A horse rider was left “shaken” after being “charged at” by a puppy on a bridleway through a popular woodland – prompting concerns about the number of professional walkers with “packs of dogs” using it.

The issue of professional dog-walkers using Farm Wood in Wooburn has surfaced many times before, but one horse rider says she has now witnessed the problem first-hand and has suggested warning posters need to be put up.

Writing to Wooburn and Bourne End Parish Council about the distressing incident, Alison Cheetham said on May 26, she encountered a group of people with six dogs on the bridleway.

Explaining what happened, she wrote: “They were clearly a little panicked about getting leads on their dogs when they saw me so I waited at a distance. Then one came charging at us barking.

“This really shook me and my horse. As I rode up to them, they said it was just a puppy and I suggested they keep all the dogs on leads all the time on the bridleway or stick to the footpaths.”

She added that one man in the group was “very dismissive” and told her “not to ride there if I did not want to encounter this again”.

Ms Cheetham said that local people who use the woodland along Broad Lane for exercise and horse riding are “becoming increasingly bothered” by the number of professional dog walkers who use it multiple times a day – meaning you “will always encounter a pack of dogs”.

She added that another local horse rider experienced a similar “out of control dog incident” the week before.

There is a gate to access the bridleway from within the woodland, which Ms Cheetham says is unnecessary and encourages “more people who do not have control of their dogs to go there”.

While she would like the gate removed, she told the parish council she did not think that would happen – so asked if posters warning dog walkers to keep their pets on a lead around horses to be put up on the gate instead.

Ms Cheetham said she reported the incident to the British Horse Society but had not reported it to the police.

Parish councillors on the open spaces, allotments and burials committee will discuss the issue at their next meeting on Tuesday, July 6.