to expect horse (and rider) to reverse for me!

[AliBingo]

Genuinely puzzled here- I live down a single-track lane which is very narrow and windy so you have to drive slowly, anyway I met a horse-rider when I went out earlier.

Where we met, the rider was just past a field gateway passing place - the horse was about halfway past it, so its back legs and the saddle, and the rider herself, were still alongside the passing place. I stopped in plenty of time (couple of car lengths away) and waited for them to get into the passing place.

I waited and after about 30 seconds, rider did a hand gesture to indicate that I was to reverse! I duly reversed about 200 feet back down the lane and then sat waiting for about a minute while the rider proceeded to the passing place alongside me.

She looked a bit grumpy and didn't thank me, presumably because I hadn't reversed straightaway. But I had expected her to go into passing place!

So I am now wondering if it's not even possible to get a horse to back up/turn around/reverse etc - can you tell that I know nothing about horses!

WIBU to expect them to go into the passing place practically next to them, or does car etiquette not apply when the other vehicle is a horse!

Thanks!

Smartie - the roads I ride on are not always as busy as that, but yes iI always aknowledge.. I want to make sure I am not giving a bad impression of 'riders' to anybody.

I have yelled obscenities at a cycllist ONCE only. He did nearly get me and horse killed though.

"Why should the Highway Code or anything other than courtesy and consideration come into it? Treat others like you want to be treated.
LazyJane read the reason WHY we ride 2 abreast. It isn't us being entitled or inconsiderate."

Thinking the Highway Code is some optional extra, and that you are perfectly at liberty to create your own slow moving road obstacle for your convenience IMO is entitlement thinking at it's finest.

I seem to remember wearing a hi-viz tabard yrs ago which said "please pass wide and slow,thank you" on it, I wonder if they are still around?

Beamy I meant WNBU! Sorry. Was in car and the signal went to amend what I wrote!

Superfluous yes they are still available. Mine says
'Caution Young Horse'. (She's 21)

It works a treat!!

Thxs Willyoulistentome

Perhaps we should customise some to say "sorry, need both hands on reins but thanks for slowing down"

arf at your young 21-yr-old btw

Hmm might be a bit long winded. Unless we had four horses in a row with a couple of words on each. Like those roadside signs by local school PTAs and such three words every 50 yards.

Drivers would LOVE that!!! not

YANBU, Surely she could have turned it round as she was right next to the passing place

Can I just say for all those drivers who have been polite and read the Highway Code, and passed wide and slow (slowing down to 50 from 60 is not slow, and passing so close I could have tapped my whip on your roof is not wide enough, I'm talking to you mr BMW driver you twat you nearly got me killed the other day)
Thank you very much for realising that horses are not machines, get scared sometimes, do bloody stupid things and don't understand that the apparent monster in the hedge is much less dangerous than the large metal thing behind them.
Also, if the horse is a large one like mine, I may well have acknowledged you but due to the horse being 5ft10 at the wither and me being another 3ft up from that, your roof/rear window visibility may have prevented you from seeing my heartily waved thanks!

Perhaps there should be the equivalent of a driving test for riders and horses, before they are allowed on the roads with an animal? Nothing too complicated, just basic knowledge of rules and techniques including how to reverse?
The OP had to reverse 200 yards down a narrow lane, and that's not easy, especially if another vehicle comes up behind you. What then, both vehicles reverse? To the next two passing places.
I used to work in a stables, they took care to match horse and rider according to ability and temperament. It was safer for all that way.
As for the riders on a horse too large to mount without assistance, you remind me of a skinny little bloke I was at college with. He insisted on owning and attempting to ride a huge motorbike which he was barely able to control.
Not safe for him or anyone else really, but perfectly legal.

Why is it dangerous to ride a big horse?

Lazyjane - the road is for all road users. You don't have divine right of way because you're in a car

If you can't dismount and mount without needing extra support, or a mounting block then you are not in full control of events.

We have a lot of horseriders round here, I've only ever seen them being careful and polite to drivers who slow down or pay attention to what's happening. I looked at the map of incidents over several years posted by superfluouscurves and it was interesting to see that there weren't more, given the crowding on the roads and the lack of cyclepaths that would create a safer way to separate users of the roads.

It's not quite as simple as that. Pasing a test on one particular day would not prove anything. My horse is absolutely FINE in traffic MOST of the time - About 99.9999% of the time. But horses have their own opinions, and what might be perfectly doable one day ( rein back , or leg yield into a space, or turn round and go into it) may well not be doable the following day if that same horse has just got upset about something else..or if that space is next to a pig field...or the rider could see a dog belting accross the field towards the gate she was about to stand next to, so it looked fine from where the driver was sitting, but the rider could see an issue... or well just about anything...

Even police horses freak out at stupid little harmless things sometimes. I have seen one that won a rosette at Windsor horse show for police horse bravery by stomping over flapping plasic, smoke, jumping through fire, going calmly past a fake football crowd and all manner of scary things. It totally freaked out at the ribbons flapping in the wind on the rosette. (Brought the hose down actually - the irony!)

Riders need a 6th sense almost as to what to watch out for..and every horse will be different... and inconsistent too.

Only an idiot would ride on the road if they thought they were going to be a danger to themselves and others. There have been days I have decided that today was NOT a day for roadwork. Horse in season and being a tit - very windy - cycle race in progress- whatever.

But just SOMETIMES when you have decided to go out there will be a situation where you need a car driver to help you out and reverse 200 yards. It has never happened to me in 18 years with my horse. I am not about to say it NEVER will. I would like to think that I would have got into that passing space, but without being in that particlar riders shoes I can't say for sure I would have done.

BUT the OP SHOULD have got a massive thank you . Being rude is not on.

If you can't dismount and mount without needing extra support, or a mounting block then you are not in full control of events

Really? First I've heard of it. That will be me consigned to a Shetland then.

I'm pretty certain the police use mounting blocks for police horses too, as mounting from the ground is generally considered bad for horses' backs.

So that's them consigned to Shetlands too then.

As for me, I hop off and on my 17 hander whenever I need a pee, and climb back on using gates, walls, flat bed trailers, whatevers there. I could mount from the ground by putting my stirrup down but I generally don't. I don't get off in traffic either, as you have more control from the saddle than you do on foot beside the horse.

Apologies offered then, I'm going on the limited experience I had with one stable owner who made a big thing about being able to mount and dismount and control the horse, and not riding something larger than she thought you could handle.

"Really? First I've heard of it. That will be me consigned to a Shetland then."

And? If a Shetland is all you are able to safely control (and yes that does include being able to mount and dismount at will) then that is all you should ride on the road. You don't have the right to take whatever you please on to road and expect everyone to fit around you. Again, I refer you to Highway Code rule 52.

Have not read all the responses, but horses can reverse very easily! They can also turn around and head back the way they came.

The only reason I can imagine that rider would not have wanted to reverse is if she was taking out a green or "nappy" horse, having just left the stables -- you do not want the horse to get used to walking backwards or turning around as they can all too easily use it against you another time.

It's still taking it a little far not being willing (or able) to backstep all of one and a half strides -- to do the sensible thing and let you pass.

Whatever her reasons, she should have been much, much more courteous to you and thanked you for reversing. If she can't put reins into one hand then a nod and a smile goes a long way.

There is a BHS (British Horse Society) road safety course (and test) that riders are able to take, and really should take, before hacking out on roads or lanes.

"You don't have the right to take whatever you please on to road and expect everyone to fit around you."

Does this apply also to the multitude of middle aged men in lycra leisure bike riders around here making me drive at 20 mph for miles on end because it's not safe to pass on a twisty road? (It's an otherwise fast main road that NO horse rider would dream of riding on by the way)

Or so slow vintage cars, or hearses, to tractors, or to pedestrians on a single track road? or LEARNER drivers???

It's hardly any easier to control a shetland than a 17 hander. They are still massively stronger than a human if you are leading on the ground. On the whole they tend to be LESS well behaved as they are generally ridden by little kids, so not schooled to a high level.

Many police forces recommend riding two abreast, to slow down traffic as saggy said upthread.

BeanieStats considering I rode a one-time favourite for the Grand National on the roads around Epsom Downs, I think you're a tad late with your instructions.

Maybe time to take a bit of exercise yourself and see what the human body can do, even if some people like you think those of us who are short are handicapped and should restrict our lives accordingly.

Anyone who can control a Shetland deserves a medal. Mine was the most willful bugger of all the horses I've owned.

goblinchild in actual fact, a good big horse is often safer than a small scatty horse. It depends on the individual horse of course, but many big horses often have a calm temperament and move slower than smaller horses. And of course a human is always going to be less strong than any horse, no matter how small. So its more to do with skill and technique than strength.

Some riders are of course nervous and different things trigger those nerves, for some that is larger horses. But I've always felt safe on a nice big horse.

Equestrian sports are one of the few sports where women and men can compete on equal terms, and in fact the top level of showjumping is currently quite dominated by small, slight built female riders, such as Malin Baryard-Johannsen and Edwina Alexander.