Getting cars to slow down?

We have a lot of low flying helicopters here and they definitely give you more room if you are wearing large amounts of Hi Viz, so it's not just about being on the roads and meeting cars.
 
JillA, you are quite right, drivers should be paying attention, full stop. However, I always wear hiviz as I dont want to put my horse or me at any more risk than is absolutely necessary. God forbid that anything should ever happen, but it would give me a much better chance of pursuing an insurance claim as well if I had taken adequate steps to be seen. As an aside, I managed to persuade our local council to put "warning, horses" signs up about half a mile either side of our yard as we are on an awful rat run, country roads and really twisty, with bridleways at several points along them. Again, I dont think for one moment many drivers take any notice at all, but if they were involved in a collision, the signs would give us some ammunition for driving without due care! My personal preference to try and slow traffic down is to ride slightly out towards the middle so they have to think twice about how much room they have, I move over to the left once they have slowed and can see its clear ahead. If Im approaching a blind bend and I can hear something behind me, I half halt to let them catch up so they have no excuse for not seeing me, again if I can see and hear that its clear ahead I will signal them past. Traffic coming towards me, I will put my arm up with palm towards them, looking directly at the driver and again staying slightly out. It goes without saying I always acknowledge those who show me courtesy, I may acknowledge those who dont but with a different gesture. Last week I had a lorry driver coming towards me who slowed down, hazards on to warn drivers behind him, then when he realised I actually needed to cross in front of him to access a bridleway he switched off his engine and waited until I was well past him before setting off again. I emailed his company to ask them to pass on my thanks and appreciation, excellent driver skills. I have also discovered that a misbehaving highland pony, built like the proverbial and performing a neat piaffe, buck and spin movement up the road will stop the traffic, although I dont recommend it!!
 
I can recommend riding out with a Westphalia draught horse as your companion. :) If I ride out on my lightly built Araby type no one slows down, when we are with sisters draught made they slow and give us loads of room. The silly thing is mine may well spook, sisters is totally rock steady!
 
I ride a mixture of busy B roads, narrow twisty lanes and off road. My horse wears leg bands, stirrup iron bands and a neck band as standard hacking attire. I wear either a hi viz coat or hi viz long sleeved shirt with a tabard over with the bog standard please pass wide and slow on (as I think some people genuinely don't have a clue, if they have to wait behind me they might read it and learn something). I also have a hi viz hat silk (which I've been complemented on by lorry drivers on narrow lanes as they said they saw me over the hedge) and carry a long schooling whip with hi viz ribbon on the end. I poke it into the middle of the road to try to encourage passing wide. I do ride with a camera too.

I'm not sure any of it encourages drivers to pass slower as I think there is a basic lack of education on how drivers treat vulnerable road users. Some people really don't have a clue and have no idea what they are doing is dangerous and unacceptable. Until there is a nation wide education program I don't think things will change.

We are near a helicopter training base, so even if I'm just riding in the field I wear a tabard. It does make a difference.

I was out hacking at the weekend and met another lady riding a horse, she was dressed fully in camo gear. Her horse spooked and wouldn't walk past us and she blamed it on our 'regalia'! I nearly fell off laughing after she went past. I would rather be seen and stand a better chance of staying safe than camo myself into the hedge. To add we met her on the crest of a hill and she was cantering up the wrong side of the road!
 
JillA said:
I'm going to put my tin hat on now..................I have major concerns about hi vis because it puts the responsibility on the horse and rider. Every driver, bar none, should be driving on the road they can see, and concentrating on what they can see there. Movement catches they eye more than stationary objects, so a moving horse should be easily spotted. And there are other non vehicular road users who may not have access to hi vis. Escaped animals, elderly pedestrians, children, if we train drivers to just look for users in high vis they begin to get a mindset that ignores anything that isn't dressed in it.
That is of course in broad daylight, in dusk and poor visibility that is another matter
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You are, of course, quite correct that drivers should take care on the roads and actively look for hazards. However, I think that I have a responsibility to my animals to ensure that I give them every chance to arrive home in one piece. Movement does attract attention, so my horse wears hi viz legbands. A car full of young men once stopped alongside us and lowered the window. As you can imagine, I was preparing for abuse, when someone called out "nice socks!". Then the car sped off.
Definitely bigger horses slow the traffic down best.
The riders that annoy me most, as a driver, are those who meander along the road, refusing to pull over into obvious passing places, completely oblivious to the fact that there is a queue of traffic behind them. They are usually the ones without hi viz too!
 
Like others have said you need to hold your place on the road. Apart from making drivers think twice about trying to skim past you it also gives you an escape route to your left if needed.

There will always be t**ts that really don't care if they kill you or themselves, that's the risk we take every time we go on the roads on a horse or a bike and to a lesser extent in a car. The great majority of drivers don't mean us any harm but a large minority of them just don't have a clue how to safely pass a horse - not that there is really any excuse for that but as a reality we have to deal with them if we hack out. IME you need to actively manage traffic and drivers.

Wear hi viz - even as pedestrian in the city I notice how much easier it is to spot cyclists in hi viz. Those extra couple of seconds visibility can make a huge difference to a distracted driver
Make sure your signals are clear. I use the point and flat hand a lot, a driver can't kid themselves that you didn't mean them. For some odd reason it rarely means that a driver stops but it will normally slow them down considerably. Look directly at the driver so they know you mean them.
Ride in the middle of your carriageway, you are entitled to that space and it makes you more visible to traffic coming both ways. Just as importantly it gives you that couple of feet to your left as a refuge if you need it.
At junctions, turns (especially turning right) and roundabouts signal clearly but also take the road space so that a driver isn't tempted to do something silly like shoot up your inside to get ahead of you.
If riding in a group, stick together so that you don't have cars overtaking in stages and getting between horses.
A camera? I've never used one on a horse but I have a dashcam in my car and drivers do behave differently once they spot the sign so I can see how it works.
Watch how police horses are ridden in city traffic for tips - those riders have it sussed :)

Riders also have to take responsibility for their own safety and show consideration to other road users too. Yes we do have a right to use the roads that I would defend to the death but please don't be one of those muppets that causes unnecessary delays to drivers - it's not fair and causes bad feeling.

If you are holding up traffic, trot on and/or pull over where safe to do so. If riding two abreast especially do this.
Acknowledge drivers - it doesn't have to be a love fest but it's only manners.
Give yourself a fair chance by having a horse that is reasonable in traffic - I know it takes time to make them that but every horse out on the roads should, as a minimum stand at junctions, bend and know how to move off the leg. This means that you have a very good chance of getting them past most hazards without ending up at the opposite kerb or on the bonnet of a vehicle. If they nap, the main road is not the place to sit it out for 15 minutes with then spinning and threatening to go up. Just get off and lead them past!
I do understand that horses aren't always predicable - my welsh cob could be a prat with stupid things IE daffodils but only some years - but that had to be my problem not every other road users so it was my responsibility to get him out of the way if he was having a fit by having him well schooled enough that he might snort, high blow and prance but I could bend him round my leg towards the road so he couldn't levitate into moving traffic...

Oh and do report every near miss to the BHS and police if you get even a partial number plate. I also report both good and bad driving to companies if it involves liveried vehicles. Our local binmen stopped me as I came out of the house in riding gear to tell me that their bosses had been sent an email by a rider thanking them for turning off the rubbish crusher on the lorry as she rode past - they were thrilled to bits :)
 
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