What should I have done? (almost hit horse and rider with my car)

My daughter has a horse. She keeps him at a yard that is on a single track semi rural road that is also used as a cut through. Unfortunately said road also has a 60 limit, which is ridiculous. I would say there are near misses with horses, riders, cyclists and pedestrians every week. Just because it says 60 doesn't mean you have to go that fast if you can't see what is ahead. As I know the road and the hazards I do about 20.

A friend of hers was riding in a different local location and they were hit by a car. Thankfully they are ok, because a leg injury could mean a horse being put down.

And a horse being spooked could do a lot of damage to the rider, itself and your car. Hope you checked they were ok.

Going round a blind corner at 40mph on a rural lane probably wasn't ideal.

Dog walkers, horse riders, cyclists, tractors, to say nothing of horrendous potholes and suicidal deer.

Generally on rural lanes I don't go above 30 unless I am on an empty straight that I can see, and even then deer will jump out. I'm hugely careful but still had a stag jump a hedge and land on the bonnet of my car. Sometimes there is nothing you can do.

For your own safety OP, keep your speed down. Sorry you were a bit shaken.

You honestly don't know what you could have done differently? When you were doing 40 around a blind bend??

The OP has owned her mistake and has learned her lesson. No need for you to be nasty.

It’s not a target speed!

drive for conditions

cars don’t OWN the road

Agreed yet people still feel the need to berate her, I suppose none of them have ever made a mistake?

Yes, it is very scary that people like this are allowed on the roads.

how is it just not common sense to go round a blind bend slowly? Not trying to reach the speed limit.🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

I think you're showing great humility in your replies to this thread OP. The world would be a much nicer place if everyone was as ready to put their hands up and say they got it wrong!

In rural driving it is important to understand that the "national speed limit applies" signs on any non-motorway road never means "it is safe to drive at 60mph here" - it means "the individual driver is responsible for determining the appropriate speed, up to a maximum of 60mph". There are LOTS of national-speed-limit rural roads that it would be criminally insane to drive along at any more than about 30mph because any given bend will probably have a tractor or herd of sheep in the middle of the road as soon as you get around it. The worst examples of such roads tend to be in very low-population areas and see about 4 cars per day, so it's not worth anyone's time to assess the road and put up specific speed limit signs - but same principle applies to any national-speed-limit road that hasn't been specifically assessed for a lower speed limit.

On any road - if approaching any bend in the road or in any other situation where your view of the road ahead is restricted, you should choose your speed on the assumption that there could be an obstruction in the part of the road you can't currently see, so should never take any corner at a speed where you couldn't bring the car to a stop in a safe and controlled manner if there is an obstruction just beyond your sightlines. Generally you should never be driving on any bit of road that you haven't been looking at for at least 3 seconds, so if you can't see around a corner then yes you should definitely take it slow. You can go back up to 60mph on the straight bits where you can see there's nothing ahead.

From the detail in your OP, you were going around that corner too fast and in an unsafe manner. An emergency stop means that you didn't have the time to stop in a more controlled way.

Rubbish, explain what the horse rider did wrong exactly? They are entitled to travel along the road.

The OP didn’t hit anything, but she shouldn’t have had to perform an emergency stop. It must have been a pretty close call, otherwise both the rider and the OP wouldn’t have been so shook up. No harm done this time and hopefully OP will learn from their mistake.

I don't get some of those speed limits in windy twisty places like that. If you can't see around a corner then keep it slower than the speed limit IMO. Preferably not 40.

Absolute rubbish.

When I was learning to drive my instructor told me to always take a blind corner like there may be a brick wall just around the bend.

I must be honest and say I don't really understand the thinking of anyone who doesn't drive like that. Are you just hoping that there isn't a large vehicle, farm vehicle, horse or pedestrian there? Do you think you have the psychic powers necessary to tell this before you can see the road?

Yes. I know the op has now realised that she was in the wrong but it scares me that people are driving that don't know things like this. It could have been a broken down car, a pedestrian, anything in the road.

You were going too fast for the conditions/visibility you had.

You got very lucky - you would only have needed the horse to be backing up (which they do when scared) in response to something ahead of them, say another car, bird exploding out of the hedge, savage daffodil waving at them... and that would have been a very different outcome.

Always drive as if theres a horse/toddler/tractor/fallen tree around every corner.

You did very well.
You should always be at a speed where you can stop within the visible distance and it seems you did stop going around this corner so well done.
Never go faster than you could stop in the visible distance in front of you.

You did nothing wrong - nothing actually happened. When going round a blind corner you need to be driving at a speed that you can stop if there's a hidden obstruction, which is what you did. Try not to overthink it, the horse rider should not have shouted at you. It's as much their responsibility not to create a hidden hazard as it is yours to be on the look out for one. You fulfilled your responsibility and the horse rider didn't.

It's a lesson you should have learnt when you were learning to drive, not however long later when you could have killed the horse, the rider and yourself & very likely anyone in the car that was coming in the other direction.

Maybe you need to take a few driving lessons.

I think we're so used to seeing so many people driving over the speed limit that driving under the speed limit feels very safe/cautious, but as others have said, blind corners require extra care.
I live in an area popular with cyclists so I'm always assuming there's something round the corner!
I did recently have a terrifying scare like you though, a pedestrian with their dog stepped off a verge into the road as I approached them, not sure what possessed him to do so, seeing that I was coming but I swerved into the other side of the road to avoid him as luckily there wasn't a car coming the other way, not sure that I would've been able to do an emergency brake in time if there had been a car though. Scared me so much to think what could have happened. So there's always learning to be done, I probably should've driven slower just based on the fact that there was a pedestrian on the verge.

Like you you mean.

It’s simple - you were going far too fast around a blind corner. The speed limit is just that - a limit, not a target. On winding country roads I would expect to be doing well below 60 most of the time. You have no idea what might be around that corner - horses, a broken down car, a fallen tree… you need to be able to stop. Poor rider, no wonder he was angry.

I’m always worried on winding roads that there will be a cyclist or something around the blind bend. The reason we take a theory test is in part because of anticipating the dangers of driving, this is one of them.

Whenever I’m riding horses or bikes (not often these days) or walking in the road, I will move into line of sight as best I can so as not to be fully hiding around a bend, because I know most drivers are just oblivious and presume they’re the only ones on the road.

I worked in the country for a while.

The only thing to do is to drive as though there MAY be a horse/flock of ducks/DofE group/lunatic in a mud splashed Subaru doing 70 round every corner.

Came round a corner (slowly) once at night to find an 8ft glowing apparation: as I passed, it resolved into a horse and rider with high viz bands round the front legs, rider's vest and hat!

It’s the bend, that’s all there is to it. Approach it more slowly.

A lot of 60 limits are very dangerous because people are used to limits being actual safe speeds for the road. 70 on a motorway is considered more of an expectation than a cap, for example - even though it is obviously a cap.

I live in this sort of area and crawl round corners and then accelerate towards the speed limit when the road becomes straighter and visible.

It might not be a cycle around that corner, it might be an articulated lorry, or a large tractor!