Emails to and from horse-riders has led me to a very recent blog, linked from:

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/pennine-bridleway/news/12-days-and-155-miles-horseback

by three women who this Autumn 2015 did the whole of the PBW (I think less one side of the Mary Towneley Loop and the Settle Loop) on horseback from north to south, using B&Bs and hotels/pubs-with-accommodation. It appears that grazing, and in one case a farrier, was available locally. So it's doable with horses, at least with the support of the Pennines horse-riding network. (They don't say what route-guide or mapping they used.)

It's a good account which includes the horses' behaviour (mostly impeccable), off-road bikers, (one) inconsiderate cyclist, plastic bags (a horse-distraction, apparently), the "vertical" descent from High Dolphinsty, and spare knickers (see the blog).

Iain

This is off-topic for OS mapping and walkers. If there's much more I'll start a new thread.

Regarding horse-riders on the PBW, I recently answered a request from the British Horse Society or BHS (piece in the local Craven Herald) for info on, and monitoring of, the state of bridleways in the Dales and S Pennines. I explained that I'm not a horse-rider but could offer info on the PBW extension, in particular.

I suggested that a good way to publicise bridleways for horse-riding would be to persuade Martin Clunes, actor and President of the BHS, to do the whole PBW on horseback. (Clunes formerly opened the northern extension in 2012.) It would make a good TV series, and he's done other horsey programmes.

Iain

I understand that because of low demand by horse riders several specialist B & Bs with horse accommodation have closed. So horse riders simply cannot do the whole route now.
Many cyclists use the sections near Manchester on summer weekends, but at other times much of the route appears to be deserted!
Like the Southern Uplands Way it is a great route for solitude, but much more accessible. I can do most of it form home using buses and trains for access, so I often use sections, its a good route.
Road safety has been attended to on most of this route, we could do with that on all walkers routs!

I have done 12 of the national trails and in sections in the midst of another two -one being the Pennine Bridleway,the other is the SWCP, I have now done from Kirkby Stephen to Barnoldswick.
Though it could be me I have struggled to get routes for this path and have spent more time on mapping this route than all the others put together. I realise it is a bit new.
I have Memory Map GB at 1:50K and wanted to plot it on that. In the end I bought the cycle guide book for the Yorkshire section for my Kindle and the Harvey map for Pennine Bridleway South. I now have the Derbyshire section from amongst others peakdistrictcycleways site
There are some stunning sections but I occasionally find it a bit contrived for walking as it is for bikers and horse riders. Some sections must be very difficult if not impossible for those users; Wild Boar Fell/High Dolphinsty area for one. There may be variant for them around there but as aforementioned you need to be on the ball to be aware and have map for such things.
I have only met two bikers doing the whole thing and no horse riders.The logistics for an equine trek must be mind boggling even a day or two.

As expected, OL19 (Howgill Fells and Upper Eden Valley) does now show the PBW extension to its present end point near Ravenstonegill.

According to Dash4it (online map and accessories store), the current 1:25,000 Explorer and OL series are to be renumbered and/or extended from June 8th. The extended OL series is to improve coverage of UK National Parks. In the meantime Dash4it are offering an additional 5% off their existing Explorer and OL stock (already much cheaper than over-the-counter). I just replaced seven of my worn-out 'yellow' series in two days from order at less then £5 per map with no additional postage charge.

Iain

There is a new walkers section bypassing the Glossop road section, it is a very much pleasanter route!
It is also on the new maps

Update on paper maps:

As of mid-September 2014, the route from the Mary Towneley Loop to near Kirkby Stephen is shown on the newest 1:25,000 (Explorer) maps listed below, apart from OL19 (Howgill Fells and Upper Eden Valley). Thus the PBW northern extension (recommended for its ease of navigation - waymarked with a few omissions and inaccuracies, terrain - generally west of and lower than the Pennine Way but still with some challenging gradients, mostly on good tracks without stiles), is now on:

OL21 South Pennines
OL2 Yorkshire Dales - Southern & Western Area
OL41 Forest of Bowland & Ribblesdale

taking the marked route as far as the road from above Dent station to Garsdale Head. Presumably OL19 will follow.

OL2 (at least) now also shows Wainwright's Pennine Journey (Settle to Hadrian's wall and back) and the Dales High Way (Saltaire to Appleby). This is in addition to their presumed inclusion on the equivalent digital maps.

Iain.

The new route is shown on my Satmap SD card which has just been replaced both 1:50 and 1:25k. Nice surprise. So it should be on any new digital maps as you say.
But I did not find any problems finding the way.
If you live in W Yorks it is easy to do most of it in day trips using buses and trains
Its a very good walk with few cyclists or horse riders.The only long road section is in Derbyshire .
Its got better road safety provisions than most LDPs

After recee-ing the last chunk of the PBW extension prior to my social walk (Saturday Sept 6th 2014, North Yorkshire Group), and encountered some problems* with its just two-years-old waymarking, I looked at the relevant OS sectors in Streetmap. Though still not featured on the most recently published version of OL19 (Howgill Fells and Upper Eden Valley) in the OS website, the PBW extension is now shown at 1:25,000 scale in Streetmap.

I presume, therefore, that the full PBW is now included in digital form on the OS's own source maps, and the exension may be available for purchase or download. The paper maps may take some time to be updated; in the mean time, Cicerone's 'Cycling the Pennine Bridleway: Lancashire and the Yorkshire Dales' shows the route. But, as page 183-4 says of the ascent to High Dolphinsty, "A good gravel track is followed until the next steep section arrives, at which point the track abruptly ends". And where's the next waymark ? "Continue more-or-less straight on, up a small rise, where a line of bridleway posts will then become evident". Cyclists' guidebook versions of "will" and "evident", then.

Iain.

* The familiar combination of over-obvious fingerposts at roadsides (here with two examples of absurdly incorrect direction-marking) and missing and/or leaning and/or wrongly pointing discs-on-posts where you most need them.