AIBU - Horse riders pick up poo?

[kaz2810]

First time asking on here so here it goes!

I'm bloody fuming, we live in a fairly large town but are lucky enough to live by a lovely canal. First 1/4 mile or so is a concrete path wide enough for 2 people to walk side by side. I'm walking along this afternoon and in the distance there are some horses & a women with a buggy feeding ducks. One of the horses poo's and as normal keeps going leaving a steaming pile all over the path meaning that anyone with a pram, wheelchair etc cannot get past unless they lift over or roll straight through it. ( bushes one side & water the other side of path) this is a daily occurance and I'm totally fed up of dodging it. Surely when on a concrete pathway the riders could show some consideration to others?

but as someone else said horses don't seem to do one neat poo or do these ignorant women specifically train there horses to make as much mess as possible.

I honestly doubt that.

But horses do tend to produce one rather neat heap of shit if you let them stand still whilst they’re taking a shit, ime.

I'm sure the Waitrose at the end would be thrilled by all the horseshit traped through their door

Can I suggest that everyone on this thread give a bit of their time to the British Horse Society and help to campaign for more bridleways (and better connections to each bridleway) so that horses can be ridden away from any path/road that can inconvenience path/road users.

The problem of horses being ridden in less than desirable places (for both rider, horse and other users)has been due to bridleways being closed, built on and moved.

No horse rider wants to ride down tracks or roads where they are going to meet prams, bikes, dogs etc but due to there being less and less pathways for horses where they can be ridden away from high pedestrian walkways then most have little option.

The BHS have an ongoing campaign to get more bridleways open and access to them made easier. Opening more bridleways would help everyone and would deal with the issues that invariably crop up when horses, dogs, humans, bikes, buggys and wheelchair users have to all use the same pathways.

If the poo was wide enough to block the whole towpath then a call to the Guinness Book of records may be in order.

Alo - erm I had worked out you don’t know much about the countryside.

I live in a city, grew up in the country, spend a lot of leisure time in the country (riding, walking, surfing). With and without my disabled son. Horse poo has never impacted on my life in any way ever. It’s a total non-issue and tbh I tend to think that anyone who ends up frothing about it doesn’t have enough to worry about! I do have zero patience with people who complain about horses in country lanes. Never really seen horses in towns (except in Hyde Park or police horses).

I don't understand why riders are being branded 'entitled arses' and similar simply for doing as the law allows.

I really cannot see the relevance of the fact that these paths were originally designed for horses pulling boats. Self-evidently, they aren't currently maintained for horses. You might just as well say that, because a number of bridges over waterways weren't designed for cars, there should be no expectation that the rules of the road be followed by vehicles currently using the bridge.

Foxy - what are the rules on other users of bridleways.

Agree - i’d Rather meet a car than a buggy whilst on the back of a horse

think what's got my backup about this thread isn't country living being a bit smelly and expecting a sanitised world. It was the early responses of :
Why should I be considerate of other road users with my smelly pet?
And the instant indignation at the idea of training a horse to use a poop bag. Or training a horse to tolerate their rider having to stop to kick poop to one side.

I’m pretty firmly in the ‘pro horse’ (by most people’s standards, I suppose). But I honestly agree with this.

And the amount of riders that are apparently unable to get back on their horse or walk to the next bench / tree trunk/ stone etc? That’s actually honestly concerning. I don’t think you should go for a ride without an other rider accompanying you.

No, I’m not against paraplegic or otherwise disabled riders. But this is really risky imo.

So because I want access to a shared use path I am precious, lying, exaggerating, entitled and have a massive chip on my shoulder?

Right.

If people want to question the OP and her description of a path with “bushes on one side & water on the other” that’s a different issue. But that is the scenario I am responding to.

HOHOHO i don't know where you get your information from everyone i know that has horses are working class me included there is a large amount of horses where i live i don't know anyone who is privileged

TBH as a horse rider I would not choose to ride down a narrow shared path with kids, dogs and buggies - so I would be interested to know why they were. Was I necessary to access a bridleway? Also why I asked foxy about he rules re bridleways (never owned my own horse, so always hacked with people more knowledgable than me - and lucky enough to be able to ride on open moorland).

I live in a rural area and the instant any horse shit is spotted there is a mass brawl of residents with shovels fighting to collect it.

Have to admit, that although I complained about horse poo on pavements (just because it often forces people not a road, and some people are vulnerable, if it's close to home I do this. I also collect horse poo on dog walks (and so take millions of plastic bags }

It's excellent for the garden - and as DH says "You spoil that compost heap" I swear you can hear the worms cheering as I empty it in!

Alo - erm I had worked out you don’t know much about the countryside.
^
Snobby much?
I was trying to be friendly and show that I was happy to be shown I'm wrong.

I now live somewhere very urban. There is a riding school 10 mins walk from me now. 4 within 10 miles despite living somewhere busy enough I would consider to dangerous to cycle never mind having horse friendly roads . I used to live in a large town with lots of horse shit and several riding schools. My sister used to ride horses when we were kids. My point is here not all horses are in countryside . This isn't complaining about countryside. Op has not moved to the countryside and complained about the smelly field animals. Unless we are discussing banning horses from all areas aside from "proper" countryside there will be conflict and countryside dwellers complaining about townies just spoils your argument.

But FYI:

If I add it up, I have spent , 6 months living on a dairy farm as a child. Loads of cow shit everywhere but not on public roads.
As an adult I have spent an additional year living abroad on a farm in the absolute middle of nowhere. I have also spent 10 months in countryside here as an adult and another 5 in countryside on an island of the coast. Doing conservation work. I also have a degree in conservation. So actually I do know a fair bit about the countryside, getting my hands dirty etc even if I don't live in it! I just haven't lived near a cow farm that lets cows walk across roads. Sheep yes, cows no. So stop being such a snob and assuming only people who live in total rural areas know anything about countryside.

It must be exhausting to be the sort of person who gets this wound up about horse poo. And cat poo to be honest. I've never come across an actual cat poo in the wild away from a litter box, and I live in an area with loads of cats.

And in my opinion horse manure on a path is far worse than dog poo < This made me laugh though. Batshit.

Blimey alo - take a breath. Am stunned you’ve spent so long on dairy farms and never seen cows being herded across a road, but hey ho.

Deepan, there will a large number of horses out and about being ridden in the course of someone's work. Professional riders, yard owners, etc.

Children growing up around rural animals and all that 💩 supposedly have much better immune function

We live in a council estate that's close to a river with pathways for walking that lead to the countryside. Last summer we had a few horse riders coming off the paths and walking through the estate leaving mounds of horse poo as they went. One mound was left by the pelican crossing! When I complained to the council I was told they can't do anything because the poo is biodegradable, he did sympathise and agree with me when I said that just gives dog owners cart-blanch to leave their dogs poo. It did and the level of dog poo in our area last summer was disgusting. The horses stoped coming after a week but the local (bad) dog owners turned the place into a dog poo dodge for the rest of the summer. 😡

(That was meant to be in response to your question Deepan about how many horses are actually working - but this thread is moving too fast for me to keep up! 😀)

Blimey alo - take a breath. Am stunned you’ve spent so long on dairy farms and never seen cows being herded across a road, but hey ho

^

One dairy farm. Lots of fields and the milking parlour was on sight. Cows moved to milking parlour along farm roads. Cows left the farm for slaughter in vehicles .

I'm surprised you've grown up in the country but struggle to visualise a dairy farm with this setup

I don’t struggle to visualise that set up at all. I didn’t say anywhere that never happened.

But erm you’re getting a bit wound up about something fairly light hearted so I apologise profusely for doubting your countryside credentials.

It's ok. Hopefully you've learned to not come across as so dismissive in your posts and this will help you make your points better in future

I wouldn’t deliberately roll my buggy through horse shit, but if this was unavoidable I’d see it more as having to go through a bit of mud, need to look for a shallow puddle to clean wheels, etc. Rather than the pure anger I feel if someone has let their dog take a crap in the middle of a path and left it so I can’t avoid it. I think this is one of the things you have to tolerate. If like seeing horses out and about if they are road sensible and the owner has it sorted.

Devilishpyjamas

It’s not so much that other people can’t use a bridleway ( of course other users, walkers, wheelchair users etc can) but that horse muck would be expected and anyone that didn’t want to be around horses or found them a menace for whatever reason could be safe in the knowledge that they are unlikely to come across a horse or horse poo unless they choose to use a bridleway.

If you close bridleways and easy access to bridleways then you have to expect horse riders will use other routes that are available to them.