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?

Anyone remember Hercules-Steptoe's horse? I'm sure Harold kept a bucket and shovel on the cart to scoop up the manure to sell....

Anyway, you cannot compare horse plop to dog plop, ever. I've always thought it's more akin to mud having grown up in a place with wild horses crapping all over the place.

Well, you could relate this to so many things, so why restrict it to horses?

What makes you think I do?!

Can you not hose the wheels off if you are going somewhere muddy?

No. I'm disabled.

You can lift the wheelchair over it

Unfortunately I'm a muggle and a disabled one at that. Wingardium Leviosa works on neither me, nor my (heavy, electric) wheelchair.

No-one will be harmed by stepping in it or rolling a pram through it

Again, whether I'm harmed or not, I don't want it on my wheelchair wheels as it will then transfer to my car and my home.

Would all the people who see nothing wrong with this like me to come and rub the lovely-smelling, only-chewed-up-grass all over their car and carpets, then chop their legs off and render their arms useless so they can't clean it up?

Horse poo is healthy!

But more importantly, horse poo really doesn’t smell worse than most fragmented candles imo

😂😂 I love the fact that this is probably the most sensible comment on the whole thread.

@GrrrHotdogs

Fragmented candles. Oops

Wow! 25 pages on horse cr*p!
Wish it was about a CF neighbour or a parking rant! Entertaining, though!

You've got to put 'with bridle ways' in your common sense comment about riding in fields or some pedants will point out fields are other people livelihoods etc etc

It's not pedantry to point out that there is a huge difference between fields, woodland and farms which are plentiful, and bridleways which are very limited, to the point of non-existence in some areas

And as my link that no-one wants to read points out some towpaths are bridkeways.

I take your point about wheelchair wheels - but surely as a wheelchair user accessibility is barely affected by horse poo? I very rarely see horses in places that are wheelchair accessible And those that are (lanes mainly) would be bloody dangerous for a wheelchair user due to people driving too fast.

I have spent the last couple of decades living with disability and the inaccessibility that brings. In my son’s case there's ofteg nothing that can be done to make something accessible except remove every other person (so I do get intensely annoyed when his activities are gatecrashed by people who can access regular activities). So I could understand annoyance if horses were taking over something that had been designed with wheelchair users in mind - but that can’t happen very often because the needs are entirely different. And generally horse riders prefer to ride away from people.

If a path is narrow enough to be blocked by horse poo it must be positively brimming with dog crap - and dog owner though I am (who always picks up) i’d Definitely rather have horse poo on my wheels than dog. I have riding boots in my hall that will have some dried dung underneath them, if I stand in dog poo those shoes aren’t Coming in the house until cleaned.

Why does anyone think that now the space is shared with pedestrians the riders should have to conform?

Do people go on public football pitches etc and then complain that times have changed and the original users should accept this, and either play around them or play elsewhere?

Then again, I've had debates with posters who think teens on skateparks are secondary and should give way to their toddlers right to trundle round on a ride on. Let alone those who think child = right to disabled spaces.

Sheer entitlement.

oliveinacampervan I attach a photo that my neighbour took last June of horse poo on the pavement outside my kids' school. I promise, it does happen.

I am horsey and live in a horsey village and the only reason there is poo on this pavement is that ONE of my (several) horsey neighbours is an entitled wanker who rides her horses irresponsibly both in the village and in the fields.

My boy is 17.2 so, unless there were an emergency, I wouldn't hop off him since getting back on without a block is undignified tricky. But I also wouldn't ride him on the pavement, so his poos shouldn't trouble any pedestrians.

Yeah poo on the pavement would annoy me - I can’t imagine why anyone would ride on the pavement except in some sort of emergency.

You've got to put 'with bridle ways' in your common sense comment about riding in fields or some pedants will point out fields are other people livelihoods etc etc

Fields belong generally to farmers, and are private property unless there's a bridleway in it which you didn't mention and even then, it's only the designated path not the whole field. It's not really pedantry to point out that fact, and that we can't just go riding through fields as we please - no more than I can your garden. Woods are often reserved for footpaths, which horses aren't allowed on. Beaches in winter are OK, if you live near one. However they're generally busy with people in summer which can be unsafe as free range children hurtle towards you demanding strokes and rides. And you know, as horses have yet (to my knowledge) to sprout wings, then roads and bridleways, green lanes and permitted tracks are needed to get there aren't they?

Why does anyone think that now the space is shared with pedestrians the riders should have to conform?

Conform to what? Making an effort to reduce the barriers that make a space accessible? To be considerate of others using the space? Is that really so hard?

Devilishpyjamas my friend who took the photo said she couldn't see any reason for the rider to be on the pavement. To add insult, her yard is on the right side of the road here, and I can verify that she did not stir herself to tidy up the pavement after she'd finished terrorising the countryside her hack.

Yes bear. It's been explained why it is rarely practical to hop off and move poo. And yet several posters think that it should be a requirement for the original users to access the route.

The onus on finding a solution is very much on those who object to the poo. Not the riders. Put as a reasonable request to join forces and make the path better for both, I'd imagine most riders would be on board. Tell them it's clear up or get off and don't be suprised if they don't agree.

What effort is it you expect them to make? Nappies or a demand they only ride safe plods that won't move and they can mount from the ground isn't a reasonable effort to expect.

Do people go on public football pitches etc and then complain that times have changed and the original users should accept this, and either play around them or play elsewhere?

That doesn’t help your argument in the slightest! When the towpaths were designed for working horses do you think that land was used for football? Football pitches are themselves a change to the land. Would you rock up with a herd of cows and insist you can graze them, because that was what the field was designed for and the footballers should play around the cows or go elsewhere?

The onus on finding a solution is very much on those who object to the poo. Not the riders. Put as a reasonable request to join forces and make the path better for both, I'd imagine most riders would be on board. Tell them it's clear up or get off and don't be suprised if they don't agree.

But to do that wouldn't tie in with the idea that we're all stuck up entitled snobs would it? If the riders agreed and did it (which I would) then how could we be stereotyped as we are. It's sad that most people would rather take time to slag off horse riders for all being posh, entitled morons or idiots rather than just speak to the ones causing the issue and get the issue solved.

bears but the horses haven't ever stopped using it. It's always been horse use, the pedestrian access came later.

Your cow analogy would be more accurate the other way. If people are also allowed to also use cow pasture it doesn't follow that if they object to the cow pats the farmer needs to make an effort to sort it.

beer exactly. Then again it makes life easy when people give irrefutable evidence of their ignorance.