Ever been harrased out riding?!

Llee94

Llee94

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On Tuesday evening, I managed to get out for a ride after work which was lovely until the last mile where I hit a problem.
It was just starting to get dark and there was a chap dressed all in black sat in the middle of the road with his bike upside down on a blind corner. At first I though he had fallen off and was hurt, but as I got closer he started shouting at me and laughing. I quickly tried to get past but he stopped me to try and talk. I ignored him and pushed my way past but then he proceeded to follow me and my horse for a mile trying to talk to me and ask if I had any jobs he could have (he was a foreign chap and about mid 20's).
He was clearly off his rocker and found my horse hilarious, and was laughing in a very creepy way. My poor girl was getting very upset as her nearly crashed his bike into us a couple of times. I asked him politely to leave us alone but he just ignored me and continued to harass me and my horse.
He kept asking my name and where I lived. Eventually, I stopped on the corner just before my house and refused to move until he left me alone. I told him I had to turn right (opposite way to my house) and thankfully he had to go the other way. It shook me up quite a lot and I spent the whole of my ride last night worrying that I may come across him again.
The strangest thing was that he then tuned up at my work place yesterday asking for a job. I saw him coming through the window and hid under my desk while my boss went outside and told him to leave the premises and not come back. Again, he just laughed and seem off his rocker. We called the police but they couldn't find him. He didn't see me and doesn't know I work there so was just a very odd coincidence.
Have any of you ever had unwanted attention out riding?
How did you get rid of them?
Do you carry anything special in case of a situation like this?
 
That's so creepy! Is your horse well protected at home? God you must have been terrified!

Take a phone and camera next time you go out and phone the police immediately if you see this creep again!
 
Very creepy, I agree with Thriller - also you should report both instances to the Police on their crimestoppers phone line anyway. If he has stalked you, chances are he will do it to others and the outcome might not be so positive.
 
I would have phoned the police on 999 from the back of your horse. Are you sure he doesn't know where you work?? What are the chances he just turned up by coincidence?
 
Ohhh nothing a good crack off your whip wouldn't solve ... ohhh I'd have seen red - how any person (especially a man) can think they could do this makes my blood boil! If you don't carry one, make sure you do in future!
 
What a creepy, obnoxious git :( But I think very unlikely it was personal, just unlucky coincidence he showed up at work. Also, many of the Eastern Europeans seeking work in this country are still far more familiar with equines than our own home grown louts so wouldn't be intimidated by your horse. Report him, I,d far rather encounter one like him when on horseback than walking the dog.
 
Not quite the same, but my friend and I were hacking home one day (a few years ago now) along the road towards the yard. I was in front and my friend called forward to say there was a car behind wanting to pass. We both pulled as far across as we could and the car crept past us. Only problem was, the driver had his passenger side window down and was sitting in the car completely starkers and it was clear he wanted us to notice (if you know what I mean!!!) !! To be honest, after he'd driven away we had a bit of a laugh about it, but then he came back the other way, this time with the driver's side window rolled down - which was when it started to get a bit creepy - and then turned round in a gateway behind us and came past us for the third time! He didn't speak or even look in our direction, which made it even more creepy!

By this time we were just about home so we turned into the yard driveway and waited to see if he would come back a fourth time, but he didn't and we went on up to the yard. Thankfully we'd had the common sense to note his number plate, so I reported it to the police and gave them a statement. Turns out the guy wasn't local but had done this type of thing before. He got "cautioned" for his behaviour and I don't know what happened after that, but really, when someone comes back from a hack and says "Well, we've see it all today!!" ... we really did that day!

What a perve ....
 
How awful for everyone who has had a horrible situation.

Nothing like this has happened to me before. I have come across some odd balls who look very suspect but never been followed or harassed :/
 
Fortunately I've never had any unpleasant incidents, but I have seen the odd person who looks a bit iffy when out hacking alone and feel a lot safer always carrying a whip.
 
Yea, I had a guy approach and grab my mare's bridle once. I don't recall what he said, I just wanted to get us away. Thankfully I wasn't alone. After that I stopped letting people get that close to us.

There were reports of (mostly women) trail riders being harassed and at least one got hurt where I was at a few years ago. My barn had an ex-equine police officer come out and give a course on self-protection on horseback. He said it happened a lot more than we realized because people rarely reported the fact that that the victim was on a horse at the time. After that I started carrying a little pocket knife to cut the reins and an extra set of clip on reins...

It was a really good course though and focused on using your horse to keep people away, mostly zig-zagging or swinging their butt around into the person. Turns out my horse thought it was fun too.
 
How horrible, what a creepy, obnoxious man.

Carry a whip - and maybe see if you can download one of those apps that tracks you (and I think alerts other people to where you are if something's amiss?). Hopefully you won't need to use it, but just in case. Call the non-emergency police line if it happens again.

There's a video on YouTube that shows you how to use your horse to see off attackers - it's similar to what nianya said above. Basically lots of turns on the forehand/backing up/zigzagging depending on where the person is. Can you get someone to walk out on foot/hack with you?
 
I was assaulted out hacking as a child (inly 9 and on my own - it was the 1970s) - a drunken tramp tried to pull me off my pony but I had the wit to smack her hard with my whip in the full knowledge she would double barrel out then bold. I just cling on and we got home safely but it was five years before my Mum would let me ride on my own again.

As a teen I was harassed by trials bike riders on the common - they stopped me and took their helmets off to taunt me so I whip one across the face and took off.

I no longer carry a whip, maybe I should start again.
 
Have to say that one of the things the police officer showed us was HOW to use the whip for defense and it's not trying to smack them with it the way you might smack your horse or a dog. Too easy for a person to grab it away from you, or pull you down with it if you use one that has a wrist loop.

As a teen I was being harassed by some boys in a park once while I was out riding. I stopped that quickly by cantering her in a tighter and tighter circle around them. People are intimidated by the size of a horse and it ends up being pretty easy to control the situation. I use a similar strategy with dogs that think they're tough.
 
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Not harassed as such but I was out hacking a few months ago alone, and came to the end of our track where it meets the road to find three dodgy looking guys in a car blocking the gate. I debated with myself whether to go through or not but decided I would - to be fair to the main chap, he was obviously aware that I was uncomfortable and did try to put me at ease. I was a bit freaked out, especially when I came back and there was another car with further dodgy looking guys in it talking to the original three. It was obviously a drug deal, so I went back the other way and told YO who reported it to the police. They haven't been back. It's very creepy when you're alone, I should have just chucked a u turn really, and I would do if it happened again.
 
I had a road rage type attack as a 12 year old out hacking. My horse shied at some flappy black plastic, causing a car to have to slow down for us. The driver (adult male) swerved in front, jumped out and started having a right go at me being quite threatening and aggressive. My mare at the time wasn't too keen on aggressive men, he marched up and tried to pat her saying something about how cruel I was for riding her on a road and she bit him.

My YO (at the same yard) had someone flash her riding out in our local park. She was the wrong one to try it on with though, she just laughed and pointed and said something along the lines of "I wouldn't be showing that off, I'd be too embarrassed at how titchy it is" and the man ran away. We found out later he had flashed a few people (usually teenage girls on foot) in that park, but we didn't have any more incidents afterwards. I used to walk through the same park to get home from the stables and quite often had drunk / drugged up people making very inappropriate comments (mostly due to my long riding boots and crop) but it never went beyond verbal stuff.
 
I've been driven at on three different occasions (all different people and locations)which is a scary thing. One of them was a crazy alcoholic woman; the others were idiots. I have had idiots deliberately sound their horns at us, and the other day, just as I was pulling over to let the traffic pass, a man in a fairly new XF pulled up just past us (nearly catching my horse's hind leg in the process), wound his window down and shouted 'you're a ****ing idiot!' before speeding off. No idea why, but I know who the real idiot was.....
 
Actually, I've just remembered a time when I first bought my mare (14 yrs ago) we were hacking down a path that was really quiet, and you don't often see people down there but there was a random man on a bike not really going anywhere, just sort of hanging about! my mare saw him spun around on the spot and trotted off and high speed in the opposite direction! unfortunately he was right near the entrance to our yard, so her doing that wasn't helpful! but maybe she saved my life? you never know, he might have been looking for someone to attack?
 
Years ago, I was out hacking on Forestry Commission land with my daughter and our instructor . . . the path was relatively narrow, our instructor was in front, I was behind her and my daughter (then about 8) was at the back on a rather small pony. My daughter had dropped behind a little and I was about to turn to tell her to trot to catch up when I saw a man step out of the bushes, naked from the waist down, with his trousers folded over one arm and "pleasuring" himself with his free hand! Instructor and I stopped so that J (my daughter) could catch up and then we all trotted on . . . I did briefly consider riding up to him (I was on Rocky, a lovely, black and rather imposing Irish sport horse) to confront him, but decided better of it. As we left the forest after our ride, we met up with another group who had also seen him.

I called the police. A nice officer came to our house and took a statement from me - and had a lady officer take a (gentle and tactful) statement from my daughter. Apparently the guy question had been doing this for about a year - he was eventually caught and arrested.

Honestly, if you don't report this kind of behaviour, the proper authorities can't do anything about it.

P
 
PolarSkye said:
Years ago, I was out hacking on Forestry Commission land with my daughter and our instructor . . . the path was relatively narrow, our instructor was in front, I was behind her and my daughter (then about 8) was at the back on a rather small pony. My daughter had dropped behind a little and I was about to turn to tell her to trot to catch up when I saw a man step out of the bushes, naked from the waist down, with his trousers folded over one arm and "pleasuring" himself with his free hand! Instructor and I stopped so that J (my daughter) could catch up and then we all trotted on . . . I did briefly consider riding up to him (I was on Rocky, a lovely, black and rather imposing Irish sport horse) to confront him, but decided better of it. As we left the forest after our ride, we met up with another group who had also seen him.

I called the police. A nice officer came to our house and took a statement from me - and had a lady officer take a (gentle and tactful) statement from my daughter. Apparently the guy question had been doing this for about a year - he was eventually caught and arrested.

Honestly, if you don't report this kind of behaviour, the proper authorities can't do anything about it.

P
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Should have ridden over and smacked him with your whip

then again, he might have enjoyed that!
 
A self-defense on horseback video was posted on an American forum. As stated above, it showed how to swing your horse's haunches or shoulder into someone who might be trying to grab your leg or your horse's bridle.

Lots of respondents on the thread wrote: "Well, when I go trail riding, I always carry my 9mm." (or you know, whatever firearm(s) they had).

Oooookay.
 
Many many years ago we were teenages,a friend and I had gone on a long ride to an area we didn't know well, we ended up in an field we gather we shouldn't have been as the next thing we knew was a guy in a Land Rover shouting at us and then letting off a shot gun! Our ponies never moved so fast in all their lives. Never went back there as you can imagine.
 
Quite a few years ago we were warned not to go on the bridleways near us as someone I knew had had a run-in with a bloke who had tried to get her off her horse. She bashed him about the head with her crop until he let go of her leg and the horses reins!

Don't think they ever caught anyone in connection with it but haven't heard of anything since.
 
Dear Llee94, I would be interested to hear more about what happened to you for possible inclusion in a news story on horseandhound.co.uk. If you could send me your contact details to rachael.hook@timeinc.com or give me a call on 02031484568 I would be very grateful. Many thanks, Rachael Hook (Horse & Hound Digital Sub Editor)
 
A chav in a clapped out Beemer once asked me if I wouldn't rather ride him instead. Don't think he was too pleased when I burst out laughing.
 
When I was in my early teens I got followed and repeatedly flashed while out riding my little pony, who was pretty slow. It was horrible as I don't know how he managed to follow me for so long. He'd appear in front of me, popping out from a bush and shout to get my attention and the proceed to "touch" himself. I was very upset (as I'm sure any 13yr old would be) and think I had lost him and he'd pop up again somewhere else. I was so panicked I ended up riding home through a housing estate and had to go through an underpass, he jumped out in front of me!

Got home and told my mum who called the police who came out and took a statement but he was never caught and I didn't ride out alone for a long time afterwards.
 
OP I note your incident happened "in Devon".

Would you PM me with where??? This is creepy, very creepy.

My suggestion would be to carry something like a little small-sized aerosol of something like hairspray with you - and spray it in his face if he comes near you again out riding. Hairspray is perfectly legal!!! Or if you wanted to be extra-nasty then Purple Foot Spray would mark him out for sure!!! You could get one of those little saddlebags that endurance websites sell to hitch onto your saddle and then have it in there if needed.

By gad, that's what I'd do if I'd had that problem. How awful, and how frightening for you. Please be careful. Always lock your car when you get inside - and check the inside inc the boot before you get in and drive off.

Consider getting a personal-camera when riding.

Consider a personal alarm - some police forces were issuing these free a few years ago.

Consider your house security as well. Sorry not trying to frighten you but I find it very unnerving that he showed up at your workplace. That's creepy.
 
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Just PM'd you MiJodsR2BlinkinTite.
Because of uni and horses, I still live at home with my parents so everything is pretty secure. I also have a guard goose and goat which keep the weirdos away! I now carry a long stick out with me riding just incase I need it. Good idea with the purple spray. I did think about sprays but I was worried that in a panic I may spray my horse in the face by accident if she moved and I'm not sure she would ever forgive me if I did that!
 
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