I AM writing in response to Mike Meredith-Edwards' letter 'Now its horses'.  

I am a horse rider and feel I should respond to this letter.

Most horse riders respect the law and I feel he is tarring us all with the same brush.

He moaned about the cars and the police camera vehicle being parked on the pavements in Bream but he never mentioned that it is illegal to ride a horse or even a bike on the pavements. Sometimes you can't help but have to.

 I know from experience cars and lorries travel that part of the road above the speed limit and if there is a horse in the road they have no respect and push past, and don't slow down. I have even had some blow the horn at me which I find intimidating and, frankly, very dangerous.

I hate riding that road but sometimes you have to to get where you are going.

People moan about horses in the road, on the pavement and in the woods, well excuse me for pointing out the obvious, but where are we supposed to ride?

That place in Bream is bringing much needed tourism into the Forest. This helps to keep the local economy going and people in jobs.

The mess. Well it wasn't all that long ago people had their own gardens and vegetable patch. Hopefully in this day and age when things are a little tight, people are returning to their gardens for food. It wasn't all that long ago people would be out there for the muck to put round the roses or even in the bean trench. Tomatoes also love sheep droppings. Just mix with a little water to make into a slurry and there you have free tomato food.

Perhaps people should be looking at the income horse riding is bringing into the area, the many jobs involved (farrier, feed store, riding teachers, livery stables and even the farmer) before starting to run down what could be essentially bringing people to the Forest to see it in all its beauty and the many different creatures that live here, rather than moaning about a little mess, which many people used to use as a garden fertiliser?

I might also like to point out that if each horse had a shovel, surely it would be dangerous to get off, push it into the road or a bag and try and get on your horse whilst holding shovel and bag with traffic thundering past.

You always get some disrespecting horse riders who make it difficult for others, but surely you should know not to tar us all with the same brush.

– Name and address supplied.