Horses/cyclists on the road

[sconeorscone]

Do you feel nervous on the roads too, or do you just get on with it and don’t feel anxious about it?

im really fortunate that in the area I’m in most people are fantastic at driving past my horse, as it’s quite a rural area and most people are used to waiting for horses, trackers, kids etc. I always pull in to the side, or trot to a passing place so they can get past. Unfortunately some people are so fucking selfish and speed past, or rev the engine deliberately, leave no space behind or to the side of me and don’t wait 2 seconds for me to pull into the side when I’m clearly indicating I will. I imagine cyclists have similar issues with some selfish drivers.

some of my friends are nervous going on the roads and others are not that bothered, I suppose it depends how many dickhead drivers you’ve come across and if you’ve had a bad experience but it made me realise I’m actually quite nervous about it although still do it because my horse loves it and it’s good for him. But if it were up to me we would never ride on the road because the few dickheads spoil it for everyone.

how do you feel about it?

And if you’re one of the arseholes that speeds past/tailgates/breaks the law around horses and bikes on the road, how do you sleep at night knowing you could have caused an accident?

I'm perfectly happy riding my bike in the road, but the pony adds a whole other dimension. They are capable of independent thought and movement which a bicycle isn't. He's a good boy, excellent in traffic but the way some drivers are warburtobs lorry travelling at 50 in a 30 I'm thinking of you anything could happen and it wouldn't be his fault. So I box him about a mile away to where we can ride safely away from traffic.

All my land is on a hill and also now following the snow and rain is completely waterlogged. It's just about ok for them wandering around eating grass but if I rode up and down on it every day, then it would be a churned up mess with nothing left for them to eat.
Notwithstanding the Fat Cob loves his hacks. He likes meeting people and seeing the world. He has a local fan club. He loves a canter across the common or through the woods. He's confident and well rounded because he gets out and about and has to deal with buses, window cleaners, jubilee flags or whatever else is going on.

Such a good boy!

Hacking on roads terrifies me, even though we live in an area with little traffic and driver tend to be very nice. Too many bad experiences where we lived down South, where traffic was much heavier and people had less patience. Some drivers seem to think it is a personal affront that any other road user makes them slow down even a fraction. Luckily, my pony is bomb proof and would carry me gently and slowly through an inferno. Nor do we have to do much road work, we only use them to get to off road hacking. It's actually the reason why we moved up North! Can I also add my thanks to all drivers who pass slow and wide? You have no idea, the trickle of fear I get in my stomach when I hear an engine and the sheer relief I feel when I hear people slow down. I am very grateful!

I feel very nervous whenever I have to ride on the roads because it's such a lottery as to the kind of road users that I'll find. Generally people driving larger vehicles like tractors are incredibly considerate and will pull over, turn the engine off if necessary etc. I also find that motorbikes are generally very decent. It tends to be smaller cars that want to wizz past at speed or cannot possibly wait for a suitable passing point so try and squeeze past. I have to say that in my experience however, the worst road users are the cyclists - I'm not wishing to tarnish all bikers with the same brush, it's probably because where my yard is a couple of clubs use the lanes to practice which means that there can be large groups of them, all batting along at 30mph and unwilling to stop because they are timing themselves.

I get that car drivers don't always want to wait a minute to pass safely but I'm not sure that people really understand the consequences of speeding past a horse, or driving too close to one. If I were driving I wouldn't want half a tonne of frightened animal coming through my windscreen, nor would I want to know that I had caused a fatal accident. It literally takes very little to pass wide and slow.

Up until about six weeks ago I would have said no, never nervous on the roads and on my Dales pony who hates the woods 🙄 a lot more enjoyable than normal hacking BUT then an idiot drove into the back of us and since then I have not recovered well mentally at all.
I came off and got dragged and my horse galloped home through traffic and absolutely terrified herself. She now can't cope with a car coming past at all and I'm left with an unrideable pony because all our hacking involves at least a small amount of road work and I have no arena at home. I still feel so much anger towards the woman who hit us because she has completely ruined my only hobby and I have no idea what will happen with my pony.

I stopped riding on the road about 5 years ago.
I was out on my mare and a range rover with a really noisy exhaust was coming towards us too fast. It didn't help that the noise was amplified by high stone walls.
I could feel my horse backing off my leg in a 'wtf is this' kind of way, which would have been obvious to the driver as it was a rapid manoeuvre towards the middle of the lane.
He didn't even blink, he just kept bearing down on us.
In the kerfuffle, I got hit in the face by her knee...whilst I was still on her 😱. I have no idea how. And still the guy didn't stop.

That was the last day I rode on the road. I think too much of my lovely mare to put her through anything like that again.
I really, really miss just going out for a hack and enjoying our beautiful countryside.

Suzi888 - your dog is, of course, correct :-)

For the poster who asked about how to pass, as above, passing with at least 2m clearance, and at about 10 mph is ideal, and looking to the rider for 'directions' - often they'll wave you past if safe, or put a hand up to stop you if they feel it's not. Try to keep the engine running evenly and not revving. Although turning off your engine often seems sensible, the turning on again may startle the horse more, and be aware that if you go through a big puddle and it splashes, that can be enough to spook some horses.

As a rider, I really do appreciate the majority of you who do pass sensibly and kindly. I ride regularly on the roads, and find that in the main, drivers are friendly and patient, but of course, like all walks of life, there are those who are inconsiderate knobs.
I always try to wave thank you, nod and or smile, and it does annoy me when you get riders who are rude and don't acknowledge others. Manners cost nothing, and if you can't take a hand off the reins, a smile, nod or thanks does go a long way.
The main issue I have with cyclists (and electric cars) is just not hearing them, and I know that's because they don't usually realise that it's the 'being silently sneaked up behind' by a 'tiger' (cyclist) that spooks the horses. So, if you're coming up to us from behind on a bike, just a call ahead to say you're there would be amazing, thanks! Again, the majority of cyclists and motorcyclists, oh and lorry and tractor drivers are brilliant too.
There's enough room for all of us, and I think if as riders we make ourselves as visible as possible, we help everyone.
A body camera does seem to help, too, with those few who aren't quite as patient and understanding!

I hope those of you who dont ride your bikes on the road because "roads are dangerous" ride on the pavement? Therefore making pavements dangerous for pedestrians. And its illegal to ride on the pavement.

Why do you hope we ride on pavements then? So you can get all self righteous about it?

They don't need to be exercised on roads/hacks no, in that they'd survive if not ridden or exercised at all. However horses in the wild constantly move around, covering up to 25km in a day - they tend to be pretty miserable and get obese and joint problems if just standing around all day in a 1 acre paddock - and at this time of year many horses have to be stabled at least some of the time to preserve the grazing (which is much less plentiful and cheap than it used to be 50 years ago). In summer you can sometimes ride in the fields the horses are kept in but (a) in winter you will churn the field up awfully doing that (b) it's not very safe to ride one horse while others are loose in the same field so logistically challenging esp if not all the horses belong to you, livery yards would usually forbid riding in the turnout fields for this reason. Some people are lucky enough to have a floodlit all-weather enclosed riding arena to use which is very handy esp in the winter but not everyone, and anyway again riding in small circles on an artificial circuit is boring for them (closest e.g. I can think of not a non horsey person is an on-lead pavement walk for a dog vs getting to run around off-lead in a nice dog field or woods for a dog), also not ideal on their joints. And as others have said, it's virtually impossible in 90% of the UK (maybe more) to ride exclusively on bridleways without going on the roads for at least a short way. So yes, I suppose any road riding is technically unnecessary and an indulgence, as is any horse ownership at all. But frankly riding on roads is boring at best and dangerous/scary at worst so I'd venture that the vast majority if not all riders you see out on the roads are only there because they feel they haven't an alternative, everyone I know has massively cut down on it in the last decade or so as the roads are so, so busy now and so many people don't know (or don't care) how to safely pass horses. Putting horses in horseboxes and driving them miles away to safe, open hacking was virtually unheard of when I was a kid as you'd ride on the roads to wherever you wanted to get to, was uncommon when my kids were riding 10 years ago but is now basically the only way for many riders to actually enjoy the countryside - v environmentally unfriendly and way more expensive but there you go!

Even really well trained horses can get spooked and bolt even if it's some little thing. I go really slow and wide and try to give them as much room as possible. I've mostly rode on a sheep farm set up with riding trails that go for miles. Of course, I am a New Zealander so I suspect you don't have that kind of set up in the UK. Much safer apart from a single unfortunate instance with a herd of young bulls stampeding towards up - that's where those hill riding skills comes in so handy as those horses were clambering up sheep tracks to get clear.

I ride on the roads, pony is pretty confident around cars/ vans etc. A large tractor or an artic would stress him but he'd behave. ( I might have to get off though!) I find commercial drivers often more careful, possibly because they have dashcams so need to stay calm. I appreciate drivers slowing down and stopping if necessary, or waiting for me to get to a passing place. Although I would rather you stop in the passing place and I come past, it's easier to keep pony moving forwards. As a pp said, it's usually not necessary to turn the engine off, as turning it back on too quickly is actually worse. I can't always safely take my hands off the reins to thank you but will always nod my head and smile. Windy weather is worse as often it means a pony hasn't heard you coming. As a cyclist, if you are coming up behind, please call out a greeting as if you are really quiet, it will spook the pony once he realizes you are there.

And even in areas where bridleways are around they're not always accessible straight from a livery/home yards front door so road work is needed to reach them.

I always give plenty of room and never sit up a horses backside if it's not safe to overtake although I have seen inpatient drivers do this, some even sound their car horns as they go by.
I'd get about as much pleasure in spooking a horse/rider as I would in having half tonne of horse through my windscreen.

As a cyclist I am not anxious enough to stop me using the road although there are places where it feels very unsafe.

I have not done much horse riding but that added layer of danger would probably put me off, unless the road was extremely quiet.

I think being a cyclist gives some idea of how it feels to be an ethnic minority. A proportion of people hate you for no reason and want to hold you responsible for the misdeeds of another cyclist they once met or heard about.

Can't you claim on the woman's insurance? Surely if she drove into the back of your horse and it's now no longer fit for purpose it's treated as with a driver damaging any other form of property, the victim claims on the guilty party's insurance. If your animal is no longer rideable as before the driver has to either pay for the animal to become as useful as before the accident, or pay for a replacement.

I know there can be a personal attachment to an animal but legally surely it's the same as when a driver damages an inanimate object. Repair it or replace.

I hope you dont ride on pavements - so that pedestrians are safer. Ive been almost mown down by a cyclist thats on the pavement multiple times. Rarely do pavement cyclists consider pedestrian safety in my experience.

I am claiming but money doesn't really help the emotional stress of having a pony I have worked so hard with be reduced to a shaking mess when she sees a car.

I live in an area where the council have turned the pavements into shared pedestrian/cycle lanes with the majority size given over to cyclists.
Edging out of a driveway in your car is a nightmare.
At least with a pedestrian walking they can hear/see you as you can them but a cyclists zooming by at speed, it doesn't matter how slow you edge out they're not going to stop in a hurry.

Depends on the road. A police horse was out down recently after being hit in the summer by an elderly driver. The horse was "off duty" and was just on exercise with another stable mate. It seems none of them are safe :(

Why can't you just join the motorway straight from your drive? You have to use the minor roads to reach the motorway!

Why do horse riders not just join the bridleway straight from their drive? They have to use the minor roads to reach the bridleway.

I enjoy road cycling - for my own safety I tend to position myself so that I am approximately 1/3 from the inside of the road in my lane. This gives me enough to room to swerve any debris but also to try and prevent drivers from overtaking unsafely. If I know I have cars behind me on a country road I will always pull in at passing points to allow them to pass. For the most part I feel safe enough and like to think most drivers are considerate. I do however think horse riders should be given extra consideration. As a cyclist I always slow down to a snails pace when I come up behind a horse and give as much room as possible. I’ve never understood why anyone would risk spooking a horse.

I don’t hack out any more, too many near misses with speeding drivers, approaching corners with little regard for what they might find around them and overtaking too fast/not giving sufficient space. Our yard is on a 30mph road, but not many stick to it. It’s a shame, as we have some lovely off road routes, which only require minimal road work to access.

I never used to be nervous, despite plenty of incidents with knobhead drivers through my riding life, but since having my son 13 months ago, it feels slightly different. Not necessarily that I’m actively nervous, I’m just more aware of the risk I’m taking and the knock on effect should anything go wrong.
People don’t respect horses like they should. I don’t care if you don’t like them and don’t think they should be on the road, they are allowed to be there and you’re risking peoples lives by driving dangerously at them.

I cycle a bit on roads but try to avoid it, although I used to do more riding on roads. However, the cycle paths are (currently) covered in slippery leaves and there are usually dog walkers with those extendable leads walking along, so they throw up their own hazards.

However, at least on a bike it's only me. I'd be worried about riding a horse which may react to something a stupid driver is doing. That said, I think most drivers are better with horses than they are with people on bikes.

The main issue, as I said on the other thread about cycling, is that drivers need to accept that they are on the roads by licence, and everyone else (walkers, cyclists, horse-riders) has more right to be there than they do.