*@(&%$~# Horse riders!

Originally Posted by Berlin

Sorry Arty lady but why?

Why should I stop? I was riding as cautiously and courteously as possible. If the horse is still spooked, it shouldn't have been there. Full stop!

The very, very last place to try exposure therapy is on the public road. Its dangererous bordering on the idotic.

To take a horse that is known to be a risk, is completely unpredictable and cannot be controlled onto the road is blatant stupidity and irresponsible.

Its like me loosening the front wheel of my bike and going out on the road expecting absolutely everyone else to make allowances because it could come off at any time.

If a horse has been through full police training, then it can go on the road. If it hasn't it is a liability that shouldn't be allowed.

... and if my girlfriend reads what I'm writing, I'll probably be single

Dizzy, I ride past horses up to five times a day and go through the usual drill of clutch in, slow and as far over as possible. I'd passed several others on the same ride. Never an issue. But these two today were just taking the **** if they'd been blokes, I'd have had them off the horses and thrown them over the bridge.

C

I've been riding horses on the road since I was a child and if I've ever felt the need to ask a driver to stop I have done and in 99% of cases they very kindly have.

Why would a horse go through police training??? you don't have to to ride a bike!

Perhaps exposure therapy was the wrong phrase but all horses have to learn. In my experience (40+ years) most horses are as safe on the road as most bikers (if not more ).

Once it is known that a horse is a risk on the road then generally it will not be taken on the road - no rider would want to put their horse, themselves and other road users in that position.

Originally Posted by missyorkie_chris

Hmm, I stand corrected. Although I have seen many horses on the road and never 2 abreast, always single file

Just depends on how knowledgable the riders are. here is the British Horse Society take on things - note their reasonings in section 1
http://www.bhs.org.uk/content/Ods-Mo...pg=News&area=9

Originally Posted by Berlin

I'm a live and let live kind of bloke. I try and live by never upsetting anyone and always try and leave everyone I meet in a better mood than they were when I met them.

But it boils down to this:

If you are not 100% in control of the method of transport you are on, then you shouldn't be on the road regardless of what that method of transport is. As a horse has it's own brain you are not 100% in control of it. You can suggest it does something but there's no gaurantee that it's going to do it and you have no control if it decides to do something of it's own accord.

Its like a bike that has a control system that is free to do whatever it wants on a random basis. Should that bike be allowed on the road? Should a bike with a thottle that suddenly snaps open or closed becasue there's a carrier bag in the hedge be on the road? Or brakes that can suddenly choose to work or not work. Or tyres that suddenly deflate.

No one would allow a bike like that on the road and yet horses, with their own control system are.

The place for exposure therapy is a field. Maybe a field next to the road. You take the hazzard, whatever it may be to the horse, not the other way around. Use a CD player, Cymbols, a chainsaw or whatever else you need, away from the highway. Away from a situation where it can affect others. Its common sense.

c

You obviously know nothing about horses, but of course you will now that horses have been used as transport for centuries creating the tracks that bacame the roads you now consider are for bike use only.

Originally Posted by hob

Police riot horses is what you need, those bad boys don't seem to get spooked.

Because they are trained (and usually you will see them in double file).

Originally Posted by Balky001

[....]

Horses are bloody tall though, you come off your bike and you have a couple of foot to fall if you're lucky, a fall off a horse can kill you, my best mate's wife broke her back on an almost stationary horse even though she was wearing protection. She's still having operations 5 years later. Thinking of the consequences of your actions is hard in the heat but you'd be gutted right now if you caused an injury.

Not to mention the compensation claim against you!

That sounds like a very annoying case, but i think maybe it was just a one off. I've never seen any horse riders as bad as you have described, but i can understand how frustrating that must be.
Theres a guy near me who rides around my roads in a cart behind it. He is obviously a pikey, and i hate the fact he takes up most of the road and it's never safe to overtake it incase the horse gets scared. The poo isnt nice to ride over either.

Whats the appeal in riding a horse on the road anyway? Shouldnt horses be off road animals, i thought that was the whole point.

ArtyLady back on form.

Originally Posted by Magnum

Whats the appeal in riding a horse on the road anyway? Shouldnt horses be off road animals, i thought that was the whole point.

So please explain how they're supposed to get to the different fields they wish to use if they don't use roads.

Originally Posted by Baph

ArtyLady back on form.

Ithangyoo!

Originally Posted by gettin2dizzy

Just a bit of courtesy. How else can you teach your horses to be relaxed with traffic without exposing them to it. When you went out on bike lessons with a bright jacket and L signs, people gave you extra room. Why does this differ?

Well the horses will be much less nervous next time they see a bike now won't they?
I agree if the horses/owners are so nervous around normal traffic then they shouldn't be on a public road. Probably best to try to resist the urge to do something silly though even if they are acting really stupid- you might have regretted it if there was a good reason that they were trying to slow you down like point out something wrong with your bike/other hazard in the road etc.

Originally Posted by Baph

So please explain how they're supposed to get to the different fields they wish to use if they don't use roads.

hmmmm... well ive only been horse riding once, and that was in france so perhaps a little different but there was very very little distance done on the road. 90% was offroad.

Originally Posted by Magnum

.....
Theres a guy near me who rides around my roads in a cart behind it. He is obviously a pikey, and i hate the fact he takes up most of the road and it's never safe to overtake it incase the horse gets scared. The poo isnt nice to ride over either.

Whats the appeal in riding a horse on the road anyway? Shouldnt horses be off road animals, i thought that was the whole point.

How do you know it isn't safe to overtake? Pass as advised in the Highway code.

There is no appeal of riding on the road - a necessary evil as there aren't enough nearly enough bridleways

[dizzyblonde]

Originally Posted by ArtyLady

.

There is no appeal of riding on the road - a necessary evil as there aren't enough nearly enough bridleways

there will be appeal when there's no petrol left in the world and all that is left is a load of roads and a load of horses

Originally Posted by dizzyblonde

there will be appeal when there's no petrol left in the world and all that is left is a load of roads and a load of horses

But we would have to supply more carrotts to feed the horses, they would eat all of them and then we would have to get by with a carrott famine.