**Hi Viz** rant and question....**

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lucemoose

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WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY does the LARGE riding school and livery yard down the road from my own yard NEVER have any sort of flouro/hi viz or anything on any hack or single horse that heads out from its gates.
PLEASE someone tell me there are insurance quibbles if you have an accident on the road and not dressed in Hi Viz?
I dont care if you are an individual from a DIY yard or off your own back but SURELY a commercial business should send its own clients out suitably dressed and advise its livery clients to do the same.

Im sorry horse and rider I nearly drove into, but, it wasnt my fault. You blended into the autumnal trees and frankly, I hope you got home in one piece aswell.

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You can choose to wear it, the poor horse cant.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
I know what you mean it's sooo frustrating, then if you,ve got to brake hard or don't slow down in time, then the rider moans your an idiot driver!!!


I never ride without high viz, its just not safe, my mares dark bay and the roads are narrow and mostly covered by trees or bushes.
 
I always wear hi viz even in summer...in winter the horsey looks like a big fluro pink/yellow monster!!! But i dont hink it is part of insurance tho i think it just would be a good excuse for the unlucky driver who hit them to get off a charge. maybe for a business its different tho
 
as per Dizzydancer, theres no legal requirement, but it makes an excellent excuse for a driver to get away with killing or paralysing you in a crash. For a business not to do it is completely nuts in my opinion, even £2 manky tabards would help a great deal.

Maybe you should club together and send them one as a heavy hint!, or even get the local bobby to have a word with them.

I dont even have to hack on any roads but always wear hi viz, so the peeps searching for me after my pony is found solo can see me in the ditch she's dumped me in :-D
 
I agree, it's insane from a liability perspective. The riding school I work at isn't insured to take clients out on hacks, but we liveries never leave the gates without hi-viz - there are always spare tabards in the office in case someone doesn't have one, so there's no getting away with it! I don't know if the YO is allowed to outright ban us from hacking without it, but as nearly all the liveries who go out hacking are children (at 19, I am the oldest livery who hacks regularly) and as the YO is also their riding instructor, they respect her advice and do as they're told!
 
I was out riding a few years ago in a flourescent coat and exercise sheet, just mooching down the road on a sunday morning in perfect weather and a van hit my horse. He wasn't speeding and it was a straight road through a village. He said he didnt see me. Luckily my horse wasn't hurt other than bruising but I'm afraid my attitude now is why bother dressing up head to toe in dayglo gear. Shoot me down all you like, it's just a personal opinion after a personal experience.
 
And dog walkers. I think I have posted before, but its a massive bug bear of mine is dark dogs and people in dark coats walking their dogs in the dark. There are two people I have skidded to a halt too now because I didnt see them on a dark country lane. One of them started shouting at me coz I scared the dog. I got and told him that if the dog had a flashing collar or he had hi viz jacket I would have seen him and that I thought that 30mph was more than acceptable on a country road on a national speed limit and then promptly got back in my car. I was a bit PMT though.................
 
Yesterday as a treat i went for a ride round Hyde Park and lovely as it was i was shocked that i was given no luminous gear to wear bearing in mind we were having to negotiate kensington traffic which was heavy - there were 2 riding schools having horses out into the traffic and around the park and only the instructors horses had high vis on but they were at the front:confused:
I always dress to the nines in high vis when i go out but i was more than shocked to ride on those sort of roads with no high vis on.
 
Hi vis is like putting my seat belt on for me and I wouldnt hack out without it. Having said that, when I was driving to the yard the other morning, the sun - yes the sun, was very low and shining right in my eyes. It was quite difficult to see and not high speed driving conditions, but it would have made it difficult to see anyone in the road, high vis or not Im afraid. I had my visor down and sunglasses on too.
 
I wear it as a tabard and especially always high vis gloves, if not for the reason of saving the horses life, my life and possibly the drivers life... but so they have no excuse for saying they couldn't see you if some twit drives past at 10million miles an hour and causes an accident. And so they can't claim they didn't see my hand signals to slow/ stop if my horse boots their car when they squeeze past in a space that's too small.

If you like to be smug, there's plenty to be smug about with high viz ;)
 
I always wear my hi viz - even if I'm riding in the riding paddock. I've just bought a pair of bright pink ski trousers as well to hack in throughout winter to stand out and keep warm.

It annoys me when I see people hacking in black with dark horses and no hi viz. It must annoy the drivers loads too as one stopped to thank my friends and I for wearing it.
 
I think some peeps do it as there are so few legal hacking routes that they might want to sneak into fields/down paths and think they are less likely to be caught if not dayglo. Personally Id rather be alive, but Im sure some peeps dont want to be visible in all circumstances...
 
When it gets old it doesn't show up so well, so buy some new (this is for the nice lady riding the bay horse down Crouch Lane earlier this week).
I've got hi viz pink, as it shows up further away in certain conditions, and yellow - to be as far on the safe side as I can be!
 
My mum and horse was in high viz exercise sheet and jacket. Got hit by a car caused a wound with bits hanging out on his side and broke my mums ankle. Doesn't mean don't bother wearing it, imagine what had happened had the driver not even tried to avoid her! and in alot of policies I believe their is a clause that says you must have been taking active steps to ensure your horses safety. On the grape vine heard of a women who couldn't claim on her insurance because she had not taken steps to insure her safety aka high viz. Don't know what company it was. However when mum went to court the driver claimed she hadn't seen her but we had pictures (really gory ones :D) of blood all over the hi viz and the horse wearing it before the vet did anything and essentially the driver was ripped a new one. :D But was a forgien driver who had been in this country without updating her driving licience for 5 years no insurance or tax :mad:
But mums insurance covered the horse and BUPA her ankle because the NHS were shocking.
Basically the law of averages says that regardless of wearing hi viz somebody will get hit but think how differant the figures would be if no one did.
But each to their own.
 
I agree the riding schools should certainly be settling an example to the younger riders! I thought if you wear hi viz it needs to conform to a certain safety standard now or could invalidate your insurance in an accident?? I always wear tabard, hat band and bands on horses legs! Sometimes I wear and exercise sheet and my OH says I look like the mounted police :D.
 
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