To think that riders should have to clean up horse mess?

[CarriesBucketOfBlood]

You can get a £120 fine or whatever it is if you don't pick up after your dog. As a dog owner, I think this is absolutely right. Dog mess is antisocial and poses a health risk. I think it can cause blindness if ingested (?)

So why don't riders have to do the same? At the end of the road (suburban, we are a couple of miles from the nearest stables but they do occasionally make it this far across some farm land) there is a trail of horse mess that stretches about two metres across pavement and road.

It's rained multiple times and not been washed away, we don't have street cleaners that will come and clean it up. Why should the rider be able to leave it? It's just as disgusting and anti-social as a dog.

I mentioned to Dsis about it (she use to ride) and she semi agreed. Just made the point that they would need big bags to pick it up.

AIBU to think that riders should be forced to pick up after their horses?

"Also the photo is taken from a distance so any sores or rubbing can't be seen,"

Although if you look at the horse on the left it appears to be sweating underneath the bag. Over an extended period of time that will cause problems.

Also, if you try searching on the internet for horse poo catchers, Google autocorrects to "poop" and directs you to American sites. Here's hoping that that particular part of the American obsession with hygiene doesn't catch on in the UK.

People who want our country to be sanitised of any non-human presence don't tend to have an eye for detail to spot animal welfare concerns. Its strange how they can get all worked up about poo, but not notice chafing, or turn a blind eye as to how a horse must feel, already pulling a carriage in an urban environment for tourists, with a bag of excrement swaying behind its tail. Look at all those tourists who happily use skeletal horses in a half dead condition in some of the worse countries for animal welfare in the Middle East, then go home and write stuff on the internet about foxhunting, or horse racing, or whatever the latest feel-good bandwagon is.

I do wonder whether the same people have sanitary baths on their doorstep, for cleansing any items which have been outside and become contaminated. Pushchairs for example, parked in the hallway, must have rolled over all sorts of mixed in dirt. I assume also they take their shoes off and actually leave them outside the home, for the same reasons. In terms of risk of infection, I'd far rather horse poo than some of the other stuff that's about.

This:

and this:

are also US practices and are not properly tackled by whatever authorities they have in the US to enforce animal welfare. I don't find it in the least acceptable, and the standards of animal welfare there are absolutely not acceptable to me. Horse poop on streets is a minor concern compared to this and other abuses.

And no, I'm not one of those animal rights people - I've been known to hunt.

scremers I've just watched those links and am sobbing. How can people inflict such deplorable cruelty on such gentle animals. I feel sick to my stomach.

For years I've been aware of the cruelty in showing tennessee walking horses. It is abominable. Just horrific.

"Unless horses poo loads more frequently than I'm imagining?"

Mine will have four or five good goes on one outing.

You must see that this cannot work, for so many reasons, and is not necessary, for so many reasons...

I see we have moved on to terrible abuses and am glad that more people are having their eyes opened to cruelty such as the Tennessee Walking Horses training practices.

I wish there were a special place in hell reserved for those horse "trainers" but I'm an atheist so the best I can hope for is that they get a fatal kick one day.

I cannot fathom why anyone treats any animal as an object for their amusement, or as a way of expressing some kind of power. One of the things I love most about my horse is building up a relationship of trust. I love knowing that on tricky terrain I can hold his mane, keep the reins loose, think about the direction I want to go in and leave the details to him. Why anybody would abuse such a powerful animal that is nonetheless so trusting and kind is beyond me.

Slightly off topic now the thread has moved on but I do have one issue with horse poo on roads and that's when it's a shared horse/cycle lane. My local cycle path to work (bit of paint on a NSL road) has recently become a shared space with horses. No problem in that but it becomes unusable if you are on a road bike and come face to face with a mound of horse poo, especially when it's been there a while and become rock hard. Then you either have to go out into the road which is dangerous or try and ride through it which could be equally as dangerous (and also means you get covered in poo).
I don't expect the horse owner to clean it up but I expect the council to run weekly clean ups perhaps if they make it a shared lane.
Crappy job anyway because it's way too small for horses on such a busy road where drivers are notoriously bad and inconsiderate.
On country lanes and bridleways etc. horse poo is all part of living in the country!

Horse muck has never had me doubled up at the side of the road, coughing so much I feel irrationally convinced I'll die.

Unlike the exhaust fumes of various kinds of motor vehicle.

YABU, OP.

That must be on narrow path if you cannot cycle round horse pooh.

I don't know any riders who would choose to ride on tarmac or pavement if a softer, off-road surface were available. It would be nice if local authorities in this country provided proper cycle paths which also account for other users. Easily enough done by making them a decent width and having a soft strip alongside where horses can go. We actually do have one of those near me! Most local authorities though are more about getting brownie points for providing X miles of cycle path/footpath/whatever, irrespective of the quality.

Its a problem of the planning system really - imagine how much nicer life would be if there were a planning requirement to provide proper access routes to a standardised quality for all non-car users whenever planning permission is granted for a large new housing estate.

Its a problem of the planning system really - imagine how much nicer life would be if there were a planning requirement to provide proper access routes to a standardised quality for all non-car users whenever planning permission is granted for a large new housing estate.

I completely agree with this.