort of excavation anywhere other than on their own farm, there would be an outcry and barriers would have been erected to shut us out. In fact I do seem to remember quite some years ago there were complaints about kids jumping their ponies over logs in Buck Woods, and recent enquiries about reopening the barrier on Ainsbury Avenue has been met with the usual stumbling block of needing funding to erect fencing to keep us out of the main woods! It’s the same story on the canal towpaths……I better stop now I could go on all day! I have e-mailed Bradford Council Countryside and Rights of Way manager, manager of Woodlands of Bradford and a councillor for that ward to organise an urgent site meeting with them next week. I’ll report back with news next month but in the meantime, if you’re riding to Esholt woods, please take great care but try not to be put off, we need to keep every bridleway open.
There was another WHOA meeting on 25th June where Pam updated us with all the work she had been busy with since the last one two months ago. Unfortunately her pc died the day before the meeting so she couldn’t print out the list for me but she certainly had been very busy doing her best to research old and new bridleways. One of the subjects was a new Greenway which is being proposed to run from Menston to Otley via Burley in Wharfedale using mainly the old railway line. There was a touring public consultation which I managed to get to at Menston. We had made an extra effort to attend this one because there was no mention of horse riders being included in the plans. Other Greenways in the region have been constructed to accommodate horse riders so we needed to attend to make sure we were included before the plans got too far ahead. We were relieved to discover when we got there that due to the width of the proposed track, it is going to be suitable for equestrians as well as cyclists and pedestrians. The lady we spoke to at the church hall display was from SUSTRANs and she explained that these off road routes were called “greenways” so they are not “owned” by any particular user and are to be used by all for leisure or commuting to work, rail stations or schools at a slow pace and to link villages avoiding roads and traffic. So in effect horses are not specifically excluded from this project but even so, we will keep an eye on this project, and make sure horses are not forgotten.
If you have any info about the Esholt Bridleway and encounters with cyclists or any other horsy information / questions, contact me on:
christinehardaker@supanet.com
or call me on 07739708727
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