Horse V lorry

[ycbm]

The horse saw or heard the lorry coming too fast, that's why he started backing up, then when there was no way that the lorry would stop or slow down he turned around to flee. One of mine has done that, they back up thinking they are moving away from the rattly thing but in doing so they go over the middle line and are therefore in front it.

I have had several bad experiences with bad drivers. It's very scary.

I agree. This is what i see there.

The horse was taking a look at the red car and drifting a bit right and the rider didn't have the experience to use the right rein and right leg to get her back to the left but was trying to pull her back left with the left rein. So when the horse properly spooked at the lorry, she was bent so that she backed into its path. The proper spook, imo, was at the lorry, not at the car.

I am more grateful every day for a traffic free farm ride as my hacking.
.

 

[luckyoldme]

Wether or not we agree with the presence of a vulnerable road user is irrelevant.
It might put a few minutes on a day to stop and let a horse past safely but if that rider had been injured or worse the the driver would have it in his/her head for the rest of their lives.
I'm selfish that way, I always make sure I am clearly seen to give cyclists pedestrians and horses plenty of room ....my head would be battered if I hurt someone.

 

[marmalade76]

I’m a bit split on this.

Yes the lorry driver passed far to fast and failed to stop - they definitely need to be held to account.

But as horse-riders, despite having the right to be on the road, we do have some level of responsibility to manage risk. Personally I think a child on a young horse, that wasn’t boxed in by a really solid horse, on that type of road is Darwin in action.

Thank god no one was seriously hurt

Totally agree, the rider seemed rather ineffective.

 

[Abacus]

Totally agree, the rider seemed rather ineffective.

Wow. I think this is horrid. She’s young and had few seconds to make a difference. I’m not sure I’d have done better. Her reaction afterwards was mature: despite being hurt herself she got off and appeared to be checking her horse. Too easy to be critical of someone who was on the spot in a very tricky situation. I don’t often criticise on here but: shame on you.

 

[marmalade76]

Wow. I think this is horrid. She’s young and had few seconds to make a difference. I’m not sure I’d have done better. Her reaction afterwards was mature: despite being hurt herself she got off and appeared to be checking her horse. Too easy to be critical of someone who was on the spot in a very tricky situation. I don’t often criticise on here but: shame on you.

According to what I've read, it was a young horse with young, fairly ineffective rider on clearly a fast, busy road - neither of MY children would have been permitted to do that but we're all different, I suppose.

The shying was not sudden or fast and could easily have been corrected. And if you could not have done better, I would avoid riding on roads like that if I were you.

 

[Fred66]

According to what I've read, it was a young horse with young, fairly ineffective rider on clearly a fast, busy road - neither of MY children would have been permitted to do that but we're all different, I suppose.

The shying was not sudden or fast and could easily have been corrected. And if you could not have done better, I would avoid riding on roads like that if I were you.

The girl was 15 and had according to the article been riding since a young age, her seat seemed pretty secure and her actions after the incident were also quite mature.

Whilst the horse is young it is according to the article ridden out 5 days a week and is normally good in traffic.

The horse was evading the aids and backing up and this is not always “easily corrected” and from it having a look at the red car to actually being hit was less than 10 seconds.

The fault is wholly with the driver and shame on you for trying to pass the blame to the rider and her mother.

 

[AmyMay]

I think it’s pretty appalling to shame the rider.

 

[marmalade76]

I think it’s pretty appalling t

I think it’s pretty appalling to shame the rider.

How is pointing out the fact that she handled the first minor shy shaming her - it's a fact!

 

[Nasicus]

The horse was evading the aids and backing up and this is not always “easily corrected” and from it having a look at the red car to actually being hit was less than 10 seconds.

I'd be interested to know what people would have done to correct it, not from a snarky 'well what would YOU have done' perspective, but more from an 'add it to my mental library' perspective.
I know my older mare, when I first got her, would randomly plant, and asking for forwards would result in increasingly fast backwards zooming. Thankfully I had the time and space to sit and wait her out or push her through it as the situation required (quiet country road with good visibility), but the girl didn't have those luxuries.
(And before someone says 'I wouldn't be taking the horse on that road in the first place', even the most reliable, steady Eddie can have a moment out of the blue, so it would be good to know HOW to deal with this for anyone finding themselves in a similar situation).

 

[SEL]

According to what I've read, it was a young horse with young, fairly ineffective rider on clearly a fast, busy road - neither of MY children would have been permitted to do that but we're all different, I suppose.

The shying was not sudden or fast and could easily have been corrected. And if you could not have done better, I would avoid riding on roads like that if I were you.

I don't agree and I think that's a nasty post.

I've got a pretty bombproof kids pony but even she'll sometimes have a look like this horse did at the red car. Throw a speeding lorry with no passing room into the mix and I couldn't say my pony wouldn't panic. This all happened very quickly and that's why the pass slow and wide message is so important. Not only do horses need time to process but at slower speeds drivers have so much more time to react to a hazard.

It would be nice for once if the horse community could be supportive instead of bitchy.

 

[Rowreach]

If all the road sharers involved had acted with care, consideration, and in line with the guidance in the Highway Code, then the collision would not have taken place at all.

Taking the whole situation into account, the lorry driver's speed should have been zero mph while he waited a few seconds for the horses to pass the parked vehicles, and his lorry (I'm assuming it was a bloke, but it might not have been). As it was the lorry was travelling at a speed which, with parked vehicles on both sides, was inappropriate for the situation even if the horses weren't there, given all the other hazards that could potentially have emerged.

I'm all for calling out horse riders who behave like knobs when they are on the road, and one of my absolute triggers is watching hat cam footage which proves that riders rarely bother to look around and behind themselves, and then get narked about cyclists/electric vehicles/runners approaching from behind, or riders who don't use every means possible to make themselves visible, but I am at a total loss in this particular case as to why anyone would slate the rider for what happened when the lorry driver is so very clearly driving dangerously, and as a result could have killed the teenager and the horse.

 

[Palindrome]

According to what I've read, it was a young horse with young, fairly ineffective rider on clearly a fast, busy road - neither of MY children would have been permitted to do that but we're all different, I suppose.

The shying was not sudden or fast and could easily have been corrected. And if you could not have done better, I would avoid riding on roads like that if I were you.

I am really curious now, how do you stop a horse from backing up?

 

[Palindrome]

I wasn't going to share because it is still pretty sore but I have lost my dog 2 years ago. My dog, a high strung cocker spaniel, had escaped through the door while I was coming home. I set out to catch her with my 3 years old daughter, we were on our residential street that is 30 mph. As the delivery van arrived well above that speed limit (probably around 50-60 mph), I made signs to the driver to slow down as the dog was just in front of me but on the other side of the road, running towards me. The van didn't slow down and I had a split second to choose whether to get in front of it to save my dog or to grab my daughter's hand to prevent her to get onto the road. I chose my daughter that day and had to let our dog die. The dog got hit, I brought my daughter home (we were just next door), took a blanket and went back to have my dog die in my arms a few seconds later.

There is a small wall in our neighbor's front garden and the driver couldn't see the dog but he should have listened to my hand signals. I am still so sad about losing my dog, but it also could have been my other child on the other side of the road.

 

[Caol Ila]

The horse community never fails to amaze with how bitchy it can be. Sheesh. Or maybe it's the full moon affecting the forum - between this and that PTS thread, there's a lot of snark directed at others, whilst being extremely self-congratulatory about one's own above-all-reproach horsemanship.

I don't want to imagine how that terrified kid would feel - or her mum - if they came onto the forum and saw these posts saying, "well, she could have ridden that better" or "MY kids wouldn't be allowed on that road with a young horse," etc. etc.

Even if the horses had been plodding along the road, the lorry should not have been doing that speed past them.

 

[ycbm]

I'd be interested to know what people would have done to correct it, not from a snarky 'well what would YOU have done' perspective, but more from an 'add it to my mental library' perspective.
I know my older mare, when I first got her, would randomly plant, and asking for forwards would result in increasingly fast backwards zooming. Thankfully I had the time and space to sit and wait her out or push her through it as the situation required (quiet country road with good visibility), but the girl didn't have those luxuries.
(And before someone says 'I wouldn't be taking the horse on that road in the first place', even the most reliable, steady Eddie can have a moment out of the blue, so it would be good to know HOW to deal with this for anyone finding themselves in a similar situation).

To prevent that happening at all, in that situation, I would have waited until there was no traffic coming through at all , taken the centre of the road two abreast, blocking any other traffic from coming towards me, and trotted on smartly.

In the situation she was in, she needed to pull the horses head to the right and use the right leg to get it over to the left, then the horse would have had room to spin without spinning into the lorry and would have backed into space or into a stationary car, not a speeding HGV. Of course the horse would have needed to understand those aids before going out onto a road like that.

I am so relieved not to deal with roads these days. I've just celebrated by swapping my high vis hat cover for a nice plum one

 

[bonny]

Couldn’t it just be no one was to blame, horses can spook especially young ones, it was a busy road and technically the horse hit the truck regardless of the speed it was going. Just be thankful that no one was hurt.

 

[Birker2020]

Found this incredibly upsetting as I can actually feel that horse starting to shy in my mind and feeling my hands and legs reacting in time to its movements, its a horrible feeling of hopelessness. Just dreadful driving from the driver.

 

[Palindrome]

Couldn’t it just be no one was to blame, horses can spook especially young ones, it was a busy road and technically the horse hit the truck regardless of the speed it was going. Just be thankful that no one was hurt.

No, if you are driving a vehicle and there is a danger on the road, it is your responsibility to stop your vehicle. If you can't understand that you shouldn't be driving. It is that black and white.

 

[criso]

Couldn’t it just be no one was to blame, horses can spook especially young ones, it was a busy road and technically the horse hit the truck regardless of the speed it was going. Just be thankful that no one was hurt.

While it may be true that sometimes things just happen with no fault, guidance on the speed to pass horses is there for that reason.

It's all about speed.

I've been passed by people so close on narrow lanes that I've had to throw my leg forward to avoid clipping the side of the vehicle or caught the wing mirror. It wasn't a serious incident because the vehicles were going really slowly.

 

[marmalade76]

I am really curious now, how do you stop a horse from backing up?

If the horse was straightened correctly when it first started napping (right leg & right hand rather than pulling on the left), it would not have been able to reverse into the path of the lorry. Yes, the lorry was going too fast (I wonder if he was looking at his phone) but that's the problem here, it doesn't matter how many laws, how low the speed limit is etc, you will still get idiots on the road and we have to protect ourselves as much as we reasonably can, like making sure we can reasonably control the horse we're on, riding defensively, ie two abreast with the more reliable horse on the outside. That's my opinion and you're welcome to disagree.

 

[onemoretime]

I just watched it one more time and it doesn't get better. Although, despite the original spook at the car, what a good horse to calm down so quickly afterwards - many would have done far worse.

Yes, and a good little rider who stayed on.

 

[onemoretime]

It looks like it spooked at something on the left, but I'm not sure it matters what that was.

The thing is no matter how good your horse is in traffic, there is always the possibility that something on the side may spook it: a plastic bag suddenly flapping out; a child running towards you waving a large stick, a large dog dashing out from a drive barking aggressively; Muntjac dashing out from the hedge; squirrel running out from a hedge and mistaking your horse's leg for a tree starts running up it.

Then your traffic proof horse can react and even a modest sidestep could put you in danger.

That's why the advice is to pass horses slowly

When I'm riding I keep an eye for potential hazards on the left and if possible slow down or speed up so a car is not trying to pass usvat the same time but sometimes things happen.

Oh dear did you really have a squirrel run up your horses leg, I hope you and the horse were ok. I once had a squirrel fall out a tree and land on my mare's withers, I quickly knocked him off onto the road. Mare jumped slightly but nothing drastic. These tree critters can be alarming at times.

 

[criso]

Oh dear did you really have a squirrel run up your horses leg, I hope you and the horse were ok. I once had a squirrel fall out a tree and land on my mare's withers, I quickly knocked him off onto the road. Mare jumped slightly but nothing drastic. These tree critters can be alarming at times.

Yep, luckily my last horse who was very brave and confident. He reared, not too high, while waving the attacked leg. Squirrel was launched through the air at speed, landed and ran off. Frankie came back down to the ground, snorted loudly and carried on unconcerned. Current horse might have been much more upset.

Squirrel came out of a crop and I assume saw this leg that looked a bit trunk like.

 

[Fred66]

If the horse was straightened correctly when it first started napping (right leg & right hand rather than pulling on the left), it would not have been able to reverse into the path of the lorry. Yes, the lorry was going too fast (I wonder if he was looking at his phone) but that's the problem here, it doesn't matter how many laws, how low the speed limit is etc, you will still get idiots on the road and we have to protect ourselves as much as we reasonably can, like making sure we can reasonably control the horse we're on, riding defensively, ie two abreast with the more reliable horse on the outside. That's my opinion and you're welcome to disagree.

Horses can just be contrary and ignore the aids however good the rider. Within 7 seconds this horse went from just having a look to being hit.

Paraphrasing what you have written is that the rider was useless and her mother was irresponsible, this is quite a popular horse forum and it is quite possible that either of them might read this thread. l personally don’t agree with this but even if I did I would have certainly found a kinder way to express it. Some people seem to pride themselves on saying it how they see it another way of describing this is rude.

The ONLY person at fault is the driver, they ignored the rules of the road.

Your point about there being idiots out there is valid but that should not mean that others have to accommodate this.

 

[SOS]

I think there is no question of fault, the truck driver failed to slow for a hazard.

In the modern driving test you have to do a computer simulated hazard test, clicking every time you see a hazard in the video. The advice is always SLOW down so you could stop safely if the hazard escalated.

Horses are allowed on that type of road, and recent law changes mean in theory they should be even more protected. I don’t think the rider was riding in the middle of the road, just two abreast which I would absolutely do on a road like that to prevent cars attempt to sneak past when it’s not clear.

The truck should have slowed as soon as he saw the horses, and been prepared to stop if anything changes. And no that’s not rider privilege that’s basic rules of the road - workmen, cyclists, tractors, schools. You slow down so you can react to the unexpected.

 

[marmalade76]

Funny how you "would have found a kinder way of saying it" yet "useless" & "irresponsible" are your words, not mine.

 

[Fred66]

Funny how you "would have found a kinder way of saying it" yet "useless" & "irresponsible" are your words, not mine.

As I said in my post I was paraphrasing what you had said.

Personally I didn’t see anything wrong with the girls riding and at 15 having ridden her whole life I wouldn’t have had an issue with my daughter hacking out with her older sister.

 

[marmalade76]

Like I said, we're all different, I wouldn't allow my children to rude a bike along a road like that.

Turning the head in the opposite direction and putting the outside leg on is the basic, text book way of dealing with a shying horse, I certainly remember being taught that.