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AIBU?

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Original poster

To have just shouted at a horse rider outside my house

999 replies

BigRedBall · 04/03/2014 13:40

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.

OP posts:
ormirian · 05/03/2014 14:26

Come on now! Rein it in people!

NigellasDealer · 05/03/2014 14:28

this is all getting a 'bit' silly!

fallon8 · 05/03/2014 14:31

You live near a farm...this is what happens...

ormirian · 05/03/2014 14:31

Just had to ask... if your stables aren't on a bridleway how do you get from the stables to the bridlway or common land? Levitation? Equine helicopter? Most riders I know would be very happy not to ride on the roads with all the attendant risks of cars, lorries and yelling toddler-carrying women. IME they don't much enjoy it but sometimes it has to be done. Much nicer to go somewhere peaceful and quiet and safe where you can perhaps just relax and enjoy the ride (and cut up the countryside with your bloody great hooves - only joking honest Wink).

Annndddd...... that's another thing. THe correct speed limit is irrelevant if the speed you are doing is unsafe for the current circumstances. For example if you were on a country lane and you came up behind someone walking a dog, or holding a child by the hand would you slow down or would you say 'sod it...I'm doing the legal speed limit'?

fallon8 · 05/03/2014 14:33

Neigh ,surely not,just a bit of horse play

everlong · 05/03/2014 14:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

innisglas · 05/03/2014 14:36

Give me horse-shit over vehicle fumes anyday.

figrus · 05/03/2014 14:38

Just had to ask... if your stables aren't on a bridleway how do you get from the stables to the bridlway or common land? Levitation? Equine helicopter?

Mmmm, horse box and jeep?

SelectAUserName · 05/03/2014 14:46

Figrus not every horse rider has access to a horsebox or trailer. Of those who have, not every bridleway has suitable safe parking to be able to leave it unattended or without it causing an obstruction - the majority probably don't. By definition, car parks need to be accessible to cars so tend to be on or next to roads!

There is a certain irony in a keen motorist advocating an increase in the number of slow, ponderous horseboxes clogging up the roads, transporting all those horses to be ridden elsewhere so as not to clog up the roads by being slow and ponderous...

ormirian · 05/03/2014 14:48

OK. What about at the other end of the bridleway? Or when there are gaps in bridleways when the only way to the next bit is along a road.

NigellasDealer · 05/03/2014 14:48

Mmmm, horse box and jeep?
oh yes of course, obviously any one with a horse or pony must be so moneyed and leisured that they just have a 'horse box and jeep' to hand every time they fancy a trot round the block!
btw i suppose you mean trailer, not everyone can tow one of those - i cannot because
a. i cannot afford one
b. i do not have a licence to tow one
c. my car does not have a tow bar

saintlyjimjams · 05/03/2014 14:49

Figrus I think you really need to move back to the city. You're really not suited to rural life. (Figrus is the poster who wanted the horses galloping in the fields everlong)

ormirian · 05/03/2014 14:50

"There is a certain irony in a keen motorist advocating an increase in the number of slow, ponderous horseboxes clogging up the roads, transporting all those horses to be ridden elsewhere so as not to clog up the roads by being slow and ponderous...
"

Good point. While it is possible to pass a horse and rider and most of them will stop to allow you to do so, it's not so easy to overtake a horsebox.

And what about riding schools? They might need 5 or 6 horseboxes at any one time. Now that would be a right PITA!

saintlyjimjams · 05/03/2014 14:50

OK. What about at the other end of the bridleway? Or when there are gaps in bridleways when the only way to the next bit is along a road

Obviously you need to take a driver, so they can drive to meet you, pick you up, drive you 500 yards to the next bridleway entrance & so on.

SelectAUserName · 05/03/2014 14:57

I have a lot of friends who ride (I used to until ill-health stopped me) and whenever they are contemplating a change to a different livery yard, the first question anyone asks is "what is the off-road hacking like?" It is such a stressful thing, having to ride on the road. Sometimes it is a choice - certain types of fitness training for some competition horses is best done by walking for miles on a hard regular surface - but more often than not is is an unavoidable necessity which most riders hate.

I think there is a certain assumption amongst non-horse lovers that all riders are rich, keep their horses on their own land and have big flashy horse boxes. The reality is that the majority rent space for their horses on livery yards or farms. Those places are businesses, and in many cases every acre of space is used as a place where the horses live or spend a big chunk of their time. Fields which are used as turnout / living paddocks are not suitable for riding in, both for safety reasons (riding amongst loose unpredictable horses is not safe) and because riding churns up the grass and means the horses would have to be given supplementary feed to replace it, which makes the cost of keeping them even more expensive and makes a lot more work for the farmer or livery yard owner. It doesn't automatically follow that "owning a horse" = "lots of land" = "plenty of space to ride so get off the road"!

ExitPursuedTheRoyalPrude · 05/03/2014 15:01

Figrus - this is the first time I have ever used this expression, but you are really starting to boil my piss.

Thumbwitch · 05/03/2014 15:05

Just thought I'd add to the fun by looking up the stats for accidents involving horses and traffic:
There were 183 Road Traffic Incidents reported on www.horseaccidents.org.uk in 2012. These included:
2 Rider fatalities
12 Severe Rider Injuries
14 Horse Fatalities
3 Severe Horse Injuries

However, it's considered by the BHS that traffic/horse accidents/incidents are severely under-reported (I would imagine that all the serious/fatal incidents are reported by someone)

Of course, you can compare these stats to RTA fatalities etc. for all people - pedestrians, cyclists, drivers etc. and it will seem very low - but 14 horse fatalities, that's more than one a month in 2012. That's too many drivers risking the lives of riders (and their horses) by being too fucking arrogant to slow down and pass safely, while the horse and rider try to get somewhere more pleasant to ride than a road.

TillyTellTale · 05/03/2014 15:18

Horseboxes? I never thought I'd see the day when someone demanded more horseboxes on the road!

Lasvegas · 05/03/2014 15:26

I ride, occasionally on country roads. There is no way I could carry a spade and a bag with me when out riding, if horse did poo, dismount, shovel up, get back on and continue riding. Think you are being unreasonable. or was the poo on your property?

Adeleh · 05/03/2014 15:28

Completely agree with you about driving at appropriate speed ormirian. I was recently shouted at by some nutter in a supermarket carpark for not driving at 30 because you have to drive at the speed limit. Can you imagine dodging out of the way of everyone driving at 30 in a supermarket carpark? There are some mad mad people around.

TillyTellTale · 05/03/2014 15:29

Genie: hello, welcome to McDonald's Lamps. What would you like to wish for?

Some Mumnetters: more horseboxes on the roads.

Genie: would you like caravans with that?

Tailtwister1 · 05/03/2014 15:31

In Charleston the horses wear a kind of a sling under their tails to catch poo. They also have to drop a ping pong ball if the horse pees and then a special skoosher comes along and cleans the road! That's for horses who pull tourists around in carts though.

Generally I think OP is being a bit ott. It would be dangerous for a rider to dismount in the middle of the road, wield a spade and bag whilst holding onto their horse.

Binkyridesagain · 05/03/2014 15:34

Maybe they should teach it to Sit and Stay Grin Said in a Barbara Woodhouse voice of course.

limitedperiodonly · 05/03/2014 15:35

14 horse fatalities, that's more than one a month in 2012. That's too many drivers risking the lives of riders (and their horses) by being too fucking arrogant to slow down and pass safely

Or just stupid, I suppose thumbwitch. I was shocked by the poster who described a horse screaming waiting to be put out of its agony and 'blood, so much blood'. It was a good post IYSWIM if it makes someone think twice about not wanting to share the road.

It doesn't appear to though.

I thought people on MN liked horses. Cheltenham is around the corner and so is the Grand National.

When will we have the first threads about how cruel they are?

And yet some people on this thread don't seem to care and want to turn riding horses into a class issue.

UptheChimney · 05/03/2014 15:36

was the poo on your property?

That's the joke, Lasvegas The horse manure was on the public road.