Question for horsey people...

[DebDonkee]

I absolutely promise I'm not being goady, but am just watching a report on the news on an increase in incidents where drivers are passing too close and too fast on roads.

I would NEVER do the above - I love animals too much to ever want to scare or distress an animal, but my genuine question is: when there are so many dickhead drivers on our roads, why is there a general need for horses to be ridden on roads at all? (Not withstanding working animals and genuine animal transit requirements)

Appreciate it's not always going to be avoidable, but if you're riding for leisure and exercise for you and/or the horse, why not stick to purpose-built bridleways and other suitable environments?

I genuinely don't understand, so please educate me, and take this in the spirit it's meant. Some of the horses in the report (caught on riders' cams) were so frightened - why take the risk?

I am lucky to keep my horses where I do not need to go on a road, but we still need to cross a road. The vehicles do not slow down even a little bit. In theory it is a 40 mph road, but in practice they go much faster. I really didn't enjoy riding out on roads when I last had to do it.

I also cycle and that can be a scary experience. Just this morning a driver tried to overtake me on a blind bend and came across a car coming the opposite way. He braked hard and put his hand on the horn and kept it there I assume to tell me or the other driver off in some way. Neither I nor the driver coming the other way had done anything wrong.

I drive too and I know it is frustrating to get caught behind something slower but so many people on the roads have a really bad attitude.

As others have said, bridleways are off road sections of public rights of intended for use by horses, but they do not form a continuous network across the country. I live in an area with numerous bridleways, but I still have to ride on sections of road to link them together into a suitable ride. Bridleways can be hard surfaced (gravel or stony tracks) or grassy soft surfaces, and often in the winter the soft ones can become impassable because of mud and flooding. Even worse, near where I live we get a lot of 4x4s coming to drive up and down the bridleways, destroying their surfaces and making them impassible for riders and walkers, so in the winter I tend to stick to roads.

I have noticed in recent years that drivers have become much less patient with horses, and yet whenever this topic is raised, it is never long before someone chimes in with ‘but some riders don’t help themselves.’ The presence of one poorly behaved person among our number is not a good reason for a driver fail to treat all horse riders with respect - when you take it to its logical conclusion, what you are basically saying here is that if a driver hits a horse and rider with their car, they could potentially be justified if they had passed a different horse and rider once who didn’t say thank you! No, there is never an excuse for that.

I wear a helmet camera and vest stating I am wearing one now when riding on the roads. Any driver who does not give me space or slow down (especially if I ask them to) is logged with the police and the BHS as a potential I’ve been riding for 45 years, and never felt as vulnerable on the roads as I do now. I’m not easily scared or intimidated but I am concerned at the increase in poor driving. I compete in an endurance sport and travel long distances on horseback, and need to put in the fitness work - you just can’t build a horse’s fitness that way in a school. I don’t have a solution to the problem though.

Btw I hammer it into every rider I ride with (usually children) that they nod and wave and mouth ‘thank you!’ At every single driver, regardless of how they come past us. I will not give a car driver any excuse to accuse us of being the rude road user.

Start by joining Horse Access Campaign on Facebook also the BHS will have an access officer and bridleways group for your area so you can get involved with local campaigns and help supply evidence for DMMOs etc.