A MOTHER wants more farmland opened up to horse riders after her daughter suffered a terrifying ordeal when her pony started to sink in a bog.

Jessica McCluskey, 12, and a 15-year-old friend spent ten frantic minutes trying to rescue their Welsh ponies last Saturday on moorland at Pickup Bank as the animals sank four feet down.

They managed to pull the horses out by immersing their bodies in the bog and pulling the harnesses, but the girls have been left distressed and disillusioned wondering where they can ride in the future.

Jessica's mother, Tracy, of Sunnyfield Farm, Hoddlesden, claimed many farmers in Pickup Bank had padlocked gates on public rights of way to prevent access to horses. She said horseriders were being forced to take dangerous and unorthodox routes, like Jessica, who was faced with two choices when she reached the top of Pickup Bank last Saturday.

Normally, rights of way would lead back to the other side, but Jessica could only take Peter Pan along the Grane Road, or cut through the moorland. She chose the moorland route because she was scared of the road. Tracy, a member of the Turton area Bridle Way, said many other riders in the area were becoming frustrated that much of Pickup Bank was being made 'off-limits'. The association had tried to get one route on Heys Lane cleared, but Tracy said Blackburn with Darwen Council had been assessing their application for over a year.

She said: "A lot of farms don't like people using them. All the routes are old roads, and have gates that are padlocked to prevent horses going through. So where do you ride?

"It's a rural area, and you would think there would be more available. We have asked before for local people to open up the gates, rather than locking them, but we can't make them.

"If you stand in Hoddlesden village and look across to the large hillside, it is covered by farms. But the only access we have is up a concrete path, which is not good for the horses. Then we have to go on the Grane Road, but because that is dangerous we try to go around through moorland, and that's why this accident happened.

"Jessica has been riding most of her life, so she is experienced. She started to panic and they were both crying about it. Jessica said she thought she wouldn't get them out. Now she is asking me, 'Where can I ride?'".