Horse killed driving in the dark

They drive trotters around the roads up and down past my road. Absolute menace - no lights, no reflectors, and not much control. Doesn't matter if its nearly dark. I had to swerve to avoid one failing to stop at the end of a side road the other day, the driver had no control of it whatsoever. But what do you expect if you have young animals (3 and under) which are trained to go forward as fast as possible. Stopping isn't in their vocabulary. One shipped its driver last year and ran down a street trashing 3 cars in the process. Of course the police aren't interested. Do as you likeys as usual.
 
Fatpiggy is right, we saw one (barely) careering down the road in almost pitch darkness. Had a long line of cars behind it which was the only way you ever see them but you still can't see them well. Pony looked terrified and it's so horrible to see. I just hope they got home safely.
 
Unfort. This doesn't surprise me! When driving to and from the yard, if i see a rider 80% of the time they have no hi-viz,
Really winds me up how hard is it to just chuck a few extra bits on your self and horse?
 
All the driving people I know are lovely people. However some have had terrible abuse whilst driving (especially if their horse is coloured), because prejudice and outright racism aren't very clever. Please be careful not to stoke it.

Driving in the dark (especially without lights or reflectors) is dumb. Many people (including '000s of travellers) drive responsibly, and we should not jump on one horrible incident to smear a whole community.
 
Yep, have to say there is a family of travellers near me (live in a house with land, so not your typical ones I guess) that have trotters. id guess they are 2 or 3 years old, so not ideal, but normal to them and all are entire. But the horses look in tip top condition, are well mannered and seem happy enough. The drivers are only out during the day and are always courteous. I have two young newly backed horses and hack them alone - first encounter with the trotters and I crapped myself, but driver called out "'as it ever seen an oss and cart before?" When I replied to the negative, he pulled over and let his horse stand and stretch out and said "bring it past in your own time" so we wandered past and my horse had a good look but was well behaved, and the driver said "that's a good oss you got there, I'll trot on when you're round the corner. Good day lass". We see them regularly and the whole family seem pretty sensible, so don't tar them all with the same brush
 
Fat_Pony said:
Yep, have to say there is a family of travellers near me (live in a house with land, so not your typical ones I guess) that have trotters. id guess they are 2 or 3 years old, so not ideal, but normal to them and all are entire. But the horses look in tip top condition, are well mannered and seem happy enough. The drivers are only out during the day and are always courteous. I have two young newly backed horses and hack them alone - first encounter with the trotters and I crapped myself, but driver called out "'as it ever seen an oss and cart before?" When I replied to the negative, he pulled over and let his horse stand and stretch out and said "bring it past in your own time" so we wandered past and my horse had a good look but was well behaved, and the driver said "that's a good oss you got there, I'll trot on when you're round the corner. Good day lass". We see them regularly and the whole family seem pretty sensible, so don't tar them all with the same brush
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I'm sure you are right, but I think there is a difference between the country-based DAYLs and the urban ones which are the only ones I have experience of. There are a number of yards in my town, sometimes the horses are kept in the front gardens of the houses. The animals do look well cared for, if you discount the hammering of their poor underdeveloped legs on the tarmac for hours every week, but of course they are potentially worth good money to their owners. In the past when I was driving home very late one night, I came across two carts being raced on the main road at the top of town. I'm not sure if this still goes on though (I hope not). If I drove my car in twilight with no lights on I'm quite sure Officer Dibble would be on to me like a shot. I don't drive (relatively) slowly on busy roads in the rush hour and cause massive tailbacks either. It always worries me when I see the carts at traffic lights because the horses are so hyped up they are jumping about all over the place and rearing, ready to rush off again. It is a long way different to your average experienced riding horse.
 
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