Horses

Equestrians don't pay road tax because horses don't need roads. Likewise insurance - you ever see a 50-horse pile-up? They have collision-avoidance built-in.

I rarely see horses on the road anyway - I guess most equestrians are now far too sensible or scared to share the road with a majority of users who have almost zero chance of stopping in time if they meet one round a bend in the road, for example.

I'm just glad we live in a country that maintains such a good network of bridleways so horses can still be enjoyed away from the screaming nightmare that is the UK road system.

What I find most disturbing about the anti-horse argument is that, from the majority perspective, motorcyclists are similar: another pain-in-the-neck minority group. Once you ban the horses it won't be long before the ban-hammer is used against us.

Originally Posted by aimhamilton

Horses (as Kate will I'm sure agree) only go on roads where they have to. You can just go galloping through some private land to avoid the roads.

Wish that was true in the roads where I live, we regularly get three set of riders going along our road (approx 1 mile from open fields), they ride 2-abreast and rarely move over to single file, you have to follow them until they get to a main road. Allow (spose they can't stop them) their horses to sh*t on the road - Real hazard. Personally think they should be made to get off the horse and clear it up, or at least move it to the gutter. Annoying thing is, they keep their horses near the open fields approx 1 mile away, and if they headed in the other direction would have plenty more open fields, wooded areas to ride! My daughter has followed the riders to find they do all the quite streets, apart from crossing a main road, then go back to the stables which are in open fields!

I too used to ride horses, but only on roads when absolutely necessary. Again a personal thought, I actually think that they use the roads, coz they don't have to clean the horse as much after being out on open roads, much less muck to clean off the horse.

Sorry RANT OVER

Originally Posted by robaker

What I find most disturbing about the anti-horse argument is that, from the majority perspective, motorcyclists are similar: another pain-in-the-neck minority group. Once you ban the horses it won't be long before the ban-hammer is used against us.

totally agree - we are both using the road for leisure purposes, something wich the government seems to want to restrict & hamper wherever possible

I used to ride as a kid, and really don't see the problems with slowing down, giving a wide berth and showing some courtesy when passing horses. The majority of horses on the road tend to be pretty good in traffic, but you can never depend on that

Originally Posted by Aurora

Allow (spose they can't stop them) their horses to sh*t on the road - Real hazard. Personally think they should be made to get off the horse and clear it up, or at least move it to the gutter.

I like the idea of trying to stop it coming out of the horse's backside!!

I wonder whether the riders realise the danger that this poses to motorcycles? most of them probably drive cars/are too young to drive. Might be worth having a polite word with them one day to explain, you never know...

Originally Posted by RizlaSV

I like the idea of trying to stop it coming out of the horse's backside!!

I wonder whether the riders realise the danger that this poses to motorcycles? most of them probably drive cars/are too young to drive. Might be worth having a polite word with them one day to explain, you never know...

Bl**dy great cork might do the trick, or tie a bag to horses *rse?

like a horse nappy??

Originally Posted by RizlaSV

like a horse nappy??

sounds good to me

Originally Posted by Nekkid

I can't believe it took a whole page for anyone to mention this! It just sounds like you were going too fast, got yourself in a spot of bother and are trying to find somewhere else to put the blame. Just slow down and stay as far away as possible and they're not a problem.

No, I wasn't going too fast for the length of road that was clear in front of me, which is all you can ever do (I'll expand on this point a bit further down the post). Also, as I said, I have a perfectly legal, stock can and I did keep the revs down low, I wasn't gunning the engine, beeping the horn, etc. (people who ride/drive like that are gits IMO) but in spite of this the horse jumped into my path. I was approaching it at a legal speed when the horses came into view. I'm generally reasonably cautious and genuinely try to ride so I can stop in the distance I can see to be clear. In this instance I could have emergency stopped to stationary in the space that was clear, However: the last 10/15mph of so would have been on the roundabout: You shouldn't stop on roundabouts (anyone remember the SWS rideout? ), doing so here (or even slowing to 5-10mph as some suggested) would be highly dangerous as a large number of cars go round this roundabout at 50 and there's a fair chance one would come round the roundabout, not been able to stop in time and slammed into me. Yes, I know I shouldn't have to factor things like that into my riding plan, but I live in the real world, so I did. Secondly, if I had been braking heavily, the bike would of been unsettled and harder/more dangerous to quickly swerve round the horse, had it moved into my path. Thirdly, I accept that if I had botched the braking and skidded at all, the noise could of spooked the horse (looks like it didn't need that excuse ). Finally, emergency stopping is in itself inherently hazardous, on account of people behind you not stopping quite so fast...

Back to my first point: It's reasonable to expect something stationary/slow moving in the same direction to be in your path and you should ride accordingly and leave adequate stopping distance to deal with it. I did. You shouldn't, however, have to ride with the consideration of something coming 10mph the wrong way around a roundabout, only to have it change lanes into your path at the last minute. At what point do you draw the line? What if the horse had been doing 30mph the wrong way round the roundabout? Should I add 30mph worth of stopping distance (IE riding 30mph slower than it is normally safe to) onto the gap I leave everywhere bar motorways? To say that you should/could possibly plan for this is ludicrous: Should you not ride at all because a car might come round bend at 100mph, completely in your lane? Would that be my fault too?

As Kate has pointed out, the rider was stupid to be riding it round the roundabout, the wrong way, on the pavement. If anyone (other than the horse itself) was at fault here, it was her (the rider, not Kate ).

One other thing I neglected to mention in the first post is that I moved as far away from the horse as I could in my lane, long before I got near it. The gap was a lot wider than the cars width apart that someone suggested. Had I been any further over, I'd of been in the wrong lane one the roundabout, in itself, a dangerous thing to do.

Looking at it dispationately and analytically, the only other course of action I can see that I could of carried out, would of been to emergency stop as soon as I saw the horse, then slowly pulled into the wrong lane and rolled past at 10mph. Had the horse been in the road, in my path at the time, fair enough, I probably would have done so. Is it reasonable to (and incidentally, do you) treat every horse, within 10 foot of the road as something you should emergency stop for in this way?

BTW This road is a main road linking a town and a city and is less that 100 yards from a large out of town shopping park. It isnt a nice quiet country lane (Cardiff lot- this was the first roundabout between culverhouse cross and that road leading to Barry, culverhouse cross end)

Interesting comments from everyone folks.

Hmm - that is a good point. Even roadcraft talks of only going at the speed at which you can safely stop in the distance that you can be clear. Nothing there about taking into account people or animals leaping off of the pavement Are horses even allowed on pavements? I don't believe that they are, any more than bicycles are... so technically the rider was in the wrong.

At the end of the day, you didn't get knocked off and even though the horse leapt it still missed you, so you weren't in the wrong place or doing anything dodgy, just got shocked when rider lost control of their horse and fortunately you'd allowed enough room for such a thing.

[BillyC]

Do horses have to be insured to go on the road? Probably not.

Do horses have to be medically examined, trained, and pass a test before they're allowed on the road? Probably not.

Do horseriders have to be trained and pass a test before they take a horse on the road, or in any public place? Probably not.

I believe the problem lies within these three questions.


While I quite like horses, and respect the fact that others enjoy keeping and riding them... however I abhor the rightious attitude of some of their keepers and riders.

Many years ago, when I was a little boy of 6 or 7 years old, one of my school mate's mothers was nearly killed when a horse got scared, and jumped onto her car as she slowly edged past it. She had to be cut from the car, and the horse had to be shot on the spot as it'd broken its legs. As a farmer's wife, she was well aware of the driving etiquette required when passing such an animal.

Certain roads or areas just aren't appropriate, and some animals just aren't prepared or suitable to be allowed in them. It should be common sense that it's not a good idea to take a horse there. The countryside is strewn with fields and bridleways - an environment that I'm certain any horse would prefer over hard tarmac.