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Original poster

What should I have done? (almost hit horse and rider with my car)

187 replies

Redstorm2807 · 30/04/2025 12:06

Posting for traffic as feeling really shaken up by this incident and honestly not sure what I should have done differently.

Driving yesterday afternoon, come out of a village with a 30 limit onto a country road section which is a 60 limit. Accelerated out of village so probably doing 40 ish when I come round a corner and find a large horse with a rider walking very slowly in the road in front of me. There is a car coming in the other direction so I do an emergency stop and thankfully come to a stop a few metres away. The car behind also has to do emergency stop.

The horse thankfully was not spooked by this and continues walking on but the rider is very angry, shouting and waving his hands at me.

I slowly drive past the horse and continue on my way. I always drive very slowly near horses

I don't speed, I'm one of those people who do 30 until the speed sign in a village (we live fairly rurally so lots of journeys are short stretches of 30 through villages then stretches of 60 between).

Thinking about it I'm not sure there was anything else I could have done differently apart from drive at slowly all the time which obviously isn't a sensible option. I could have been doing 50 or 60 by that point if I had accelerated harder in which case I would have likely killed the horse, rider and possibly myself.

I'm still feeling quite shaken the day after and worried about it happening again - is there something I'm missing or is this just the risk we take when driving??

OP posts:
LoveIndubitably · 30/04/2025 12:29

It's ridiculous that so many windy roads with blind bends are perceived as being "allowed" to drive at 60mph. Many of them I go at 30 because that's the fastest I can go not seeing around the bend in front of me.

Obviously I go faster when it straightens up, but 60 is way too fast for many bits of them.

lunalovegood25 · 30/04/2025 12:40

Also for anyone that doesn’t know what rider hand signals mean it’s worth taking note of them
I asked a driver to stop once because I could see around the bend over the hedge. He told me to fuck off and then flew past me straight into a tractor and had to reverse all the way back

babyproblems · 30/04/2025 12:42

BaronessEllarawrosaurus · 30/04/2025 12:12

The speed limit is irrelevant you weren't driving for the conditions. If you have a blind bend you need to slow down just in case.

Agree. The speed limit is just a maximum.. it’s not a speed to always drive at regardless of conditions.

Strangeworldtoday · 30/04/2025 12:46

Agree with the slow on the bend advice. If you can't see then go slow. It could be a hiker, a cat, a horse, bycylce round the corner. Just take the corners slowly :)

Aweddingoneee · 30/04/2025 12:47

We live in the sticks so lots of country roads and you have to use common sense. There are lot of 60 roads around here that shouldn’t be 60. I take a blind bend slow, regardless of what other people think and how others drive. You have no idea what’s around the other side.

JasmineAllen · 30/04/2025 12:47

As my driving instructor told me, the speed limit is a limit, not a instruction to drive at that speed and if you can't see a clear road ahead you should always slow down and drive with extra caution.

I must admit I was always a little blasé as well until I had to do alot more country driving and came across horses, dog walkers, prams, deer, tractors, escaped animals etc on a regular basis. Now I'm super careful!!!

whynotwhatknot · 30/04/2025 12:50

i hate thats it 60 on country roads theyre so dangerous i never do it- people thing its a trget to aim for

SinnerBoy · 30/04/2025 12:52

Redstorm2807

OK, you made a mistake, but now you'll be a much better driver. I'm glad everyone came out unharmed. Everyone makes mistakes and now you're aware that ones like that can end badly.

That said, I have long wondered why so many National Speed Limit signs are right before steep bends.

Blackdow · 30/04/2025 12:53

I live rurally, I actually live on a very bendy road. There are only a handful of houses so the wee stretch of road with us on it goes down to 40, but no one does 40. They keep on at 60. My driveway is about 100 yards from a blind bend. If I’m waiting to turn into my driveway, I have to keep one eye in the rear view for people flying around the corner.

Someone went right through my neighbours wall and into their garden once because they were coming too fast round the blind bend, and couldn’t stop in time when they saw a stationary car waiting to turn into a drive so they had to swerve. It’s a bit different as our stretch is 40 so they’re speeding, but it’s the same principal. You’re going round a blind bend so slow down, you need to be able to stop in the spade you can see in front of you so you need to go slower.

TeamMemberNumber8 · 30/04/2025 12:56

LoveIndubitably · 30/04/2025 12:29

It's ridiculous that so many windy roads with blind bends are perceived as being "allowed" to drive at 60mph. Many of them I go at 30 because that's the fastest I can go not seeing around the bend in front of me.

Obviously I go faster when it straightens up, but 60 is way too fast for many bits of them.

Me too! Lots of winding 60mph roads around here that are really only safe at 30mph or 40 at a push. I always seem to end up with some tit in a massive car right up behind me though.

rosemarble · 30/04/2025 12:57

This time of year the rather dim pheasants just plop off the verge into the road without a care in the world.
Deer do the same and if you seen one it often means its mates are not far behind.
I don't often see horses on 60 mph roads. There is a local riding school placed in the middle of a chicane which can be a bit hairy - little kids crossing the road with ponies. It's 40mph there, but also big signs.

viques · 30/04/2025 12:58

A speed limit is a limit, not a target. As others have said, you drive according to conditions, weather, visibility, traffic, time of day.

Gunnersforthecup · 30/04/2025 12:58

I live in this sort of area and crawl round corners and then accelerate towards the speed limit when the road becomes straighter and visible.

It might not be a cycle around that corner, it might be an articulated lorry, or a large tractor!

Rklap · 30/04/2025 12:59

It’s the bend, that’s all there is to it. Approach it more slowly.

A lot of 60 limits are very dangerous because people are used to limits being actual safe speeds for the road. 70 on a motorway is considered more of an expectation than a cap, for example - even though it is obviously a cap.

Needlenardlenoo · 30/04/2025 12:59

I worked in the country for a while.

The only thing to do is to drive as though there MAY be a horse/flock of ducks/DofE group/lunatic in a mud splashed Subaru doing 70 round every corner.

Came round a corner (slowly) once at night to find an 8ft glowing apparation: as I passed, it resolved into a horse and rider with high viz bands round the front legs, rider's vest and hat!

Perhapsanothertime · 30/04/2025 12:59

I’m always worried on winding roads that there will be a cyclist or something around the blind bend. The reason we take a theory test is in part because of anticipating the dangers of driving, this is one of them.

Whenever I’m riding horses or bikes (not often these days) or walking in the road, I will move into line of sight as best I can so as not to be fully hiding around a bend, because I know most drivers are just oblivious and presume they’re the only ones on the road.

ProfessionalPirate · 30/04/2025 12:59

It’s simple - you were going far too fast around a blind corner. The speed limit is just that - a limit, not a target. On winding country roads I would expect to be doing well below 60 most of the time. You have no idea what might be around that corner - horses, a broken down car, a fallen tree… you need to be able to stop. Poor rider, no wonder he was angry.

AlmostSummer25 · 30/04/2025 13:00

Redstorm2807 · 30/04/2025 12:14

I suppose that summarises it pretty well! I think I've become too familiar with these roads - alarmingly I see so many people take corners as fast as they can rather than as fast as is sensible. Thanks

Show quote history

Like you you mean.

jolota · 30/04/2025 13:01

I think we're so used to seeing so many people driving over the speed limit that driving under the speed limit feels very safe/cautious, but as others have said, blind corners require extra care.
I live in an area popular with cyclists so I'm always assuming there's something round the corner!
I did recently have a terrifying scare like you though, a pedestrian with their dog stepped off a verge into the road as I approached them, not sure what possessed him to do so, seeing that I was coming but I swerved into the other side of the road to avoid him as luckily there wasn't a car coming the other way, not sure that I would've been able to do an emergency brake in time if there had been a car though. Scared me so much to think what could have happened. So there's always learning to be done, I probably should've driven slower just based on the fact that there was a pedestrian on the verge.

AlmostSummer25 · 30/04/2025 13:02

Redstorm2807 · 30/04/2025 12:16

And I totally understand why now, well, lesson learnt. Thankfully managed to learn it without causing any damage to anyone.

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It's a lesson you should have learnt when you were learning to drive, not however long later when you could have killed the horse, the rider and yourself & very likely anyone in the car that was coming in the other direction.

Maybe you need to take a few driving lessons.

Dotjones · 30/04/2025 13:03

You did nothing wrong - nothing actually happened. When going round a blind corner you need to be driving at a speed that you can stop if there's a hidden obstruction, which is what you did. Try not to overthink it, the horse rider should not have shouted at you. It's as much their responsibility not to create a hidden hazard as it is yours to be on the look out for one. You fulfilled your responsibility and the horse rider didn't.

Zebedee999 · 30/04/2025 13:06

Redstorm2807 · 30/04/2025 12:06

Posting for traffic as feeling really shaken up by this incident and honestly not sure what I should have done differently.

Driving yesterday afternoon, come out of a village with a 30 limit onto a country road section which is a 60 limit. Accelerated out of village so probably doing 40 ish when I come round a corner and find a large horse with a rider walking very slowly in the road in front of me. There is a car coming in the other direction so I do an emergency stop and thankfully come to a stop a few metres away. The car behind also has to do emergency stop.

The horse thankfully was not spooked by this and continues walking on but the rider is very angry, shouting and waving his hands at me.

I slowly drive past the horse and continue on my way. I always drive very slowly near horses

I don't speed, I'm one of those people who do 30 until the speed sign in a village (we live fairly rurally so lots of journeys are short stretches of 30 through villages then stretches of 60 between).

Thinking about it I'm not sure there was anything else I could have done differently apart from drive at slowly all the time which obviously isn't a sensible option. I could have been doing 50 or 60 by that point if I had accelerated harder in which case I would have likely killed the horse, rider and possibly myself.

I'm still feeling quite shaken the day after and worried about it happening again - is there something I'm missing or is this just the risk we take when driving??

You did very well.
You should always be at a speed where you can stop within the visible distance and it seems you did stop going around this corner so well done.
Never go faster than you could stop in the visible distance in front of you.

WiddlinDiddlin · 30/04/2025 13:08

You were going too fast for the conditions/visibility you had.

You got very lucky - you would only have needed the horse to be backing up (which they do when scared) in response to something ahead of them, say another car, bird exploding out of the hedge, savage daffodil waving at them... and that would have been a very different outcome.

Always drive as if theres a horse/toddler/tractor/fallen tree around every corner.

saveforthat · 30/04/2025 13:08

AlmostSummer25 · 30/04/2025 13:02

It's a lesson you should have learnt when you were learning to drive, not however long later when you could have killed the horse, the rider and yourself & very likely anyone in the car that was coming in the other direction.

Maybe you need to take a few driving lessons.

Show quote history

Yes. I know the op has now realised that she was in the wrong but it scares me that people are driving that don't know things like this. It could have been a broken down car, a pedestrian, anything in the road.

TheWisePlumDuck · 30/04/2025 13:10

When I was learning to drive my instructor told me to always take a blind corner like there may be a brick wall just around the bend.

I must be honest and say I don't really understand the thinking of anyone who doesn't drive like that. Are you just hoping that there isn't a large vehicle, farm vehicle, horse or pedestrian there? Do you think you have the psychic powers necessary to tell this before you can see the road?