Having read the recent exchange of views published here from Margaret Cook and Gemma Devonport, I reached the following conclusion.

Horses do cause a nuisance with their residue, especially if it is in a public place, and it is sometimes not avoidable by the public, especially people with young children and pushchairs and the like.

The riders of horses often seem to have little regard for the public or motorist and often by their actions breed the contempt that is shown them.

Their answer is always the age-old chestnut that the horse came before the car.

It seems that the answer to address this point is that grass came before asphalt, and so as that is the natural habitat of the horse, undeniably, that is where the horse should stay.

Not on our roads, footpaths or public places, but on grass in the fields that it loves so much.

Here it can safely leave behind poop and whatever else, and the owner/rider is absolved of any responsibility, and the environment and public are not affected or caused inconvenience.

STEVE PLANT, Thorney Leys, Witney