Angry villager

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autumn7

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Feel really unsettled after incident last Fri. and hopefully sharing will put it in perspective.
I live in a Norfolk village and for the past 18 years have ridden my two horses on local roads. Like everywhere traffic has increased and off road riding has now dwindled to one track forming part of my only circular ride therefore I use it most days, tedious though it's become. To get to this route I have to cut across the village and there are only two options left open to me now a) involving Main Street which is a major road with exceedingly heavy lorries which quite frankly I just haven't the nerve to take my horses along or b) (the route I've ridden for endless years) nipping, wrongly I know, down a quiet one-way lane which takes me 1 min 16 secs to complete before it opens out into two-way again. I always walk and if I ever meet a vehicle I stand off the road in a driveway and give way and always thank the driver. However....on Friday a resident from one of the ten houses lining this one-way bit, was reversing her car out of her driveway as I approached on my horse the wrong way. I stopped to let her manoevour and because she was only looking in the direction traffic should be coming (fair enough) she didn't see my horse standing there and I think it took her by surprise. Then she wound her window down and told me I had no right to ride down there as it's one-way. I said that I did appreciate that but the Main Street was just not safe to take a horse down these days and there's no other way to cut across the village. I did add (think this was my mistake!) that even though one-way she still ought to be aware when reversing as I could have been a mother with a push chair or a dog walker coming along. As she drove past she shouted "Oh Get off your high horse!!!" and I walked my horse on.
So I was amazed when a short while later (was well along two-way bit by this time) her car stopped in the road, window down and she shouted how I ride past her house every single day and she was sick of it.(She'd driven round the block all thro' the Main Street to "get" me again.) I asked her why she was so angry. Why was it a problem. She thumped the steering wheel and said yes she WAS angry, she doesn't want my horse past her house every day. By this time she was holding up a car and a van so I just said "Perhaps you would be better off living in a town" (couldn't think what to say to be honest), and continued on, to her yell of "Oh F*** O**!!" as she drove off again.
I HATE confrontation and now I feel sick at the thought of having to go up that little one-way bit , so much so that I didn't ride either horse yesterday but I really need to today. It wouldn't bother me but I know I shouldn't ride up there, I'm fine coming back as it's the correct way of course so totally legal. Don't know what to do now. Certainly don't want to upset people and shan't say anything at all if I see this lady again, she frightens me...and she's probably a good 15 years my junior too!
Am I the only one conducting a mortal sin such as this on nearly a daily basis??? I honestly didn't think it could rile someone to that degree but it evidently can.
 
I also ride up a one way street wrong way
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it's either that or ride along main road
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Some people really just have nothing better to do
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Welll...whether she likes you riding past her house every day or not....she can't actually stop you can she? If you are going the 'right' way down the street then you are legally entitled to be there.....I must admit I do occasionally nip the wrong way down a one way street to avoid a bit of main road......I probably shoulndt do it but it means I don't have to go past 2 bus stops and several parked cars making the road too narrow for me and the traffic. I make the assessment that its safer all round- for me and other road users - like you do too.

If I were you.....I would carry on as normal...you obviously don't go gallopping down the middle of the road the wrong way, and although technically wrong.....there are other worse sins.

Give her a cheery wave when you see her....
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Have you thought about contacting your local police or PCSO? They may give you the advice that it is safer to use the one way than the main road? Then that way you are covered if the silly woman has another go. I'd also think about reporting her for her behaviour.

I had a run in with a man in our village who was using a lovely grass footpath which is also a permissive bridleway to teach his son to ride a mini-moto. It's runining the track and when I pointed out to him he shouldn't be doing it I got a load of abuse!

Fingers crossed you can get this sorted out. Good luck!
 
ignore her! Iv ridden up one way streets the wrong way, its safety! id much rather do that then cause a huge traffic build up (or even accident) on a main road.

it seems to have become common practise for drivers to shout abuse at horse riders & its not on. IMO horses used the roads well before cars so we have every right to be there!!
 
Can you go with someone else the next time you ride down the street? You could then either talk to her rationally, or you'll probably find that she won't dare say anything if there's two of you.

She sounds like a miserable cow with too much time on her hands. I don't like confrontation either but I don't really see why you walking past her house is such a big problem for her!
 
I wouldn't even acknowlege her presence in future, move over to let her pass then look the other way. You did well to keep you cool, I prob would have told her where to get off ! which prob would have made it worse. You could rein back past her house so your horse is facing the right way to make her happy ha ha

You could contact your local police station and ask are you allowed, depending on the outcome refer her to them, hoping it would be in your favour

What about cyclists ?
 
Poor you - I used to have horrible experiences when I lived in the UK.

I think you are on dodgy ground if your ride your horse - you are no different to a motor car or cyclist. If you dismount and lead I think you are a pedestrian.

Why not ask a horse sympathetic lawyer or BHS. Shaw and Co. are sponsors to Cleveland Bay Horse Society and breeders of same. They are very helpful on legal matters.

Why not ask H&H to write an article on the subject?
 
Highway code link

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_069853

those coppers on the other link I posted in manchester said it was ok so......... dunno

I'd still carry on, ring your local police and say you could go down there or down the main street and stop all the traffic, which would be better ? or have an accident,

some people have nothing better to do than moan, it takes you less than 2 mins for god sake
 
Storks - to get to the circuit on the other side of my village I need to ride through the one-way against the flow to get there, and back again through it with the flow to return home. It's like my "gateway" to the circuit unfortunately.
Pilib, if it escalated maybe I'd have to see how I stood with the police. There's a huge reason why I'm holding back though, if I'm told I'm to stop then I literally can't ride out from home so I'm desperate to preserve what little I have. At weekends I am fortunate in that I'm able to trailer out somewhere quieter to ride but I'm not able to during the week as I also work and just don't have the time. I know I'm biased, but for the life of me I cannot see why some people find a ridden horse offensive. I wonder if there's still an element of "horses = toffs" around. I can't even claim that I look ultra smart and stuck up, and I'm certainly not rich!! I wish!!!
 
The Highway Code applies to horse riders in exactly the same way as it does to other road users, so please ignore those who tell yo to continue doing it. However if you dismount and lead up the short stretch against the traffic no policeman would ever prosecute you.
 
Why not submit a request to your council that the road have a two way cycle/horse lane put in, so that "vulnerable road users" can avoid the main road.

I have seen cycle lanes that allow cyclists to go the opposite way to the traffic on one way streets. This is normally because the one way is put in to prevent cars rat running.

Get the law on your side. But honestly what a plonker!!!!!
 
I think you will find that if you are leading a horse you are classed as a pedestrian and the horse is classed as an animal, and as soon as you are on the horse it is classed as a vehicle. Is there any way you could just lead your horse past her house for a bit? It might shut her up!
 
Is she objecting to you riding past her house every day, or that you go down the one-way street the wrong way?

If it's the first, then tough, you have every right to use the road, but if it is the second, then you are, as you know, in the wrong - you can get fined a considerable amount of money for doing that, and if she is feeling vindictive she could easily report you for it.

If I were you I would ring the BHS safety department now, and ask them if you would be within the law if you LED your horse the wrong way down the one way street - I can't for the life of me find the answer to that (although I have just texted a friend in the police to ask her to find out) but the BHS should know
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In that manchester article

It says they were violating the highway code but what they did was not ilegal, don't get it

Interesting to see the outcome of the investigation
 
Take no blooming notice of her.

I wouldnt even get into any form of converstation with her as she's just using you as a punch bag for something else that obviously troubling her.

Maybe she gets out of the the wrong side of the bed every morning who knows.

But the more you interact with her, the more cr*p she's likely to dish out to you.

I know it hurts our feelings when someone re-acts like this, it puts us on edge, but she's not worth a second thought.

Life goes on.
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[ QUOTE ]
In that manchester article

It says they were violating the highway code but what they did was not ilegal, don't get it

Interesting to see the outcome of the investigation

[/ QUOTE ]

Possibly because the highway code uses words such as "should" or "expected to", but doesn't legally say "MUST". Haven't looked at the highway code myself to see what it says.

Hope you get this sorted - we have rubbish hacking around here so I sympathise.
 
I would take mother hen's advice and lead up that short stretch. That way she doesn't have anything on you. No matter what the alternative route is, I think you are (sadly) in the wrong for riding the wrong way down the one way street and would be told to stop doing it if it ever escalated.
 
Re: my reply above, I have just looked and it says:

When riding on the road you "should"

keep to the left
keep both hands on the reins unless you are signalling
keep both feet in the stirrups
not carry another person
not carry anything which might affect your balance or get tangled up with the reins
keep a horse you are leading to your left
move in the direction of the traffic flow in a one-way street
never ride more than two abreast, and ride in single file on narrow or busy roads and when riding round bends

It uses the word should for all the above, which I am sure we have all violated at least one of these at one point or another (one handed riding on a regular basis
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).

This is opposed to the word "MUST" as used below which is legally enforceable:-

54
You MUST NOT take a horse onto a footpath or pavement, and you should not take a horse onto a cycle track.
 
i once had a jogger say to me 'Horses belong in fields'
so I said 'Joggers belong in the gym'
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what made him think he had more right to be on the road than me don't know
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i pay taxes just like everyone else
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some people think because they own a house in a village they own the whole village she sounds like a right big headed cow id be tempted to got to a local farmer pre pay and say you need to order 20 tons of cow manure to be deliverd to the adress in question and droped on the drive
 
These harridans seem to pop up everywhere. I met one while I was out walking the other day. I met another one when I parked on the public road which just happened to be outside her house. Even if she had a valid point, ranting and raving at you and following you in her car and holding up traffic is far worse than you riding carefully down a one way street. I'm also astonished at how someone can have so few social skills so as to tell someone she doesn't like their presence on a shared part of the planet. What a damned cheek! I tell people like that they should go and live on a large country estate if they don't have adequate social skills to live in society - that usually shuts them up.
 
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