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Rideathon is the BHS’s yearly fundraising event that challenges horse-lovers to go the distance and raise while they ride. It is all about celebrating the joy, freedom and adventure of riding – and raising much needed funds to protect our off-road routes, as well as to Keep Britain Riding.

Running throughout the month of July, choose a distance of your choice - 25km, 50km, 75km, or 100km are the suggested distances to choose from* - choose a route and then ask your friends to sponsor you. All with a goal of fundraising for the BHS’s access work.

*Before embarking on the Rideathon challenge, carefully assess your horse’s current level of fitness. Overestimating your horse’s endurance can lead to overexertion, fatigue and potential injury.

Always prioritise your horse’s wellbeing by tailoring the distance to ride based on their fitness level.

Join up via our Rideathon portal. From there, you can follow some short simple steps to get started with your fundraising challenge, or to make a donation. Click on ‘join us’ along the top right of the site and you'll be directed through the process of setting up your JustGiving page, either as an individual or as a team.

For more information about how to set up a team, visit this useful JustGiving guide.

There are no limitations on who can sign up to Rideathon. Whether you ride or carriage drive, own a horse or ride at a riding school, we’re encouraging all equestrians to sign up and help us to protect, as well as restore, our riding routes for everyone to enjoy.

You can choose a distance of 25km or more, and can do it with friends or go it alone. Whether it’s trotting across the meadow or the simple joy of a slow ride together – when you fundraise for Rideathon, you are able to choose the place and the pace you want to take.

There is not a minimum amount of fundraising that we set for participants. All your support and donations are vital to the work of the BHS.

We recommend using your favourite tracking app to track the distance you ride or carriage drive.

If you're interested in using the OS Maps app, we have a promotional offer available for fundraisers who sign up to Rideathon. Once you're signed up, you'll receive details of how to claim the offer via email.

No, don’t worry, we trust you! You don’t need to provide evidence that you’ve completed the challenge to us. Updating your friends and family on your fundraising page is important! Make sure you keep them posted on your progress and share videos and photos throughout July – the more updates the better. Supporters who regularly post their progress raise on average 40% more.

You can track your progress using a tracking app, and it will keep a total of the KMs you’ve covered, so you can enjoy the ride! Screenshots of the distance you’ve covered are great to add to your fundraising page as well, to show your supporters how well you’re doing and how much hard work you’re putting in!

We have plenty of fundraising tools, tips, and ideas to help you raise donations. You can download the fundraising pack at the top of this page.

Every penny raised will support the BHS’s Keep Britain Riding campaign which aims to bring the equestrian community together to keep the joy of riding going. This includes protecting our off-road routes.

Currently, horse riders only have access to 22% of the off-road access network and carriage drivers only have access to 5%. Your money will help us to preserve, restore and reinstate routes across the UK, as well as defend endangered rights of way. With your support, we can:

• Restore damaged route surfaces
• Help to reopen blocked routes
• Repair or replace gates and fencing

Together, we can ride for the right to enjoy our countryside.

Many of our off-road riding routes aren’t officially recognised and maintained. Because of this, we face losing over 78,000km* of our off-road routes in seven years’ time.

This is due to a law introduced by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which states that any route that isn’t formally recorded on the Definitive Map by 1 January 2031 will be lost forever.

In the face of such uncertainty, we are working hard to record these routes as this is the best way to protect them from obstruction, development, and neglect.

*The Ramblers Association 2023