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?

coffee I'm not sure which I find more ridiculous, your suggestion horse riders should move shit in residential areas, or your stereotype of the average horse owner.

I had a madman neighbour who used to shout at me every single time I left my home riding my horse about picking up poo. One day I was riding home, just passing his house and he came out to berate me as usual. Its true there was a horse poo on the road, although unsure which horse it might have come from. Fed up with neighbour interrupting my peaceful rides, I jumped off 17.2hh horse, handed the reins to him and said hold him while I run up to my house and fetch my shovel and wheelbarrow. Did so. Came back to a shaking, white-faced terrified neighbour and my (very well behaved horse), who had been licking his face for salt. Neighbour had actually let go, but my horse, as I'd suspected, kept licking him and nudging him for sweets. (Horse is much better behaved than neighbour). Neighbour never said a word. Has in fact never said a word about horses again, but I've twice seen him disappearing at speed back into his house as I ride past.

Needless to say, I've ridden along that road peacefully for years, but when the village expanded to accommodate the new build housing estate of which neighbour's house is the last one, life became less peaceful, with increased car usage. I'm thinking of setting up a picket on horseback, pleading with people to eschew their cars for non-motorised forms of transport. How do you think I'll get on?

YABU what do you suggest, horse riders carry a shovel?
Besides dog poo is poisonous, horse poo is delightful fragrant stuff.

coffee we're not rich or posh and we have a horse. We use it for pulling t'carts down t'mine shaft. This is when we're not busy weaving sacks for the potatoes, pumping water for washing in the outside bath or walking the whippets.

" The sort of people who pay hundreds of pounds a month to stable their expensive animals are not the sort to deal with them shitting in the streets- as you've seen, the peasants should enjoy it for their roses, not go about demanding that you deal with the leftover waste of the animal you own."

oh for god's sake another idiot all chippy about the idea of horse riding.
I bought DDpony for £140 at a sale and she lives in a field down the road that costs a fiver a week. I hate this lazy class stereotyping about horse riding that people indulge in so unthinkingly.

I know that its a lot of poo, but surely all it would take was a couple of sainsburys bags, pick it up like you do for a dog, and hang it off the saddle when you continue.

Hahahahahahahahahaaaaaa! Thats funny.

Why is it ridiculous to pick up the shit of an animal you own Lurked?

If it is unfeasible to do it with the horse you should come back later.

You may know poverty stricken horse owners, in which case I'll withdraw my remarks that those with expensive luxuries often think taking responsibility for their own actions is too much trouble (remember the 'my car is expensive so others should be careful with it thread?) But even if they are poor and not rich, they should still pick up after their own pets or not exercise them in public areas.

The sort of people who pay hundreds of pounds a month to stable their expensive animals are not the sort to deal with them shitting in the streets

Utter tripe. Just shows total ignorance. Like thinking everyone who lives in the country is well off.

Oh lord yes coffee we are all landed gentry

Coffee the reason I'm not rich is BECAUSE I have a horse! I'm the groom, the poor sap paid a fairly low wage to look after the shiny beasties who are individually worth more than I earn in a year!

This could be unfair...I exercise a minimum of 6 horses on the roads everyday. I ride and lead and take each lot out for about a minimum of an hour and a half, covering around 10 miles. That is ALOT of carrier bags! Plus they aren't particularly docile animals and if I started fart arsing around with shovels and whatnot, I would end VERY badly!

[Besides dog poo is poisonous, ] no it aint.

Please please keep posting your , your well thought out wisdom coffee

Cocobean maybe you should sell the potato bags as organic horse poo collection devices?

But then where would the potatoes go?

" surely all it would take was a couple of sainsburys bags, pick it up like you do for a dog, and hang it off the saddle when you continue. Unless horses poo loads more frequently than I'm imagining?"

Well they eat a lot of fibre. A horse's digestive system can weigh 80kg. They trickle feed, continually if they get the chance. If DHorse has been turned out overnight and I ride first thing in the morning, I might need 4 carrier bags. Now, he's pretty good at parking but I wouldn't want to park him on a busy road. Remounting carrying poo is hazardous but not impossible. Then I'd have to ride along carrying up to 4 bags of poo which would make it difficult for me to rife effectively (and we're talking about a sensible horse here who doesn't mind saddle bags, though I admit I've never attempted to sling carrier bags of his own poo from his saddle.

Also his shit is just grass that's been through a fairly ineffective digestive system. I actually don't mind picking it up with my hands. So by bagging it in plastic I'm turning something that will rot down quickly into something that could linger in the environment for hundreds of years. Given that we're trying to cut down the amount of plastic used, that does not seen sensible.

And besides, where I live they move sheep and cows along the roads. I can't see farmers coming back to wash that lot off. They do sometimes put up signs saying "warning mud on road" which is something of a euphemism for "We've been spraying homegrown fertilizer around and some of it fell off the trailer on the way and more of it got on the tractor wheels and then on the road".

As for being a hazard, well I cycle (it saves me a lot of money so I can keep my horse) and I find the best thing to do is slow down, look ahead, and pedal around the stuff.

coffee it wouldnt be safe or possible to dismount every time your horse does a dump. But I guess as we are all just rich toffs, that doesn't matter.

Oh and my (free) nag is kept at a yard I rent for the princely sum of £500 a year. He doesn't get much hard feed as is fat and I spend about £100 all in every month on him. The vast majority of horse owners around here are certainly not rich, they make massive sacrifices to keep the horse.

What about fox poo, actually?

Still can't get over the Sainsbury's bags - OP, please refine your idea and go on Dragon's Den, will you?!?

Horse remembers incident and neighbour with great fondness. Unfortunately, horses learn quickly, and because I dismounted and he got a little rest plus a neighbour to lick, he associates neighbour's house with the end of work and being relaxed, and tends to do a poo more often outside it now.

I find that with some horses, if you dismount each time they do a poo to pick it up, they learn that it means they get a rest, so they will do all they can to squeeze out a poo, even if they don't really need one.

coffee because horse shit is harmless. If you don't like it, tough. Toddle off and have a think why horses might be in residential areas on the roads. Oh yes that would be because the residential area has been built over what was previously countryside and bridle path.

The majority of horse owners are average earners, who spend their average disposable income on them.

Yabu and precious

Oh now, fox poo is VILE! My terrier loves rolling in the stuff, it is truly horrific. Do you think foxes go to sainsbugs? They should really pick it up.

Surely it should be waitrose bags for the toff horse owners

Ye gods not this again.

Why not do a search. There was an hilarious one were a poster was outraged that a horse had a crap outside her gate and she ran after it if I remember correctly.

YABU. VVVU

Maybe horse riders should be obliged to be accompanied by an aide with a wheelbarrow who picks up any messes.

Well, I won't be using lowly Sainsburys carrier bags for my impossiblepoo collections anyway. It's Marks and Waitrose round here with us posh equine types don't you know?