Horse riders should pick up their poo!!

[Instagram]

It’s surely a potential hazard leaving horse manure on the road!
Tractors are required to clean up excess mud they leave on the road, dog poo is collected by their owners.
So why can’t horse riders be required to show common decency if they are to use the road.
Apparently an outdated law from when horses were the main mode of transport allows this and prevents action being taken.
With the number of accidents never mind inconveniences caused by this negligence surely this should be amended?

@Kendodd

The other thing I've learnt from this thread is pity for the horses. I'm sure they don't want to be ridden on the road (or ridden at all) with other road users going past. I've always hated horse racing, it just looks so cruel, reading this thread, just riding them doesn't sound much better. Sure it looks like fun for the human, especially galloping, I wonder how much the horse likes that weight on their back though.

If a horse isn't happy, they have no qualms about throwing their rider.

@StoneofDestiny some horses will accept nappies, others won't. Those who don't will not be able to find work in areas (usually inner cities) where they are compulsory but they can work elsewhere. Making them compulsory will only lead to a massive number of horses off to the glue factory because they cannot be exercised.

@StoneofDestiny

Can't say it's a thing I worry about - but I saw horses with 'bags' on them to catch the poo in Poland. Just looked on line and there are lots of models of horse diapers/nappy bags 😂. In some parts of the USA it's compulsory for horses to have them.

One of those photos shows western saddles and one shows horses in harness.

English saddles are not the same as western saddles, and are for an entirely different style of riding. I can’t see how you could attach one of those to an English saddle.

Of course this rises the next issue -
Pigeon Fanciers, and what should they to do about cleaning up their pigeon droppings?

Very happy to be corrected but I don’t believe horse poo is harmful as, say dog poo or cat poo is. Its generally squashed by cars then washed away when it rains.

@WhoWants2Know

At least once a year, someone posts this same moan and has to be told that A) horse poo isn't harmful B) dismounting, scooping while holding the horse, bagging and remounting are not easy and more dangerous than leaving it.

I would like us to have an FAQ thread of questions like these, just to save time

But newbies would miss the giggle fest...

🤣

Kendodd Are you winding people up

Of course she is! What better way to liven up an uneventful day by winding up ‘posh horse riders”.
Love the faux concern for the horses.

I must say it was meant as a light-hearted thread.
I do genuinely live in an area where I know that farmers are required to ensure that they do not leave too much mud on the road. I live in the county of Lincolnshire which is in some parts semi rural.

There has been many accidents caused by mud on the road.

Section 149 of the Highways Act 1980 states: “If anything is deposited on the highway so as to constitute a nuisance/danger the Highway Authority can require the person who put it there to remove it forthwith”. Mud causes skidding and is therefore dangerous and a nuisance.

I just genuinely am surprised that there is nothing in place in regards to horse manure being left on roads.
With horse riding being in the majority of cases simply a hobby not as a means of essential transport as when the laws were originated. I think maybe there should be something put in place.
I think if they were made liable if there was an accident then horse riders would find they could make a little more effort to go back and clean up or find a solution.
Maybe it takes one case to set a precedent…

@Instagram

I must say it was meant as a light-hearted thread. I do genuinely live in an area where I know that farmers are required to ensure that they do not leave too much mud on the road. I live in the county of Lincolnshire which is in some parts semi rural. There has been many accidents caused by mud on the road.

Section 149 of the Highways Act 1980 states: “If anything is deposited on the highway so as to constitute a nuisance/danger the Highway Authority can require the person who put it there to remove it forthwith”. Mud causes skidding and is therefore dangerous and a nuisance.

I just genuinely am surprised that there is nothing in place in regards to horse manure being left on roads.
With horse riding being in the majority of cases simply a hobby not as a means of essential transport as when the laws were originated. I think maybe there should be something put in place.
I think if they were made liable if there was an accident then horse riders would find they could make a little more effort to go back and clean up or find a solution.
Maybe it takes one case to set a precedent…

Then definitely write to your MP and spread the word of your concerns. If you include death/accident statistics involving horse poo, that will definitely help your case. This clearly is worrying you OP so the best thing is to act now, quickly before more fatalities occur through horse poo.

I really can't think of much more dangerous than people walking, cycling or driving back along narrow lanes or fast roads with no footpath, looking for dollops of poo that they then have to stop and scrape up.

I think that would cause far more accidents than the poo itself ever would.

Lots of slippery things end up on roads - leaves, branches, dead badgers and foxes and rabbits and squirrels and pheasants, poo of all kinds - drivers/motorbike riders/cyclists need to drive/ride in such a way as they can stop or avoid such potential hazards.

I live in a very rural, horsey area, and I see way more roadkill, mud and vegetable matter than I do horse poo!

Then definitely write to your MP and spread the word of your concerns

Not just your MP, op. You should also, as a matter if some urgency, alert NATO, the UN and maybe WHO.
As a pp has said, make sure you back up your concerns with horse poo disaster evidence - witness statements, photos and police records etc.
It’s good that finally there will be proper public awareness of this terrible practice.

Section 149 of the Highways Act 1980 states: “If anything is deposited on the highway so as to constitute a nuisance/danger the Highway Authority can require the person who put it there to remove it forthwith”. Mud causes skidding and is therefore dangerous and a nuisance.

"can require...", in other words it's up to the council to decide if it's actually a problem. Farmers do have to clear mud off the road, but we're not talking about the odd lump from the tyres, we're talking about when the road is plastered in it.

This thread has been on my mind far too much lately so I've been keeping an eye out for these huge quantities of horse poo on my regular riding routes. It doesn't appear to hang around too long. Apart from the odd pile freshly left by my horse I have barely seen any horse poo on the roads. Plenty of mud/leaves/roadkill to be found though.

I think if they were made liable if there was an accident then horse riders would find they could make a little more effort to go back and clean up or find a solution

Op - So a horse does a poo on the road. Two days later there is an accident apparently caused by said poo.
How do you prove which horse did it?

@Wintersonata

I think if they were made liable if there was an accident then horse riders would find they could make a little more effort to go back and clean up or find a solution

Op - So a horse does a poo on the road. Two days later there is an accident apparently caused by said poo.
How do you prove which horse did it?

DNA testing of said poo and all horses in a 50 mile radius? Colour coding feed so that each horse poos a different colour? Feeding little tags with insurance details on so that they come out in the poo and thus make it identifiable? (Would have to be colic proof though)

Where there's a will there's a way! 😎

Maverickness
Those are all good suggestions.
Also maybe a camera with ID fitted to the back end of every horse, which, when the horse does a poo, relays evidence to a Stasi style surveillance centre manned by trained poo vigilantes.

Op, it was your suggestion that riders should be made liable. How would you collect evidence?

OP, why don't you go and shovel up the horse shit? It is impractical to expect riders to dismount to do it, so if it bothers you so much then you could run along behind with a garden shovel and a sack to do the job for them.

It is great fertiliser. You could turn it down on your garden, or on your indoor flower pots. Any spare and you can bag it, set it outside the front and flog it to people who are going past.

Horse shit is fairly inoffensive stuff.

I’m clearly not a ‘horsey’ person to understand this way you refer to your horses waste as if it’s gold dust and common folk should be grateful you leave your waste behind! 🤷

@Instagram

I’m clearly not a ‘horsey’ person to understand this way you refer to your horses waste as if it’s gold dust and common folk should be grateful you leave your waste behind! 🤷

Free organic fertiliser, what's not to like? Middle England is mad about gardening, you know.

Op since you think riders should be ‘liable’ when their horse takes a dump on the road, I’m waiting for your suggestions as to how you prove who is the guilty party.

I do go as far as to pop some banana skins underneath the soil where my roses grow. But I do not choose to manage the smell of horse manure or the texture knowing it is animal faeces.

@Wintersonata
I just think there is an element of entitlement to horse riders. They choose to take part in the hobby so they should have someone walk behind clearing up.

This is hilarious.
So then the horse starts to trot, or if it’s on a grass track, canter, then what? Are riders obliged to hire Olympic runners to keep up?

@Wintersonata
Well do that on private land.

[quote Instagram]@Wintersonata
Well do that on private land.[/quote]
So no more trotting round bends to be nice to drivers? Ok, if you insist.