Drivers on the road!!!

[cobbycob]

Well me and my friend were on a hack last week and my friends mum was walking with her, we were about to turn and my friends mum gave the slowing down signal because this man was going quite fast and this man in the car went even faster stuck his fingers up to all of us then suddenly he put his breaks on so they screeched and got out of the car and started ranting at my friends mum saying that he was only doing 20mph when he was clearly not and he started effing and jeffing at her saying we need to learn the highway code and that people with horses think they own the road i was very surprised how aggressive he was to my friends mum but she handled it very well not being nasty all she said was will you mind your language please any way she reported him to the police we just didn't get his number plate as it happened in a blink of an eye

[Milliesmum]

If he'd actually read his highway code, it actually says:

Horse riders and horse-drawn vehicles. Be particularly careful of horse riders and horse-drawn vehicles especially when overtaking. Always pass wide and slowly. Horse riders are often children, so take extra care and remember riders may ride in double file when escorting a young or inexperienced horse or rider. Look out for horse riders’ and horse drivers’ signals and heed a request to slow down or stop. Take great care and treat all horses as a potential hazard; they can be unpredictable, despite the efforts of their rider/driver.

So perhaps he should have gone to specsavers???

[iluvmyponies]

Completely agree, some drivers are such idiots!
Once I was taking my 12hh SHP on a hack, & then a car came speading past us. After about 5 minutes they came past again, even faster, beaping their horn waving a HUGE flag outof the sunroof! It's a good job he's very good on the roads

[cobbycob]

yep and i agree Milliesmum he deffinately should of gone to speck savers
iluvmyponies its horrible how some drivers can be like that it's scary to think how many idiot drivers there are on the road and thank god my horse is goodISH on the road and your experience must of been horrible too it sounds just as bad as mine if not worse !

[merlod]

Many moons ago I used to work at a trekking center and I always rode out into the road a bit so that even if the cars didn't slow down thay still had to pull out around me and in so doing gave wide berth to the trekkers. Probably not allowed to do that now. But it was effective! And if anyone came too close we had one pony that I could turn and he "sat" on the wing of the offending vehicle!! Usually a large horsey "rear end" was enough to prevent an altercation! As I said, probably be in deep pony p** for doing that now.

[chorro]

I'm too scared to hack on the road anymore especially after myself and my friend ended up in a ditch trying to avoid a speeding driver on the wrong side of the road.
Though to be fair the number of rude obnoxious riders on the road really doesn't encourage drivers to slow down, the number of times I have slowed down for riders only to be ignored and unacknowledged is beyond count.

[poniesrus]

Unfortunately, I feel a lot of the time the reasons that drivers don't slow down is because they have had rude and ignorant horse riders that they have slowed for in the past.

I, as a rider and a mother of 3 girls who also ride, continually get severely cheesed off at slowing right down for fellow horsemen/women, moving to the other side of the road and overtaking really slowly, only for them to not even look and acknowledge !!

It really infuriates me, as the first thing my kids were taught when starting to hack out was how to switch the reins to one hand to be able to put their hand up and mouth 'thank you' to passing drivers - regardless of whether they have slowed down or not !!!!!!!

My father taught me when I was about 4 and hacking out with him how to say thank you properly (old school style) to drivers and I've passed that on to my kids. But so many riders these days are so bloody ignorant and rude, they appear to be so far up their own posteriors. It is INCREDIBLY rude and it is no wonder that so many drivers now don't slow down.

I have actually stopped in the past after overtaking and not even getting a quick nod of the head and have told the rider, in no uncertain terms that they are bloody ignorant and need to educate themselves before expecting other road users to repect them.

As for this excuse that some use of ''can't take my hand of the reins as it would be unsafe'' .... then don't take the sodding horse on the road as it obviously shouldn't be there in the first place !!!!

So I think riders need to re-educate themselves on the manners of the road - even putting ones hand up to a driver who didn't slow may well entice that driver to slow the next time !!

Not having a go any anyone here, but as a fellow rider it seriously infuriates me when I take the time to slow, stop, pass wide and you don't even get acknowledged.

[mp1996]

Iv had a few people try to ''scare'' my horse by getting so close up his bum or beeping their horns....thankfully he's very good in traffic so wasnt all that phased!! Good job as well as we were riding next to a 8ft deep d**e.............

[rypw]

Driver's on the road need to remember that these are animals (unpredictable) and people (human lives) they just do not realise how much danger they can cause. If only everybody read what the high way code says...some people just do not understand that horses can be dangerous...even the good ones! It scares me to go out hacking and it's such a shame because I love it! People should expect horses if they are driving in the country!!!

[pencaedu]

Nice one Merlod - funnily enough, my section C used to be very good at that manoeuvre too!! Also good at rear on command - very effective for stupid cyclists!!

[ruftytuftyrider]

Have to agree with Poniesrus that some riders are their own worst enemy. When I did my riding and road safety I was told that not only to raise a hand to say thank you but it is also good practice to say thank you - they may hear you if they have their window down. I was also told that it is good practice to thank anyone who has passed even if they have made little or no effort as you thanking them will make them think and they will be more considerate in future. I believe it works because have had very few problems with inconsiderate drivers on the country roads round us - some are cut throughs and short cuts so often busy.

I walk out with my daughter and most of the time both thank the drivers and I find it frustrating when other riders do not show any manners. On the way to Your Horse Live yesterday I passed a rider very wide (only way I could have gone wider was to go into the hedge) and slow (I had slowed down on my approach as had seem him from a distance) and he never bothered to even nod his head or say thank you in fact he gave me a filthy look - felt like getting out and saying would you prefer I had sped past and not given you any room!

[buriedalive]

A swift tap on the roof with a whip always seems to do the trick

[horseymadamz]

this is an emotional subject for me as my friend her horse and my horse were all killed by a speeding driver, the police worked out the driver was doing around 65mph when he hit us, we were on a fairly used country lane and a dog jumped out the horses jumped into the road and he ploughed straight into the back of us, if he was going slow and wide they would all still be here now....

i go back out on the roads now but luckily i only have to endure a 100yards before im in woodland and fields and a big cross country course and sand tracks just for horses, but even then the drivers are maniacs there has been countless accidents on just that bit of road from speeding, i always say thankyou even to the non deserving drivers but its not made a bit of difference, even when i wear all my flourescent young horse danger gear they dont take a blind bit of notice i feel like stopping them and showing them a picture of my friend and the horses and saying do you want to be the next person responsible for another death like this

[horseymadamz]

where do you go instead horseylady?

[bowditchblobs]

I dont hack on the roads now either, it's not safe here my yards on a very straight long rat run road they easily do a ton down it, i worry if i fell off my pony might go home and get hit. I just hack on the neighbouring farmers land now, but it's not much so i only hack for half hour/40 mins. I do go on sponsered rides though and will box the ponies to peterboroughs country park. It saddens me though i used to hack out for hours and hours when i was younger, i also blame other pig ignorent riders none put their hand up round here, makes me so mad. My ponies are happy enough in the school luckily, one pony hates hacking any way, id like to break my other one in to drive but have visions of being road kill!!!

[chalky284]

Sadly I have to do road work to reach some bridle paths, but I agree with most comments and it IS both riders and drivers faults. A few people at my yard have no respect for drivers whatsoever, its embarrassing. On the other hand I had to mount the pavement to get out of the way of an asian woman on her mobile who swerved towards me and my pony cos she didn't have enough hands to steer round a corner, change gear and talk on her mobile!!!!!!

I am seriously thinking of doing a riding road safety campaign but not sure how to go about it..................any ideas???

[merlod]

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away ther were things called bridleways where riders could amble along peacefully and safely. However big, bad motorbikes and "off roaders" invaded that green and pleasant land and the riders DID NOT live happily ever after!!!!!!
The problem goes beyond roads in our part of the world.

[chalky284]

Merlod, we have an agreement with off roaders on our bridle paths, they stay out of 'our' part of the bridle path and we stay out of 'theirs', anyway of working that for you??

[merlod]

A local business man who has bought up loads of land in the area has a bridleway thro' part of his land. He also has an arena where he caters for off roaders, bikes and sometimes rally cars. In order to access the catering facilities they use he allows them to travel along the bridleway and the local council has changed the "use" of the part on their land to a "byeway". What hope do we have!??!!

[cobbycob]

I have got to say there are some VERY IGNORANT riders on the road some that ride in the middle of the road but at the same time there are some very ignorant drivers and when you do say thank you ( i always put my hand up to say thank you ) some give you a very dirty look so you can't win really and also it would be nice if there was off road hacking but there isn't where we are even though our yard is surrounded by farmers fields who won't let you on them

[cobbycob]

Nov 15, 2010 19:53:49 GMT chalky284 said:

Sadly I have to do road work to reach some bridle paths, but I agree with most comments and it IS both riders and drivers faults. A few people at my yard have no respect for drivers whatsoever, its embarrassing. On the other hand I had to mount the pavement to get out of the way of an asian woman on her mobile who swerved towards me and my pony cos she didn't have enough hands to steer round a corner, change gear and talk on her mobile!!!!!!

I am seriously thinking of doing a riding road safety campaign but not sure how to go about it..................any ideas???

I have no idea how to go about a riding road safety campaign but i thing it would be a fab idea ;D

[melons]

we had a tragic accident today - quarter of a mile from our yard when a 36 year old man was knocked from his push bike and left in the road to die ...... my heart goes out to his family... i know its changing the subject somewhat but my daughter and her friends regularly hack down that road and it sends shivers down my spine... what will it take to make people slow down.... still havent caught whoever did it ... x

[cobbycob]

oh god that sounds terrible its scary to think x