Horse riders should pick up their poo!!

OP, why don't you go and shovel up the horse shit? It is impractical to expect riders to dismount to do it, so if it bothers you so much then you could run along behind with a garden shovel and a sack to do the job for them.

It is great fertiliser. You could turn it down on your garden, or on your indoor flower pots. Any spare and you can bag it, set it outside the front and flog it to people who are going past.

Horse shit is fairly inoffensive stuff.

Maverickness
Those are all good suggestions.
Also maybe a camera with ID fitted to the back end of every horse, which, when the horse does a poo, relays evidence to a Stasi style surveillance centre manned by trained poo vigilantes.

Op, it was your suggestion that riders should be made liable. How would you collect evidence?

Where there's a will there's a way! 😎

I think if they were made liable if there was an accident then horse riders would find they could make a little more effort to go back and clean up or find a solution

Op - So a horse does a poo on the road. Two days later there is an accident apparently caused by said poo.
How do you prove which horse did it?

This thread has been on my mind far too much lately so I've been keeping an eye out for these huge quantities of horse poo on my regular riding routes. It doesn't appear to hang around too long. Apart from the odd pile freshly left by my horse I have barely seen any horse poo on the roads. Plenty of mud/leaves/roadkill to be found though.

Section 149 of the Highways Act 1980 states: “If anything is deposited on the highway so as to constitute a nuisance/danger the Highway Authority can require the person who put it there to remove it forthwith”. Mud causes skidding and is therefore dangerous and a nuisance.

"can require...", in other words it's up to the council to decide if it's actually a problem. Farmers do have to clear mud off the road, but we're not talking about the odd lump from the tyres, we're talking about when the road is plastered in it.

Then definitely write to your MP and spread the word of your concerns

Not just your MP, op. You should also, as a matter if some urgency, alert NATO, the UN and maybe WHO.
As a pp has said, make sure you back up your concerns with horse poo disaster evidence - witness statements, photos and police records etc.
It’s good that finally there will be proper public awareness of this terrible practice.

I really can't think of much more dangerous than people walking, cycling or driving back along narrow lanes or fast roads with no footpath, looking for dollops of poo that they then have to stop and scrape up.

I think that would cause far more accidents than the poo itself ever would.

Lots of slippery things end up on roads - leaves, branches, dead badgers and foxes and rabbits and squirrels and pheasants, poo of all kinds - drivers/motorbike riders/cyclists need to drive/ride in such a way as they can stop or avoid such potential hazards.

I live in a very rural, horsey area, and I see way more roadkill, mud and vegetable matter than I do horse poo!

Kendodd Are you winding people up

Of course she is! What better way to liven up an uneventful day by winding up ‘posh horse riders”.
Love the faux concern for the horses.

🤣

Very happy to be corrected but I don’t believe horse poo is harmful as, say dog poo or cat poo is. Its generally squashed by cars then washed away when it rains.

Of course this rises the next issue -
Pigeon Fanciers, and what should they to do about cleaning up their pigeon droppings?

English saddles are not the same as western saddles, and are for an entirely different style of riding. I can’t see how you could attach one of those to an English saddle.

@StoneofDestiny some horses will accept nappies, others won't. Those who don't will not be able to find work in areas (usually inner cities) where they are compulsory but they can work elsewhere. Making them compulsory will only lead to a massive number of horses off to the glue factory because they cannot be exercised.

@Kendodd surprisingly horses can enjoy being ridden and going out. I wouldn't say they enjoy the way some people and some sports treat them... but my horse used to visibly brighten up when he saw me bring his tack over after grooming. When we were out he'd clearly be enjoying the scenery. When he got too poorly to be ridden we'd go out for walks together around our shorter hacking routes together.
Having said that - yes, riding on roads and lanes isn't much fun and drivers and other road users seem to be getting less considerate. Some really couldn't care less if their actions ended up in causing injury or even death to horse and rider. For that reason to have a horse somewhere with unlimited "off road" riding is the dream. Not easy to find though. We have to use bridleways and byways, sometimes permissive riding routes. We can't just go around the edge of a field, or along an interesting looking track, so options are more limited than they appear.

Can't say it's a thing I worry about - but I saw horses with 'bags' on them to catch the poo in Poland. Just looked on line and there are lots of models of horse diapers/nappy bags 😂. In some parts of the USA it's compulsory for horses to have them.

Just reading the op again, actually the title

Horseriders shoukd pick up their poo.

Just wondering does the op mean horseriders should dismount to have a poo and then pick it up or does the op mean horseriding should dismount to pick up their horse's poo.

If the former, yes of course. If the latter, don't be so silly op.

@NMC2022

Haha, indeed! Reminds me of the Normal Thelwell illustrations!

[quote Justheretoaskaquestion91]@Kendodd

Are you winding people up? You don’t know about horses, so you don’t know the way a horse’s ears prick forward with delight when it sees it’s owner coming over with a bridle, or how much they enjoy galloping/being ridden/jumping - whatever that particular horse is into. It’s a bit like a pet dog; riding it is the equivalent of taking it for a walk. They enjoy it. It’s actually more special than walking a dog because of the particular bond of trust you have in each other when riding. They are naturally flight animals so you have to be kind/confident so they can learn not to be scared of things. But you know nothing about this and are making ignorant comments based on your…well, your ignorance on the topic 😆🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️😄🐴[/quote]
Also most horses would just plonk you back on the floor if they hated it!
"Goodbye human"

*its