Why are some drivers such utter tools around horses on the road?

[Springersrock]

This baffles me

Our yard is on a tiny little country lane. It’s a dead end with a farm at the end, a few houses and several other small yards along it. Lots of access to bridle ways off the lane so hardly any roadwork.

Yesterday afternoon DD had a lesson so was hacking to another yard along the lane - about 10 minutes hack away. I was following on my bike.

A delivery van comes flying along the lane, barely slowed down and passed so close DD could have touched it.

A couple of minutes later he came back the other way, this time he did slow down - but only so he could shout abuse at DD and I before he sped off again.

He obviously wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer - he was in a sign written van so I’ve phoned the delivery company and complained

This isn’t the first time she’s encountered behaviour like this and, sadly, I’m sure it won’t be the last, but why on earth do people behave like this?

I cycle a lot and while I have been subjected to some pretty stupid drivers, I’ve never encountered anywhere near the level of aggression and hatred that seems to be directed towards horse riders.

If you had to brake suddenly then you were going too fast around the bend. It’s completely immaterial that it was a horse and rider - you shouldn’t be going that fast around any bend.

You were driving dangerously and without consideration for other road users and it beggars belief that you can’t see that

Motherofcreek maybe that’s where the field gate is? Maybe the person leading the horse was young? Whatever you say, you cannot get away from the fact that you knew this was a rural road used by vulnerable road users and chose to ignore that fact when deciding how fast to drive. The fact that you haven’t learnt anything from your mistake is really worrying, so let me put it this way: if you drive into a horse, the angle at which you will hit it with the car means the horse will land on your windscreen and crush you to death.

You should certainly have caution round bends on country roads yes. Anyone with any sense of rural living would know that. Farm traffic, livestock, slow moving HGV, even bad roads ie potholes and all manner of things can suddenly appear around a bend.....

Oh stop it I’ve just done exactly the same drive home. It’s a sixty road, most we’re doing just over forty. I took the bend at thirty which was cautious enough and obviously I was able to slow down and avoid the idiots. Nobody should cross there. If they do they are massively irresponsible and could be the cause of fatalities.

There is no gate there.

booboo let me put it this way - if an adult chooses to walk a horse across the road immediately after a blind bend when the road limit is 60 they are bloody selfish idiots. If you can’t navigate the roads on a huge fucking animal don’t go out. Take responsibility for your own actions and not take for granted that cars are just going give way or stop in enough time

I do have caution when going round blind bends that’s the reason I didn’t crash in to them.

Nobody has answered if they would walk there child across in this spot - but because your in a great big fucking horse it’s ok?? No?

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Well, you'll find that, in the event of an accident, the police take a very dim view of your mentality, MotherofCreek

If you take a blind bend at a speed which is inappropriate - a speed from which you cannot safely stop in the event of an obstruction - you will be responsible for a potentially fatal accident. That will be true whether it is a horse rider you crash into, or a cyclist, or another car, pedestrian, animal or other obstruction of any sort...

You're welcome to think that's stupid, but in the eyes of the law, you're wrong.

Yes - entitlement... The root cause of aggression on the roads.. Car drivers, lorry drivers, van drivers, horse boxes, riders, cyclists.. No one more entitled than any other but the god damn entitlement some of ALL of these categories is stunning! If course those not encased in a metal box are more venerable and I will always do my damndest to go as slow and as wide as possible around horses (adore them and wouldn't wish any harm on them). However I live somewhere that holds a lot of equine events and by god, some of those same horse people are most ob-feckin-noxious drivers on the planet when it's their turn behind the wheel!!! Almost despise them as much as the dual carriageway cyclist!

Motherofcreek you seem incapable of seeing that ‘a fast bend’ is an oxymoron and a person who drives round a bend too fast is an accident waiting to happen. Totally non-horse related story - last week a friend of mine came across a car upside down in the middle of the road late at night. She and her husband got out of their car to check if the occupant of the overturned car was ok. Whilst doing so, another car sped round the bend and only just managed to avoid them. You don’t know what might be round a bend on a road - you should not be driving round any bend at a speed you cannot stop from should there be an obstruction. It doesn’t matter what the obstruction is. And the only person in your example putting your children at risk is you, because of the way you drove round a ‘fast bend.’

When you talking about ‘huge fucking animals’ and ‘great big fucking horse’ try and take off your judgey-pants and imagine the obstruction around that blind/fast bend is your child on a bicycle, or your DH fixing a puncture. It doesn’t matter what the obstruction is, it is your responsibility not to hit it, and if that means you have to ‘creep around,’ then creep away.

Not really surprised that no one can admit to crossing a horse immediately after a bend is a bad idea. Or that they wouldn’t cross there child over on a blind bend either especially on a road when the speed limit is 60.

Because crossing a child over at that point would just be stupid wouldn’t it ..

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Motherofcreek I hope one of your DCs takes up riding.

I agree with you Motherofcreek, it is a stupid place to cross, whether it’s a child or a horse. And I’m very sympathetic towards horses. There’s no need to be belligerent about it, they are taking a risk crossing there whether they’re entitled to cross where they like or not. Obviously you don’t go haring round blind bends but nor is it particularly safe to cross there.

My sister has a horse and has to wear a camera now because of all the entitled drivers. And she’s not crossing on bends either. People are so ignorant, her horse is massive, he’s 16.2 and would do some real damage if he hit a vehicle.

Does anyone remember that funeral cortège that got hit by an overtaking driver a couple of years ago? They hit the horses and sent one catapulting over it’s partner. It was killed obviously. The driver was ex-police, her husband was police and she never got prosecuted. Bloody outrage.

Nobody can comment on whether it's an ideal place to cross or not because we haven't seen it. If that's where the gate is to a field, or where the bridleway meets the road, the horse rider has no choice.

You, however, have both a choice, and an obligation - both moral and legal - to obey the laws of the road and not drive like a total twat, endangering those around you. But hey, if you want to kill your own kids by driving at speed into any obstruction that could be waiting around a blind bend, carry on...

Yes Mother, it may well be the stupidest place ever to criss the road. Ok?

But humans aren't perfect and will sometimes do stupid, reckless, careless, dangerous things - like cross the road there.

I very much doubt you or any driver will feel better for knowing that they technically were at fault should the unthinkable happen though.

Drive as if there is a horse about the step into your path on every blind bend on those roads. At very worst, you avoid a potentially horrific collision.

Although not relevant in your circumstances OP, I think sometimes drivers can be ignorant as to what to do if they're not used to horses being on the road.
I was very upset once when I came round a bend and there were police horses in the road. I live in Inner London so don't encounter them ever really but on a route big groups of military/ police horses go because you hear them very early in the morning and sometimes there's horse shit which proves we didn't dream it! I came round a corner and there were 2 police horses, so I kept well back, turned my blaring music down and opened my window. The police woman on horseback was motioning me to come past so I got a bit closer but couldn't pass, there are lots of islands in the middle of the road so pedestrians can cross and to slow cars on that stretch. I had no idea what she wanted me to do, I wasn't going to go on the wrong side of the road round an island because if a car came the opposite way or a someone was crossing I'd be fucked so I dropped back again, happy to wait until the end of the road where it opens up. She motioned me again and turned to motion me but didn't look back long enough to see me gesture that I didn't know what she wanted me to do. She started shouting at me to fucking go past but as a driver who is responsible for my actions and my car I genuinely didn't know how, did she want me to go around the island on the wrong side of the road and potentially encounter a car coming towards me? To wait until there wasn't an island and put my foot down, going v close to her and her horse and potentially having to cut in between her horse and the one in front because I wouldn't have clearance for both? My car at the time did have a big engine and I could have blasted closely past the pair of them and cut the front rider up to get in before the next island but she had no way of knowing that, it was just a Golf from the front and surely that's not ideal anyway. She shouted at me that I was a cunt and I just hung right back after the 2nd time of getting too close for my liking without knowing where the hell I was supposed to go from there. Eventually we got to a stretch I felt safer on and I put my foot down and went and she gave me the middle finger but I would never get that close to a horse or rider usually, it was horrible.
The worst thing is I have no idea what I did wrong, I did what I thought was safe and the 'right thing to do' and happily kept a distance until she was telling me otherwise, but not making it clear how I should pass.

@Motherofcreek is exactly the kind of entitled twat who drives around thinking they have more right to be on the blind bend than the dog walkers, cyclists and horse riders and ends up causing accidents

Stickman - if a police officer was swearing at you, and not making it clear what they want you to do, I think that's grounds for a complaint. It's not acceptable at all.

Generally speaking, if you're unsure, you're safest to wait until it's definitely safe to overtake, or you can see an alternative - which sounds like that's what you were trying to do.

Personally, I pull in to let people past - the lanes round here are narrow and I don't want to hold people up (or, indeed, be held up myself). My horses are very good in traffic, and I can put them on a narrow verge to let traffic past. I'd rather that that people trying to push past without space!

Diseases It was a long time ago, maybe 4 years but at the time I was pissed off with her for expecting me to do something but feeling stupid because it seemed like it was clear to her what I should do and perhaps I was wrong to not know? But I STILL don't know what I should have done, I think of it often and wonder if perhaps I was far too close and she wanted me to just overtake and go away but then I know I wasn't, I did get very close, far too much so but only when she (as a police officer so I was trying to obey her command at first) was gesturing for me to do so. Who would I even have reported it to, there was no number plate and no number badge visible from my angle. I did think about reporting it as a way to find out what on Earth I did wrong. She was very annoyed though and the horse did seem to be a bit agitated and she was getting it under control so I thought she might just be a bit stressed, the finger up made me think I'd agitated it but I was leaving them both alone until she started gesturing.

A police officer shouldn't behave like that - so I'd have reported it - that a female mounted officer was behaving that way, in that area - to the police on the non-emergency number (or online or whatever). I imagine they'd be able to work out who it was, and what happened. At the very least, they might have been able to get back to you about what you were expected to do (and have a word with her about appropriate conduct).

I've no idea what she expected from you either - it's possible your judgment was way off, but I don't think that's any excuse for sticking her middle finger up or swearing anyway. People suck, huh?!

A police officer should never have acted like that! Now don't get me wrong it can be very frustrating if someone is arsing about on the road and it winds your horse up - you're trying to keep your horse under control and signal to a driver and maybe in the heat of the moment she got a bit stressed - but that is still no excuse. Especially when it sounds as if you were clearly trying to do what you thought was best. I'd recommend people do familiarise themselves with the signals riders give to drivers - slow down, come by etc. perhaps she was seeing it different - being in front and up high she might have had a different perspective on the distances, spaces etc and thats why she was signalling to pass. very strange but out of order none the less.

I always pull in on the horse when I can/is necessary to let cars past. Luckily it is only a very short distance on road to get to the bridal path and it is in a rural/horsey area so the majority of people have sense/respect for riders. There are of course exceptions. I also always make a point of wearing reflectives because it works both ways! I just wish everyone would have more respect for each other - cars, cyclists, walkers, horses. everyone seems to have lost pateince and any kind of respect these days and are always in a rush!

Yes, I agree it’s a stupid place to cross a road with a horse

Saying that though, we’ve had a new road built locally (for a new housing estate) which cuts across a bridleway. Guess where the crossing is - on a blind bend

But it’s all pretty irrelevant really, you shouldn’t be taking a blind bend so fast - anything could be the other side of that corner

Unfortunately some people are dicks and they travel in and on different modes of transport

Most of the dicks I’d like to line up on a railway platform between the yellow line and the edge - then watch their faces as a train speeds through. The others I’d like to do unmentionable acts so won’t mention them

I have read on here people posting that they drive at the National Speed Limit 60 everywhere unless signs to the contary. This is extremely dangerous, living in the countryside with narrow and bending roads, I drive to the conditions, ie I know the roads especially on the weekends when we get loads of cyclists. We also get horse drawn vehicles, deer crossing (very dangerous if you crash into them), large farm equipment etc.

There was a survey by the BHS and it appears most road users regard horses as taking up the road and slowing them down whilst they are working and the 'rich' people who ride them do not have to work. We all know that this is not true, however, I now never ride on the road - it just takes one moron to kill your horse - and you.

There was a FB post about a sign written van that had passed so close (and fast) that the rider could have touched the vehicle. They emailed the company and received an aggressive reply essentially saying that horses belonged in fields and cars belonged on roads. Wow.

The amount of times there is a huge queue because two horse riders are just lazily plodding down the road chatting away and people don’t want to over take because there is no room

This is very very annoying.