Cyclists

[lottiepony]

Are not all bad

Just felt the need to share that one evening last week I heard a group approaching me whilst out for my ride and lead hack with my 2 horses. Before I could even turn round to check what the situation was I heard a guy shout and ask the rest to slow down, in fact he repeated this until he was happy everyone was on the same page and all passed me at a sensible pace. Turned out to be a fair sized group of 8 so lots of smiles and thanks from me for them being so polite.

Sadly I think like us horse riders it only takes one bad example to ruin the reputation of all cyclists.

 

[Annagain]

We get big groups of cyclists (about 20-30) round by us every Sunday morning. We're obviously on a club route. They're often a bit strung out into three or four groups but all within about a minute or two of each other. They are great. The lead cyclist always gives us a shout to warn us they're coming and holds up a hand to slow the others down while they pass - in every group, so the club has obviously trained them well. They always smile and say hello, as do we. The horses are oblivious to them and even though they must have seen us plenty to know they're not going to react, they still shout and slow down for us.

It's also used a race / ride route a couple of times a year when there must be about 200 taking part. Although they don't specifically tell us, they always put direction signs up a few days before so we know to avoid riding out that morning.

 

[Olderrider]

Send them my way please!

 

[Bertolie]

We have an annual sportive that comes through our village with somewhere in the region of 1000 riders! Last year we got caught up amongst them while out hacking and I can honestly say every single one of them was brilliant They came passed in groups and the lead rider would alert us to their presence (we were going the same way), they slowed as they went passed and if they couldn't overtake us, they waited for us to get to a safe passing place before going on their way. I made a point of emailing the organiser to pass on our thanks and he told me that the organisers made a point, both in the information sent to the entrants and verbally before the off, of telling the cyclists how they were expected to behave around horse riders. I was very impressed!