Don't hold back folks! Horses/motorway bridge parapets

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I'm quite surprised that someone on a horsy forum should ask the first question. If you think you have more control from the ground than the saddle then fair dos for you.



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I have more control of my horse when I'm on her but that's not really the point here. The point is these riders are concerned they may be thrown from horse over parapet onto motorway. If you're not on the horse you can't have the throwing and the falling and the landing. Simples.

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Not really. If you get trodden on or barged by a panicing horse you could have a really nasty accident and it could still end up with horse or rider going over the side due to loss of control.

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Loose horse's is a whole other safety issue which most motorist probably have no idea about. All I was saying is, can these ladies, that are complaining, get off and lead? Most of the bridges I cross when out on my (little) 15hh Arab have signs up stating that Equestrian must dismount before crossing the bridge. Do I heck get off but the onus is on the rider to take care of their own life.

As for the fires...just google 'death in rented property' and I'm sure you'll find plenty of examples. We can't go around looking for dangers, most health and safety comes from accidents that have previously happened. So until someone is thrown from their horse (or just looses their balance) and fall onto the motorway I think all should be left well alone. Unless it bothers the cyclist then something should be done immediately
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I actually work in the field of HMO's and virtually all deaths have occurred in properties rented to families by public or social agencies, often with children, to which the HMO regulations do not apply. Thats why you read of deaths from house fires in houses where the smoke alarms were disconnected or not working. In privately rented HMO's you must have mains operated smoke alarms in all rooms and hallways, which must be inspected monthly. It is not a huge problem in HMO's yet they must comply with safety standards as do an awful lot of other areas in life.
 
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Not really. If you get trodden on or barged by a panicing horse you could have a really nasty accident and it could still end up with horse or rider going over the side due to loss of control.



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Haha sorry I'm just imagine being barge by a horse so violently that I'm thrown threw they air hitting the parapet so high up that I went over it and onto the motorway. I swear that would get you on a list of 'The most unlikely deaths' or something.

Anyway, my opinion is that if you don't feel safe riding somewhere then don't. I know many won't agree and my opinion is probably different as I have plenty of access to field, forestry and bridleways so I can pick and choose.
 
The British horse Society has done a lot of work on this subject and the issue are as follows:
If a new bridge is going to be built in your area ensure that local horse riders ask for the higher parapets for equines as soon as you find out about the proposed new road and bridges. Do not wait at all as otherwise you can miss the appeal date. There is a national standard height and design for parapets for bridges that are used by equines. Also contact your local BHS access officer so that they can also have some in put in to the design of the new bridge If this is done then the new bridge will have them fitted.

Where you have an existing bridge which has inadequate parapets if you can demonstrate sufficient use by equines then in most cases they will fit the higher parapets.

Always keep an eye out for new planning applications and road constructions and take action early on so that horse riders and carrige drivers can be catered for.

The reason why some bridges have inadequate paraperts is because horse riders could not be bothered to become involved with the planning process and lost th1eir chance for input and asking for higher parapets.
 
the road tax as it stands is a reflection of the enviromental impact of your transport............so big 4x4 or high engine polluting cars then you pay more, little toyota aygo then you pay £0. so if we extrapulate the arguments from the paper which would mean that we should have a go at all aygo drivers and any one on a similar tax rate.
4x4 will have the rule of the road after lorrys (i know some who think this
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so push bikes and the such are free

i need to work out the Co2 for an individual horse then we could put us in the correct tax bracket.
 
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*wanders off to look at OS map*

katt did you mean counting a right of way as a road? or a right of way as in a bridlepath. I do think if it is latter it is more important as in the one I said I use.


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Yes I mean all rights of way - roads, bridleways, footpaths, green lanes etc.

Rights of way should be safe and accessible wherever possible to all legal users.

Generally it costs very little extra to install a suitable bridge/tunnel/crossing in the first place but a whole lot more to change it at a later date.

It is wrong to put in place a barrier to certain classes of user, and as riders it is up to all of us to ensure that this doesn't happen. Even if that bridge is 40 years old, I'd bet that it was being used by equestrians 40 years ago. It is a great shame that at the time they didn't campaign for a more suitable bridge. They should have done, and we should all take every opportunity to get barriers to use removed wherever possible.

This means getting involved with the BHS and keeping an eye out for planning applications in your area. If an application is made to change a right of way that affects you write to your council and put your view across, often all it takes is a letter to get plans changed.
 
no idea can't remember..... I am sure it was important though
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It is interesting to note that my mum's mare who is not at all good with any large traffic, possibly because she had an accident as a youngster has no problem going over motorway bridges at all.
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which was surprising to discover.....

I think it is the 'feeling' of being unsafe rather than the reality in accident terms.... google doesnt find me any..... !

I just think that if I can think that its unnecessary as a horse rider then I can understand why joe public does too.
 
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houses with multiple occupation

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Thank you
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So - how is that relevant to motorway bridges?

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I *think* the point was that although no one has ever died in a privately retned flat they still have to be safe. Usiung the same reasoning even though no one has ever fallen from their horse over a motorway bridge onto the motorway we should still assume it could happen and raise the parpaet height.

It was in response to my 'if it hasn't happened before then why assume it will?' opinion
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I think that if you do reply you need to be brief and to the point. I would say that 99% of the time you are confident that your horse will cross safely, it's the 1% of the time that you could do with higher parapets, for example when undertaken by a vicar as you try to cross correctly! Also politely point out that you are also a car driver, so do pay that tax. And maybe that you can only wish that all the open fields were available for you to ride on, but that in fact riders are very restricted about where they can go, and that's why they are forced to use roads when they would much rather not.
You could say you understand the point of view of drivers completely, and just beg them to think twice before getting annoyed when they meet a rider. Point out that in collisions with horses, the car drivers are as likely to die as the rider (when the horse goes through the windscreen).
If you make long and emotional replies you lose impact and people stop reading.

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I thought that all of my points were succinct . . .
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well I think they are wondering if it is that dangerous why on earth would anyone want to ride over a motorway bridge or keep their horses somewhere where they had to.

I can completely see the other side...... I do think if the horse riders instead had decided to fund raise to get the parapets raised there would be a different response but I know when they did one recently I was
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at the cost.

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I keep my horse there as it's a lovely stables with lovely hacking, but this bridge does limit the amount of roads you can use.

We are fortunate to have bridges across the motorway with higher barriers (these were raised about 10 years ago apparently) but the last one in the sequence has not - this is the one where a lot of people can use it if they wanted to, but most choose not to because of the dangers.

Why should we stopped from using a public right of way?
 
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2 questions spring to mind while reading this thread and the article:

1) Why can't you just get off an lead your horse? If the 'risk' is that a human will be 'thrown' over the parapet surely leading will mitigate those risk.

2) How man riders (or cyclists) have been thrown/fall/stumbled over the parapet and ended up on the motorway being mooshed by cars? I would think that would make the news but I haven't seen any recent 'death by horse fall from motorway bridge' headlines
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1. Because there is no where for people to get back on again after the bridge - especially if the horse is on his toes having 6 lanes of traffic under his belly.

2. As others have said, why wait until something does happen - why not prevent it in the first place. Prevention is better than cure . . .
 
in which case you are very lucky to have lot with already high parapets to cross it!
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and you arent seabound like me! If I dont go over the bridges I have one road I can use for hacking unless I choose to go down the A38, which I do sometimes as pony much better behaved on it than elsewhere! hence why we were a bit marooned when they closed our river bridge.

I think its because I only think you are stopped from using it because 'you' deem it dangerous..... I cant find a report of an accident of a horse rider and a motorway bridge (well won where a girl fell off near one but not on one) and hence to joe public it might appear we are anticipating a danger that isnt there.

dont get me wrong I do spend most of my time going eeeek while riding over them!
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but mostly because I dont like heights anyway
 
i used to cross one quite often when i stabled a horse near the M42. luckily it was a quiet road which crossed over the M-way, so i'd wait for the road to be clear, then stick horse in centre of road and trot quickly across. it wasn't nice but it was over quickly. i wouldn't walk down the side of one with traffic passing me, even on a very good horse.
i don't want to read that thread because i don't want my blood pressure to rise, thanks!
 
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in which case you are very lucky to have lot with already high parapets to cross it!
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and you arent seabound like me! If I dont go over the bridges I have one road I can use for hacking unless I choose to go down the A38, which I do sometimes as pony much better behaved on it than elsewhere! hence why we were a bit marooned when they closed our river bridge.

I think its because I only think you are stopped from using it because 'you' deem it dangerous..... I cant find a report of an accident of a horse rider and a motorway bridge (well won where a girl fell off near one but not on one) and hence to joe public it might appear we are anticipating a danger that isnt there.

dont get me wrong I do spend most of my time going eeeek while riding over them!
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but mostly because I dont like heights anyway

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I don't mind heights, I don't mind riding in heavy traffic, but when that heavy (fast moving traffic) is 20 foot below you when there is only a VERY low barrier between you and it, it's a different story.

I rarely ride over the bridge in question because

a) I have another bridge that I can go over, but takes me in the other direction from the other bridge

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b) the height of the barriers puts me off. I could make much more use of the moor if there was the option of coming back via the bridge that people are campaigning about.
 
It's nice to look at
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nope I just am happy to accept the hacking I have around me for where I choose (well or not as horse at parents and poor student!) to keep them. ie not very good but doable and have known much worse and box them at the weekends. When I am rich I will live somewhere better
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I think I must just think differently really that I think horse riders are in the minority so although I don't think they should not be catered for at all I am not sure they should necessarily have all their requests met to the cost of the tax payer. I normally choose to go the same, safest route and avoid the fast B road and the motorway bridges.


Out of interest does that bridge get a lot of traffic on it?
 
because, it what a heavily used bridge with a good flow of traffic that forces you to use the left side of the bridge the chances of being thrown overboard are much more likely than if it is route not used much which means you can position your horse slightly in to the left so that if it spooks a bit you have a good gap between yourself and the edge..... similar to what kerilli said above.

I have been playing devils advocate a bit here though as I was a bit surprised that the members of this forum were surprised that non horsey people would wonder why this had to happen..... does that make sense!
 
The bridge that I do cross has got higher sides and am not that keen to use it, mainly because of brain-dead vicars pushing me into the wrong side of the road by him undertaking me. This stretch of road is also very quick as the traffic flies (not literally) down from the moor towards the A38.

There is no way that I'm going to use the other bridge until the sides of it are raised because of the near incidents that have happened on this bridge.
 
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It's nice to look at
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nope I just am happy to accept the hacking I have around me for where I choose (well or not as horse at parents and poor student!) to keep them. ie not very good but doable and have known much worse and box them at the weekends. When I am rich I will live somewhere better
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I think I must just think differently really that I think horse riders are in the minority so although I don't think they should not be catered for at all I am not sure they should necessarily have all their requests met to the cost of the tax payer. I normally choose to go the same, safest route and avoid the fast B road and the motorway bridges.


Out of interest does that bridge get a lot of traffic on it?

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Funny how other "minorities" get their requests met by the taxpayer innit.
 
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1. Because there is no where for people to get back on again after the bridge - especially if the horse is on his toes having 6 lanes of traffic under his belly.


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Which is not the council/highways problem, a ridesr inablility to get on their horse from the ground is their problem not the tax payers who end up funding the raised parapets. Get a smaller horse, get more flexible or simply teach the damn thing to stand close to something while you mount. Simples.

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2. As others have said, why wait until something does happen - why not prevent it in the first place. Prevention is better than cure . . .

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You ride a horse, do you understand the massive risks associated with that alone. That's an acceptable risk but the ever so slight chance that a rider may fall of a horse on a bridge and end up over the side (which has never happened in the how many years of people riding over motorway bridges?) is not an acceptable risk and requires funding to correct?

Honestly, I just don't get it. Sure the council will cave though, it's all safety, safety, safety in the UK these days. Nanny state.
 
I don't think they should raise the parapets personally, having ridden across the motorway bridges in my area I am of the opinion that if I am in the position to be worrying about the parapet heights - I shouldn't be riding my horse across it because I'm clearly not in control.
 
How about you ask the council to put a mounting block at either end of the bridge so that you can get back on? Or you could put one there yourselves?

Is it really bad to admit that once my mum had forgotton all about Omen killing horses that we used to ride our ponies over the motorway bridges - an average hack would have us going over 3 of them, and wave at all the cars going beneath to see how many of them we could get to wave back?
 
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