Get riders wearing reflectives you can help!

I dont see why people moan if they're only riding on the road for 5 mins? You should be wearing it even if you never see a road your entire hack!

Like someone else said, if you got knocked unconscious someone would see you easier.

People walking would see you quicker and could perhaps move their dogs out the way, call their dogs to them, or make sure their children don't jump out the woods at you.

Around here we have alot of trail bikes - if they saw you quicker, accidents could be more easily avoided.

Tractors etc would see you easier in fields and could stop ploughing towards you with their engines on, or at least make an effort not to spook you.

And the point I enjoyed most from the last post on this - when people see hi-viz, they're aware that it is a hazard, give you a wider berth and treat you as a HAZARD on the road. Better than squeezing past the horses butt at 50mph surely?!
 
flamehead said:
Tractors etc would see you easier in fields and could stop ploughing towards you with their engines on, or at least make an effort not to spook you.
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I hope that you have permission to go on their fields!

We ask before we go on fields round here so the farmers know where we are anyway. My horses are expected to go past tractors, combines, trailers full of bleating sheep, motorbikes, bicycles, dogs runners etc. its part of their every day life. If they don't I look at their training again.

My point was not anti Hi Viz just pro democracy and pro choice. People are more likely to wear it if they do so of their own choice. Educate and the tides will change, more will wear it and more often if it is through their choice.

If you went up to a rider and said "I just had a problem seeing you on that bend, woudl you like to borrow my high viz" you are more likely to get a positive reaction than if you marched up and demanded that they wear it.
 
Paddydou said:
I hope that you have permission to go on their fields!

We ask before we go on fields round here so the farmers know where we are anyway. My horses are expected to go past tractors, combines, trailers full of bleating sheep, motorbikes, bicycles, dogs runners etc. its part of their every day life. If they don't I look at their training again.

My point was not anti Hi Viz just pro democracy and pro choice. People are more likely to wear it if they do so of their own choice. Educate and the tides will change, more will wear it and more often if it is through their choice.

If you went up to a rider and said "I just had a problem seeing you on that bend, woudl you like to borrow my high viz" you are more likely to get a positive reaction than if you marched up and demanded that they wear it.
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We only ever ride on bridlepaths so yes, thank you, we DO ride correctly with permission. What a stupid and immature comment that isnt required on this thread.
 
Joined!

Years ago you woudn't have caught me dead in hi viz gear but now I would never forgive myself if my horse ever got injured on the roads because a driver did not see me in time.

I have no choice but to hack alot in the dark in winter and the hi viz christmas tree effect means that I feel safer in the dark almost more than hacking in the sun as I can see headlights coming a way off and the drivers see us flashing and glowing way before they get to us. I'm sure that the people who do speed ans suddenly slow down dramatically think that we're mounted police!

Which reminds me, was riding towards the local dog walking spot just coming out of the woods and I could see this old couple under the street lights walking their dog towards us. I was laughing my boots off as we got closer because we could hear them they trying to work out what the heck we were, coming towards them glowing and flashing. I'm convinced that they thought we were some sort of UFO 'cos when we finally stepped under the next street light and said 'good evening' they were verbally and visibly relieved, Bless!
 
Thank you all, I have taken on board all your comments and reasons and have decided to close the petition but keep the page open to follow your advice in order to Educate not Legislate!

I really do appreciate your comments as there are pros and cons for everything and by creating this page you have helped me to see the negatives where as I was only seeing the positives - please do continue to contribute to the page :)

Only thing I would like to mention is that a few people have mentioned about making hats compulsory - personaly I think that if people are stupid enough to take the risk then on their heads be it (no pun intended!) we decided to ride out and what protection we wish to use - our horses don't! they rely on us to keep them safe.....
 
I don't think it should be made compulsory either. The insurance companies are rolling in enough money and making enough peoples lives a misery without thinking up new reasons not to pay out.

If people choose not to wear hi-viz that is their decision. I ride two horses - one I wear hi-viz because it is mainly busy road work, and the other is almost completely off road hacking and honestly, I don't see the need to be bright orange in the middle of big open fields.
 
Paddydou - there is a long distance bridle path that goes right through the middle of the farm where we keep our horses. There is an extensive network of bridle paths that criss cross all the farms in the area (we are very lucky!). At our old yard, when we hacked to PC rallies or shows we used to cross at least 3 farms. How the hell are the farmer supposed to know where all the horses are likely to be at any particular time or do you expect us to phone ahead every hack?
We've recently had a couple of incidents on hacks (including my son's horse spooking at something he had already passed many times before & needing the fire brigade to rescue him from a ditch) that have brought home that it's not only on the road that visibility is important.
 
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