Etiquette with walking on bridleway

[Barbie222]

Hi tack room, I'm not horsey and have never really ridden so would really appreciate a bit of advice on something that happened Christmas Eve.

I was out with 2 of my kids, DD9 and DS15, walking along a local bridleway at about 2pm. We were on the left hand side of the track and it was about 8-9 feet wide. There was a bend to the left coming up and through the hedges I could see a horse being led by a woman in a tabard, presumably from a stables, with a young rider about 10 mounted. The horse was walking on the RHS and we were on left.

We came round the corner and stood still to the side waiting for horse to pass. However he took fright and came across the road to us, sort of pushing his hind quarters into me. Daughter and I jumped back into ditch, with me between daughter and horse. Horse then gave me a kick on the hip - not that hard more of a warning kick - and dashed away. (The lady in charge was mortified but as we were all okay I told her to hurry after the horse and calm him down.)

All ended well but of course could have been worse for all concerned - what did we do that we could do differently if it happens again? What's best to do if a horse is approaching round a bend on a bridleway?

The person leading the horse should have been between you and the horse, to be best placed to deal with any problems. It might be worth letting the stables know what happened as the horse (or leader) could do with some support or training.

You did nothing wrong here. Generally on a bridleway, I think of it like a road - if it is a wider one both users ought to be able to pass along it safely. If it is narrower (like a single lane road) one user will need to keep to the side to let the other user pass. It depends entirely on the bridleway in question as to which user is better placed to stand to the side while the other passes. Often it is easier for the walker to squeeze into a small gap in a hedge or gateway, but if the path is narrow and there is undergrowth to the side like bracken and bramble, or if the other user is a family with kids, or a mountain biker, I will ask my horse to step off the path to let them past as it’s not as easy for those sorts of users to get off the path. Everyone has a right to use a bridleway, so it makes sense to share it respectfully with other kinds of users.

In your case though, the horse was not well controlled and should not have kicked you. You don’t say what it took fright at - if you were just standing quietly and allowing it room to pass, they were definitely in the wrong. If you were standing there, leaving it very little room, and had excitable kids or dogs and not leaving enough space (and sometimes non-horsey people don’t really understand just how much space a horse needs) then you might want to consider leaving a wider space next time and not being excitable.

One thing that non-horsey people do sometimes tend to do, and you wouldn’t really know this unless it was explained to you, is to stand so quietly in a gap in the hedge that you make the horse jump when it finally spots you. Horses are prey animals and are easily spooked if they think you are hiding in readiness to leap out and eat them. They are not clever creatures. I recommend that people just act normally and call ‘hello’ if they are standing to one side - the horse will hear you and realise you are human, not predator, so will be less surprised if they can’t initially see you.

Very sorry you were kicked, this is not pleasant at all, but hopefully it doesn’t put you off horses. I have a couple of horses that love to stop to chat with walkers (and one who doesn’t!) As a reasonable horse rider I always try to behave politely and safely towards other bridleway users.

This was not your fault, the handler should have done a much better job.

Horses range of vision is about 300 degrees, except for an area of about three feet directly in front of and six feet behind them. They also see in primarily blue and yellow, cannot distinguish red.

I suspect it had not seen you (or may have spooked at something in the hedge) and if you were standing still and not talking it probably walked/ran straight into you without realising you were there. Horses do not like running over people generally but if they feel a threat behind them they will likely kick out.

So only advice is maybe next time make sure the horse has seen you, keep talking, even a hello or good morning to the handler would work (ears are a clue here - they should be pricked in your direction) and you should be fine.

You did nothing wrong, I'm really surprised the handler let the pony get so badly out of control that it kicked you, very unusual behaviour from the pony there. As others have said, possibly you would have been safer to keep moving quietly and calmly along than to stand still and squash yourselves to the very edge of the path in hindsight, as this didn't then give you anywhere to go but into the ditch which is never a good idea - appreciate though you were wanting to keep hold of your kids so not your fault at all. My horse who is old enough to know better has developed a bit of a 'thing' about meeting little kids while out hacking, particularly this time of year when they're dressed in brightly coloured puffy rustly jackets, he doesn't seem to be able to work out that they're just small humans and not monsters. He particularly doesn't like it if the parent scoops up their child and clutches them to their chest or on their shoulders as then to him it looks like they have the power of flight too 😂(unfortunately this is quite a natural reaction to seeing a large scary horse if you have a loose toddler).

Obviously this is absolutely my problem and he doesn't do anything dangerous or I wouldn't be riding him in public, but he does snort and prance about a little - what I would ideally like the pedestrians to do is obviously move slightly to one side and put any dogs or toddlers onto the lead, but then just keep behaving totally normally, keep walking if safe/space to do so, don't make things worse by panicing/leaping into the hedge/shrieking. And allow me to move past you ASAP, ideally at a brisk jog if the horse has decided he's scared of your child, as he's better off keeping moving than planting and having a good think (unfortunately by the time he's decided he's scared of the child the pedestrian/parent is often visibly quite anxious too so charging towards them not polite or fair!)

Thank you all so much! Lots of food for thought - definitely hadn't appreciated why keeping moving / talking is a good plan. I didn't catch the name of the stables unfortunately but will definitely take this advice in future.

You didn't really do anything wrong, the horse spooked, it could have happened to anyone. As others have said its best to just keep walking and talking so they realise it's actually a person there in the bushes, not a rare horse eating hedgehog. For their size and power they really are epic wusses.

Just wanted to say thank you op for bringing this subject up in such a considerate way and for being so understanding after you were kicked. It’s really kind of you. And I hope you don’t have too big a bruise!

I am a horse owner and rider and we can get quite defensive nowadays about riding our horses in public because occasionally spooks do happen, and we come in for a lot of criticism, even though we try and minimise the risk,so thank you so much on behalf of fellow horse riders for approaching this in such a kind way.

That’s quite a scary thing to happen and I hope it doesn’t put you off future walks.