To think I shouldn’t have to stop my run to walk past a horse?

[Famousperson2023]

This has happened twice now. Out for a run and the horse riders have asked me to stop running while I go past their horse!!

I’ll put this in context- daughter rides, I used to ride. When passing a horse or pony I’ll go wide and slow, or stop and wait at a passing place on narrow roads (often while the riders amble up at a slow walk deep in conversation with their fellow riders, 3 abreast….and without a hint of thank you). When I’m out with our dog I’ll make sure she is on the lead while we pass. but being asked to stop and walk???

Walking won’t kill you, the horse could if it has a hissy fit. The riders know their horse’s capabilities, if this was my daughters old horse she’d be dancing all over the bloody place, such a cow bag mare. No way of controlling her, she would just flip!

Was trying to avoid the boredom of a horse thread so I really shouldn't have commented. My bad 😁

I don’t understand even the stopping the car milarky frankly

i grew up in 70/80s in rural area. Loads of mates rode and some even had horses. When driving, cars would slow, give a widish berth to pass, but not stop . And certainly not slow or stop for a horse on other lane. Nowadays it seems a large proportion of drivers stop their car and wait for horse to go past on other side of road 🤷🏼‍♀️🤦‍♀️and to pass they wait miles back, so passing becomes impossible for ages .

horses out on roads should be trained to not get skittish at traffic noise or cars passing hem. And riders should pull across to side of road to ensure they have room between horse and car too, as well as driver.

its such a bloody dangerous hobby, why would you risk your well-being taking a skittish horse onto a road if it can’t cope with cars actually driving past. Owners have responsibility to ensure they don’t put a skittish horse in a field/stable that means every ride involves interacting with cars.

as for not runnng- bollocks, same with dogs on leads. Keep animals under control or take them out of that situation.

Training run times are more important than the actual safety of horses and horseback riders, often children, who often have limited options for exercising their horses. Ditto for cyclists.

That's my take based on so many comments here.

sigh

Then don’t take the old mare into a public place…it sounds like it was never trained properly. Bad owners again blaming everyone else.
no you’re not entitled to have out of control, large, dangerous animal in a public place.

I think the only answer is that Arseholes are Arseholes whether they are on a horse, cycle, or on foot.

We only ever ask people to slow down if we think that there is a risk. We could do the same hack day in, day out, and not mind runners, and then one day the horse looked a twig half way round and decided the world was out to get them, so you generally alert people or ask for some consideration. Or ask people not to let their dogs run loose around a horse, or maybe best their child doesn't run at a horse waving a stick at it.

However, 95% of the time, its all lovely - we stop, let the kids pet the least horrible horse, thank dog owners for putting their dog on a lead, and have a bit of give and take with cyclists.

Horse riders (and possibly cyclists) do have an eye for danger though, and are used to assessing risk - we often hack and spot an Arsehole jogger (or cyclist) from quite a distance, something about the spidey senses go, and we brace ourselves, and then are more likely to them to slow because we can tell how they pass others with no consideration. So this may have happened to you OP - they just sensed you were the Arsehole variety and asked for more consideration accordingly.

None of that really matters to the horse though, does it?

The runner (as cyclists do) has to choose between either slowing down to adapt for the specific situation which is there - or risk their position of moral superiority/in the right, also being simultaneously located in a hospital bed.

Exactly. I do the same when I'm out on my bike. If I'm behind them, I give them a bit of a head's up and slow right down until I'm past them. It's not a hardship.

We share the paths/bridleways/pavements/roads.

I imagine the people who are upset are also outraged when they are 'stuck' behind a tractor on a road and have to slow down until they pass safely.

It's perfectly possible for a previously "bombproof" horse to react due to inconsiderate behaviour from other road users, giving genuine fright. My horse went through a phase in her early training of being terrified by noisy cylclists whizzing past unexpectedly, having been perfectly okay with respectful cyclists til that point. I still had to get that horse back to the yard safely. I wouldn't have batted an eyelid to anyone coming up quicky behind her that she was on edge becsuse of it. I then did lots more training in company and at the yard and she is fine again now.

Roads and pavements aren't 100% safe from cars, as no fault accidents happen! If you are on a bridlepath, you are taking a similar risk. Pedestrians can also choose footpaths if you don't want the risk from horses, or to be inconvenienced.

This thread is the perfect example, of how selfish everyone is. No wonder society is a mess.

It doesn't stay left for long round my way. All the keen gardeners rush out to collect it to add to their compost heaps.

It makes no sense that you would do all the other things like put your dog on a lead etc but won't do this one small thing? It's common sense surely?

If I had to choose between walking for a few seconds or taking a gamble about being kicked by a horse I know which I'd choose. I've seen a friend get kicked by a horse and it wasn't much fun for him!

What predates on a horse in UK?

God, has it not occurred to anyone that the most dangerous object on the road is cars? Yes, a horse can cause damage but their flight response is much stronger than their fight one and they’re much more likely to be injured or to throw the rider than hurt a passerby. I’ve ridden an awful lot of horses and not one of them has ever attacked. In fact, they are more alarmed by people inching along at five o’clock, as I said upthread. I’d rather be out on a horse than in a car or bike, as well, because no matter how skittish the horse is their first instinct when frightened is to get themselves AND you out of the situation. Not ideal, but a damn sight better than a chunk of a ton of metal which needs you to tell it what to do and isn’t going to give a damn whether it’s just done a successful manoeuvre or crushed a child’s head. Anyway, most of this debate seems academic. Yes, riders have exactly the same right to be on the road as runners do. Yes, it makes it safer and easier for everyone if the runner does slow down. The vast majority of horses aren’t going to panic at a runner if they give a lot of space and give verbal warning of their presence, though. Horses have 350 degrees of vision so they’re going to have registered the presence of a runner long before they get close enough to slow down. Also they aren’t and can’t just decide to attack someone right across the road so if you’re on a country lane you’ll be fine. If you need to slow down to let a car pass before you overtake the horse, you’re in roughly the same position as a car driver behind another car would be and it’s just as arsey to get cross about it.

“I think the only answer is that Arseholes are Arseholes whether they are on a horse, cycle, or on foot.”

so much this! True of drivers too.

Horse rider here. If I’m riding on the road (rare) I expect drivers to act sensibly (don’t blast last and don’t rev a lot deliberately) but that’s it. I wouldn’t expect runners etc to do anything at all differently

On a bridleway, however, (which Im pretty sure the OP is talking about as no one ambles along 3 abreast on a road) I’d hope me, cyclists and (dog) walkers would all slow and be considerate of each other as usually they’re narrower and close passing is inevitable. Weirdly I don’t think I’ve EVER (in prob 30 years of riding now) had an issue with a runner in any way.

Unrelated but quite recently met two guys with dogs off lead they just had zero control over and the three dogs decided to ‘hunt’ my horse who wasn’t best pleased (the dogs would have been very impressive in other situations as it was quite velociraptory!). Ended up having to ride at the dogs and chase them a fair distance before they gave up as other option was horse finally losing his bottle and pegging it which would have probably been bad all round. Or lashing out with a steelshod hoof which would have required a new dog.

Won't affect her.

And there's the real issue really. That people are convinced you have to be a multi millionaire with a plum in your mouth and a braying laugh to be within 5 feet of a horse.

Most of the horsey people I know are poor. Often, it's because they have horses!

As a pedestrian and a road user I really dislike runners’ need to keep on running at any cost. They’ve run at me when I’m using a walking stick and clearly can’t shift in a hurry. They’ve run at me on narrow paths when I don’t have time to move. They’ve run at me on pavements when I have had to step into the road to give them space. They ALWAYS expect everyone to move round them and rarely give thanks. As a pedestrian and a road user I have to adjust my position to the surrounding conditions all the time, every single time I step out of the house. It’s what you do automatically to move around in this world. Runners who think they own the pavement or the road just infuriates me. If I were braver I just wouldn’t shift but I would be in danger of being knocked over so I do. So, OP, just adjust your running to the conditions on the road. If there are horses in your way, just make the adjustment for everyone’s safety,

Very, very silly argument? 😏

How very, very condescending you are. Just a little note, bridleway doesn't have a capital B.

Slowing down to walk a few meters is such a small thing to do to be considerate. A horse spooking is unlikely to hurt the runner who spooked it but much more likely to injure the rider or itself. So sure, keep running, you’re most likely perfectly safe, but you need to accept that it could lead to injury to others. Refusing to slow down for half a dozen steps doesn’t seem worth it to me.

Where I used to keep my horses we had multi use trails - so they were marked up as , Horse Riders, cyclists and pedestrians.

Technically, as we all have equal right of way, I could canter fast right past walkers or runners on narrow parts of the path if I wanted too. I could do it past people with kids and dogs and I would be perfectly within my right to do so…

But I’m not a dick so I don’t! I slow down my horse and walk past, or I stop if there’s someone that’s scared or nervous of horses . And I expect others to be courteous of me also if I ask them to stop or not cycle right up behind my horse.

Unless you’re a professional athlete I really don’t think walking for a few seconds is going to hurt you lol.

Thanks for that re people assuming you’re UC and/or a snob if you have a horse. We didn’t have money for holidays, fashionable (or reasonably acceptable) clothes etc so I was bullied at school for that. Meanwhile I was being bullied at Pony Club for the way I spoke making me so posh even though I was actually looking after their ponies a lot of the time because their families could and did afford grooms. The whole time it was my mother’s hobby, though I adored the specific horses I rode.

Howl, exactly, do you expect people to train their horses not to be frightened of cars and random runners if they’re only ever on private land?

I agree. There's a lot of reverse snobbery around horse ownership. I don't think people realise either how important the equine industry is to rural economies, in terms of local employment and countryside management (when done well!). Or how important it is to horse health to hack out and quite how much execise they need that can't be achieved by going round in circles in an arena or in the field where they graze. My mare would have a very short life expectancy if we didn't ride out. It's a constant stress to give the exercise needed, with fragmented or unkempt bridleways (and having to keep slowing to a walk for other pass users 😂). I wish we didn't have to ride on the road at all, but it's 100m between our yard entrance and the nearest bridle path, and a further 1/2 a mile of roadwork if that's out of action! Then there's stretches of road to follow the bridle way round. I wish there were some bridle ways just for horses, and some just for cyclists, ike there are footpaths for walkers.

Well said @Cheesyfootballs01 - the riding school I use hacks through the village before taking the horses on the beach. We always stop if there's someone scared and other road uses are decent enough to slow or stop for us if necessary.

We also stop on the beach if it's unsafe - eg. dogs or children running loose. It's just common courtesy not to put other people in danger!