DRAYTON RIDE 2009

Pictures courtesy of John Stones

The day dawned bright and cheerful, and after driving the shortish journey to reach our parking destination at Drayton near Belbroughton we all gathered for the off. Again we had a full ride and with 6 of us there was going to be plenty of chattering.

As we set off on our ride, we only had a very short distance before we reached our first bridlepath called The Zig Zags, the horses settled into a good walk and the ground was good underfoot, slightly wet in places but on the whole good. We started up through the Zig Zags and thanked the heavens for the Worcestershire County Council for clearing the first section as it was impassable only a month ago.

We headed off the Zig Zags and eventually onto our first lane section, this was short and sweet and then we turned back onto another bridlepath up a driveway, we heard a tractor and hedgecutter working and then realised that he was actually in the bridlepath itself, so waiting further up the driveway, the tractor driver kindly drove all the way down past us and let us continue on our way before resuming the hedgecutter, if a little to quickly for Alisons horse Tig, who was definatly keeping one eye on how close it was getting.

We headed up a track and then down through a farm track to then turn again onto another driveway which would take us across fields and more farms, before again re-joining a lane which would take us back towards Belbroughton. On this section of bridleway some of the horses (mine) were getting rather keen and as they are now getting fit it was interesting on how to keep them in walk.

As we headed back towards Drayton from Belbroughton we picked up another lovely stretch of bridleway , this section is good for gates that have been hinged with self closing horse gates.

On this route you criss cross the bridlepaths you have already been up, so you can ride this route in whichever direction you like, or make smaller routes if time is a problem.

We headed back towards the lane that we had first come down and then retraced our steps for a short distance before taking a lane turning down a dead end which brought us back to the Zig Zags at midway, here we rejoined the Zig Zags and retraced our way back to our parking destination.

All in all this ride took just over 2hrs to do in walk, It can be much further if you like to do more distance or it can be a quick ride if thats all you need.