To have just shouted at a horse rider outside my house

[BigRedBall]

Have namechanged for privacy.

I am so angry right now. We sometimes (twice a year at most) get horses going past our house as we live around the corner from a small private farm. We live in a city, so it's quite a novelty when we hear the sound of "clip clop" outside.

About 20 mins ago we heard the sound of clip clop and I took DS to the front room to look outside. As we watched the horses go by one stopped and kind of turned around and SHITTED RIGHT OUTSIDE MY DRIVEWAY. Not a small bit...a big arse full of horse shit. And the rider laughed at her other horsey friends.

As soon as I saw it I put my shoes on and ran outside and the rider was going on her way again. Her friends had gone up ahead. I ran up to her shouting "excuse me" and she wouldn't stop. I shouted at her if she was going to clear up the horse poo outside my house and she replied "stop shouting at me" without even turning around to see I had a toddler in my arms.

I couldn't go any further because I was holding my DS and had left a sleeping baby inside.

Now I have a pile of horse shit outside my house, and I want to actually KILL this horse rider. Our road is a school route and I don't want children stepping in it but why the fuck should I have to clear it up? I am so pissed off. I want to get into the car and hunt down the fuckers and pull them back by their ears and tell them to clean it.

Obstructing? Ha ha ha ha h - this thread gets funnier

Should you just walk through it saintly ha ha ha ha ha ha >>>

It's not that hard to walk around one. Or as this was on the road rather than a pavement maybe drive through it. Unless you're an inch high I can't really see that a horse poo could ever obstruct an entrance

Horse shit obstructing a driveway? that's one big fuckin horse, does it come with optional 4 wheel drive?

I live in the country, there's horse shit on the roads. Can honestly say, I've never been catapulted from my bike, skidded in my car, had a sick child from it, or fallen in any, it reeeeeaaally isn't a problem (in my world)

No consensus was ever reached on the "can joggers poo outdoors" thread. Quick round up as follows:

Various posters: wtf? People do that
Various other posters: it's normal- just want your body does. Here's an anecdote about using runner's headband to wipe my buttocks.
Other posters: ever think you were putting your body under too much strain? If you're running so far that voiding your bowels is unavoidable, stop doing it!
More Mumsnetters posted about Paula Radcliffe.
One poster suggested running circuits near one's own house, so you could nip back quickly, but this intelligent compromise was ignored, because it was too sensible.

Shonajoy
Cars also don't tend to leave shit on the road or defecate from their windows.

No, they leave shit in the air, instead! Like nitrogen dioxide, which leads to acid rain in sufficient quantities.

So for the minority who are saying that there should be a legal requirement to remove horse shit from the roads, what about the horses that roam free in Dartmoor and the New Forest and places like that? Who should be responsible for cleaning up after them?

What should have done? Dismounted and pooper scooped ?

Most riders don't go out with a bin bag. & shovel ...

One poster suggested running circuits near one's own house, so you could nip back quickly, but this intelligent compromise was ignored, because it was too sensible.

Excuse me. I answered that one. I said an even better idea would be to run up and down the stairs at home because then you'd be even closer to the loo. Especially if you've got one upstairs and one down.

I was very hurt that my sensible suggestion was ignored.

Are people who think "road tax" exists safe on the roads? The Highway Code has been significantly since then. Are they aware of those changes?

Well, obviously, limited. Running up and down the stairs is an alternative to pooing in the mountains! Not pooing in suburban verges.

You were totes off-topic!

The Road Traffic Act, 1993, states that a farmer is responsible for muck left on the road which could subsequently lead to an accident. Simple examples which can result in expensive legal actions include accidents arising from dirt on roads belonging to individual farmers, livestock entering a neighbour's property and causing damage or accidents arising from livestock.

The Animals Act
The Animals Act, 1985, states that a farmer is responsible for accidents or damage caused by his/her livestock. This type of incident is catered for under Public Liability insurance. FBD offers a standard limit of indemnity of €2.6 million. We would once again emphasise the importance of making a full declaration of work activities to us. "

That settles it for me

Too bad then Shonajoy that it is the courts that interpret legislation, and not your good self. There are no cases where a horse owner has been held liable for a poo related accident or injury, even though the Animals Act is strict liability. There is no causation sufficient enough to stand up and the courts would apply the floodgates argument to such silly claims.

The Road Traffic Act refers to farmers because they are likely to own large numbers of animals and move them all at once, causing larger scale risk, as opposed to de minimus.

Horses have consistently been declared by all governmental agencies not to be farm animals (which mainly has its effect in planning permission issues and taxation/subsidies).

Many horseriders do have third party insurance, but I wouldn't encourage spurious claims out of a fit of pique/personal dislike of a legal activity/lack of personal common sense.

Gosh, last time I looked (about 12 hours ago) this thread was on about 400 posts. It's really got the bit between its teeth now, hasn't it?

Has anyone pointed out that The Animals Act 1985 is a piece of Irish legislation (hence the reference to a fine in Euros) and therefore not applicable in the UK where, I presume, the OP and most posters on MN live?

Shonajoy It says: "The council will continue to clean the highway...as part of our continuing working schedule". But adds: "We would like to point out that you have a duty of care to clean up after your horses."

Sorry to keep quoting you! But Oswestry District Council are wrong. Again, it is not they who lay down the law but the courts and parliament, and if they are going to interpret it and put out their version, then they ought to ensure their legal advice is 100% correct.

The Animals Act does lay down a duty of care in the sense of strict liability, but nowhere it is specific enough to cover the scenario of creating a duty to "clean up after horses". There is simply no case in point, and they are making it up.

Furthermore, duty of care on its own isn't sufficient to create liability. There needs to be a breach of duty of that duty of care and a direct causal link between the breach and the harm complained of, which will be supported by the courts.

If someone did sue on the basis of their false information, and lost and were awarded expenses against them, they could potentially be at fault as they are putting themselves in the position of giving professional advice which is factually inaccurate. Likewise, if a horse owner incurred cost in needlessly clearing away horse poo or was injured while doing so, Oswestry District Council risk being sued for their breach of their duty of care.

Man ure sure pushing these puns a bit far now aren't you?

I have often been waved at by riders. It wasn't to tell me to slow down but to acknowledge that I did slow down to pass - in the same way that I acknowledge that someone has let me in from a side road or waited behind parked cars to allow me through. It wasn't flapping arms though.

Are some posters mistaking flapping arms for acknowledgements?

This is such a funny thread, in what world does someone expect someone to poop scoop a horse poo.

OP, grab a shovel put it in your compost heap, and consider it a free gift for your roses.

we had a one family who move here who decided to make a massive fuss about cow pats on the road, because every time the herd come in for milking they poo, apparently it should not be allowed,

Eventually after making complete fools of themselves with everyone (hey even wrote to the local paper to complain, complained to the police, council) they moved.

How to approach a horse on the road and what rider's hand signals mean.

Well spotted Frankel. There is a similar piece of legislation in the UK, the Animals Act 1971, which creates a duty of strict liability for owners of animals, but is mainly concerned with protection of livestock from dogs and "cattle trespass", and with strict liability where an animal escapes due to fencing being damaged due to no fault on the owner's part.

I doubt that any court would consider it the intention of the legislature to create strict liability for damage or injury caused by one poo from one horse on a public highway. The legislation simply doesn't support such an imaginative interpretation.

As I pointed out earlier in the thread, I work in a town where between 2,000-2,500 horses use various roads and crossing points every single day between 6am and midday. There's an awful lot of poo around Plus we have various local bylaws that state horses have right of way in the town and any incident involving a horse and a vehicle puts full liability on the driver/owner of the car - if your car gets kicked, tough it was your fault for driving too close

Of course we still have idiots who think the law doesn't apply to them, it's not that long ago a horse was killed and his rider seriously injured because one idiot thought the laws about giving way to horses didn't apply to him

I did guess the OP doesn't live in Newmarket.