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?

[SirChenjin]

Your right - horse poo is the least of our worries. It's the fucking fruit loop on top of it that's more concerning.

[amarmai]

the coop used to deliver the milk bottles via a horse drawn cart and we used to get sent out to sweep up the droppings for the veggie garden- this was during ww2! It doesn't smell awful BTW. Rarely saw dog droppings then . Guess it must be fairly recent that everyone has a pooch. Wonder why? more money, more time, more lonely, more energy ?? Might get one myself!

[SirChenjin]

You're even

[itsbetterthanabox]

Just to make the point that dogs are not carnivores as posters keep saying, they are omnivores. If people fed them properly instead of canned shit then their poo would be much less offensive.
People could not ride horses on the road. It's hazardous.

[SideOrderofChips]

Same shit different day

[Gabilan]

"People could not ride horses on the road. It's hazardous."

Oh FFS. Everything carries a degree of risk. I would love to ride off road all the time but I cannot because of the increased usage of cars and associated encroachment on the countryside. To get to bridleways I have to go on the road, therefore I ride on the road. I ride to a professional standard, I'm fully insured, I have passed my British Horse Society Riding and Road Safety Test, my horse is well-schooled and wears appropriate tack to help me control him. If every bloody driver went to the same time and trouble that I do the roads would be a lot safer than they are currently.

[horseygeorgie]

spot on post gabilan.
sir Calling people fucking fruit loops isn't very nice now! plus the only fruit loop on this thread is you

[SideOrderofChips]

I would love not to have to ride on the roads. If you don't like riders on the road maybe campaign with your local council to get more bridle paths reinstated.

[Gabilan]

Calling people fucking fruit loops isn't very nice now

As soon as you start using people's MH as a way to insult them and describe it in such pejorative terms, you've lost the argument.

[SirChenjin]

I wasn't trying to be nice - let's just clear that up. As for losing the argument - that award has already gone to another poster, courtesy of her earlier rants about plagues, stereotyping, agitating, removing potential hazards and so on.

[TimeToMuskUp]

itsbetterthanabox I disagree. My cousins are vegan and feed their dog some weird specialist keep-your-dog-alive-for-centuries nonsense. It has to be the single most repellent dog I've ever met; it's shit smells like piped death, it's farts could be used by North Korea to subdue the masses and it looks like the unhappiest dog on earth.

Our dog eats tinned shit and her turds smell mildly more pleasing on the dog-shit-o-meter.

[Mrsmorton]

Didn't the last poster who clearly needed a hobby started a thread about this, chase the horse down the road shrieking? Did I imagine that?
She WBU as well.

[ExitPursuedByABear]

No you are not imagining it. I mentioned it earlier, and some kind soul has found the thread and linked to it up there ^^^

Mad as a box of frogs.

[Annwfyn]

So I was raised in a horse racing community. There was a large stables opposite my house and strings of race horses went out every morning. It wasn't the only stables in town. There were a lot of roads with horse poo on it.

I have never heard of it causing even a minor accident. No bicycle, motorbike or car has ever slid on it and caused so much as a skinned knee. I think that's purest fantasy.

[lavendersun]

I have ridden all my life (well 40 years anyway) and have never heard an objection to horse poo on the road or even on a pavement and I am sure lots of us must cross them at some point to get onto bridlepaths ...... like a lot of things on here - only on mumsnet.

[cocobean2805]

it's shit smells like piped death, it's farts could be used by North Korea to subdue the masses and it looks like the unhappiest dog on earth

This is the best thing I have read on here today!

[alltouchedout]

I wish the people who ride horses along the "off-road cycle path, pedestrian and horse riding route" near my house would do something about the piles of shit their animals leave behind, tbh. They're the least frequent users but they make it unpleasant for everyone else and whatever anyone says about its inoffensiveness, horse shit is not something you want to run, walk or cycle through, or slip and fall in, or have your small children step or fall in. I'm not sure what the answer is because I don't really expect riders to immediately dismount and clear up every time their animal defecates, but neither am I ok with the shruggy denial of all responsibility shown throughout this thread.

[Gabilan]

For those saying horses shouldn't be on the road/ they're "pets"/ you don't have to ride, bear in mind that the horse industry is big business.

A report last year estimated that the horse racing industry was worth £208 million per year to the area in and around Newmarket alone. That's one part of the industry in one area. There are other working horses - those in riding schools, hunt yards and competition horses. Until recently horses were our main source of motive power. Our civilisation would look very different were it not for the power given to us by horses. They've died for us on battle fields. And many horses still work.

Do we have to have them? Do we have to ride? No, we don't, any more than we have to play football or have a film industry, go to concerts or have cheese festivals, travel to New York on holiday or buy haute couture clothing. But horses can help war veterans with PTSD and give mobility to people with physical disabilities. They are beautiful animals and they enrich many lives. And yes, they bring with them risks and downsides but frankly for the amount they have given and continue to give, a certain amount of digested grass on the road is a small price to pay, especially when you can compost it.

[LittleRedRidingHoodie1]

YANBU. Pick it up. It's shit. My shit won't make you go blind but if I squatted down at the end of your driveway and curled one out you'd be disgusted. Those people who say Bruce never heard of complaints about his before- you've heard a few now. Just because all horse riders don't take responsibility for their mess doesn't make it acceptable.

[InimitableJeeves]

So what is the answer? That no-one ever ride a horse again? Or that they do but they find a way of cleaning up the shit as they go?

Well, yes, when they leave the poo in places where it is offensive or dangerous to other people. If it's inconvenient, tough. Your choice to spread the poo around, your job to pick it up. Not necessarily as you go; but as soon as possible afterwards.

Are you suggesting that "people in wheelchairs" cannot steer around horse poo? Would that be all people in wheelchairs you are stereotyping, in your urge to use what you assume is an emotive element, or just some of them?

I'm just thinking about the steaming pile of horse shit I edged round the other day. It was a large dollop right in the middle of a narrow pavement. No, I'm quite sure that no-one in a wheelchair could have steered round that, not because I'm stereotyping them, but because it wouldn't have been physically possible.

[LittleRedRidingHoodie1]

They've* not Bruce. I've never heard Brucie complain about this issue.

[NewLife4Me]

I'm sure I read that horses have more right to be on the road than cars.
they were our first transport, and the law apparently gives horses more rights than automobiles.
I don't ride or drive.

[Gabilan]

"I'm sure I read that horses have more right to be on the road than cars."

Horse riders, pedestrians and cyclists use the road by right since it is a public highway. Drivers use it by licence. However, those vulnerable user groups are increasingly being edged out. De jure you have the right to walk along any public road except a motorway. De facto you'd be bloody stupid to try it.

[Mrsmorton]

Oh seem to have missed a page. Still, enjoying this thread. Especially the piped death comment. Going to use that!

[horseygeorgie]

gabilan Again, spot on post! I'm not going to post anymore, you do it better!