How do we stop the no hi vis madness?

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somethingorother

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There's a yard over the road from OH's house in Bradford, a big livery yard. A lot of people ride out on a winding but fast single track road. The other day i was driving past the yard and came across 3 young girls on dark horses in near darkness, in the rain with no hi vis, i didn't see them until i was nearly on top of them.

OH had his 3rd driving lesson today (has taken me 4 years to get him to take them!) and in the same place nearly missed another rider in complete darkness in the chucking down rain with no hi vis.

Now i don't care about the people on top, they are obviously a blight on the gene pool. I do care about innocent drivers (like me) and i care about the poor horses. So if you think you know this large yard on a busy winding lane in Bradford... Tell them they need to put some blooming high vis on before they end up dead.


Rant over, feel free to add your own!
 
I always wear hi vis, tabard, hat band, sheet when necessary, tail band. You get looks from other riders but i'd rather be safe than sorry on my dark horse and dont hesitate to 'advise' them to wewar it to, without lecturing!
 
Its weird how the culture is different from livery yard to livery yard. A few near me, all the people wear it and at others, no-one does.

I can see why people don't wear hi vis in perfectly good conditions tbh, I wear mine all the time - but I don't see why people don't wear it when conditions aren't good. I never get why people go on the roads at night though - sheer and utter bonkers madness :(
 
Just drive right up behind them and when they shout abuse smile sweetly and say 'sorry I didn't see you'.

I was driving on a windy country lane today and was relieved to see a hat band visible over the hedges round a blind bend. On coming round the bend I nearly went into the back of a horse and rider not wearing hi-vis. There wasn't one rider there were 4! If I hadn't slowed because I'd spotted the hat band, I'd probably have taken them all out...
 
I always wear a hi viz jacket, mine is a proper riding one, so very comfortable and practical. I don't get why people won't wear it - and I know this sounds horrible, but if I ride with someone who isn't wearing it, I do tend to think that at least my horse would be the last to be driven into.

I do have a friend who lost her horse in a traffic accident - she still doesn't wear hi viz, and neither does her daughter :-(
 
You will never stop the 'no hi vis madness.' There will always be people that believe that there is no need for them to be visable to drivers, cyclists, pilots of air ambulance etc etc. Those people dont seem to realise that just because they ride on a quiet road with very few cars on, it only takes one car to wipe you out. And that they very rarely fall off, not realising that the one time they do fall off in the quiet, unoccupied field, where no one goes, an air ambulance crew will not be able to see them if they are lying in the long grass in a dark coat.
Utter stupidity.











and breathe.
 
I really hate the look of my high viz tabard, but I see it as a necessary evil - in the same way as I hate my thighs in jods but it doesn't stop me wearing them!
 
I have to say no one on my yard wears high vis and the stupid ones hack out in fog as well. In fact the only person I have ever seen wearing hi vis was a sharer! To be honest they are grown men and women and nothing you or I say would change them, even the younger people don't wear it. So I gave up, none of these people really use the Internet or forums so won't see all the horror stories as not many, if any in London make it to the news!
 
A lot of people seem to have the attitude that drivers should drive slower. Well we all know they don't and if something gives that idiot driver a couple of extra seconds to see you then all the better. Rather alive and looking daft, than to prove a point and be dead :(
 
I can sort of (not really) see where they are coming from in the day time. Although i will not go on a road without a minimum of a tabard, and usually leg bands. I have also bought a quarter sheet, as i felt there wasn't enough on my horse if we parted ways. I got caught out in the dark once, and pooped myself the whole way home. But we did have full leg bands on and a reflective tabard and gloves.

To go out in the darkness is scary and dangerous, but without any hi vis at all is basically askign for your horse to get hit and killed.

I do not want to look out of my bedroom window and see a dead horse in the road.

I have spoken to the YO before briefly, and i do not think approaching her would do any good, else i would be printing off the BHS posters and taking them around.

I don't understand why people don't just put something, anything, no matter how small on their horse. If it makes your horse safer, then why wouldn't you do it?
 
scatty_mare said:
I really hate the look of my high viz tabard, but I see it as a necessary evil - in the same way as I hate my thighs in jods but it doesn't stop me wearing them!
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I wouldn't wear a crinkly workman type one for riding - as I have to wear them for work. I have an equafleece which is a fleecy hi vis, which when you have it on you really don't notice its there :)

Get some good hi vis and you'll never look back :)
 
My yard is located off a very busy road. A few weeks ago a lady was out hacking on her big bay, wearing dark clothes. The visability was very poor, I slowed right down and told her that I never seen her and she should really think about a Hi-Viz.

Yesterday, she had one on :D
 
I have actually heard of a yard that will not allow you to ride out from their yard in hi-viz - you have to get down the road from them, then put it on, because it is a yard does not want to be associated with 'happy hackers'!! What an awful attitude! And a friend of mine 'would not be seen dead in hi-viz'. :rolleyes:
I wear a fitted hi-viz ladies gillet in bright hi-viz pink, and it looks very smart imo. Now we are in the winter, horse will have a yellow hi-viz sheet on too, so we will be very visable.
My OH nearly hit a horse on the lanes last winter, it was sunny, but sun very low and in front of him, and at the last minute he saw the shape of a dark horse, with a rider in dark clothing - he was so angry with them!
 
I always wear hi-viz, a hat band that stays on all the time, it did have flashing lights in it but I forgot about the battery over the summer and its gone rusty and won't work now :rolleyes: I have a proper riding hi-viz jacket and a tabard for the summer. In bad light my girl wears hi viz brushing boots and i have little hi-viz velcro things on the outside of my stirrups. I always wear it and think its daft not to. I do not drive fast round the lanes BUT on several occasions I've had to slam my brakes on because some daft bint is wearing dark clothes, on a dark horse and in a shadow. I might look a bit daft but me and my horse are safer for it :D
 
Laura1234 said:
I have actually heard of a yard that will not allow you to ride out from their yard in hi-viz - you have to get down the road from them, then put it on, because it is a yard does not want to be associated with 'happy hackers'!! What an awful attitude! And a friend of mine 'would not be seen dead in hi-viz'. :rolleyes:
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:eek::eek::eek:

They would rather be associated with a high accident rate? The yard owner should be shot.
 
Those who are worried about how they look must have never considered how attractive they and their mount would look on the bonnet of a car.

I just want a big slapping stick to beat some sense into them.
 
Often the young girls not wearing High Viz are not drivers, so they don't appreciate the difference between riding a horse and driving a car. But there is no excuse for adult riders.
I wonder if the BHS would add it to their Livery Approval scheme - that people should be encouraged to wear high viz when hacking.

When you are riding your eyes adapt to the conditions, and whereas a rider can see OK in poor light/fog, a driver doesn't have a chance. Some people complained to me about a local rider going out in a brown coat on a brown horse, and I asked the local PC to have a word with her when he sees her. He already told the local livery yard that he would be down on them if he saw anyone out riding in the dusk as the lane is a rat run from an industrial site and quite narrow.

If I see anyone on a horse without High Viz I try to stop if I can, if there isn't another car right up behind.
 
There is a supid woman whos rides her dark bay horse in the pitch black, tree lined road, not far from me, I nearly piled into the back of her the other day, only thing that saved her was I saw the light on her phone as she was useing it! maybe, that she is so off her face on drink and drugs that she don't care, not even for her horse.
I have drummed it into my daughter so much that she wears her HIVIZ in the summer months too.
 
ORANGEHORSE said:
Often the young girls not wearing High Viz are not drivers, so they don't appreciate the difference between riding a horse and driving a car. But there is no excuse for adult riders.
I wonder if the BHS would add it to their Livery Approval scheme - that people should be encouraged to wear high viz when hacking.

When you are riding your eyes adapt to the conditions, and whereas a rider can see OK in poor light/fog, a driver doesn't have a chance. Some people complained to me about a local rider going out in a brown coat on a brown horse, and I asked the local PC to have a word with her when he sees her. He already told the local livery yard that he would be down on them if he saw anyone out riding in the dusk as the lane is a rat run from an industrial site and quite narrow.

If I see anyone on a horse without High Viz I try to stop if I can, if there isn't another car right up behind.
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I wonder if it might be worth me having a word with the local police to see if they would speak to the yard owner then? It is a matter of time until there is an accident there, if there hasn't been already before OH moved there about 6 months ago...
 
TBH, if I am hacking out, whatever the season, I wear my pink hi-viz gillet as a minimum, even if I am not on roads, so that cyclists and dog owners etc can still see me better - it is just my usual hack out attire. I just always think it is better to be seen sooner, and this is why I always actually drive with my lights on, even in the day, so I can be seen sooner, especially on single track lanes with people using them as rat runs.
 
flying solo said:
My yard is located off a very busy road. A few weeks ago a lady was out hacking on her big bay, wearing dark clothes. The visability was very poor, I slowed right down and told her that I never seen her and she should really think about a Hi-Viz.

Yesterday, she had one on :D
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I think that this is the way forward. I've done this before. Stopped and said to the rider, please don't think me rude, but I must tell you that I couldn't see you at all in the dark until I'd nearly hit you...etc. The lady I said it to thanked me.
 
I have put this up before, Don't Be a Dim Rider and also a local vet who had to deal with the aftermath of a horse/car accident said Dress Your Horse for the Road.
We wear the appropriate gear when doing cross country/dressage/travelling, so we should dress ourselves and horse in appropriate things for hacking on the roads.

It is a matter of being a responsible road user, and drivers appreciate riders in High Viz taking the trouble.
 
Funnily enough I know most yards in Bradford as my boys are kept just outside of that area....

Anyway....On the Hi-Vis topic, I must admit I don't use hi-vis normally when hacking out as I tend to only hack out when visibility is good and wear very bright purple clothing too (as well as having very bright purple hair). If I ever ventured off the yard when visibility isn't that great however I would use as much Hi Vis as I had to hand without thinking twice about it.
 
Does your hair reflect the sunlight back at drivers? Coz high vis does ;)

But yeah, i know a lot of people don't do it in the sunshine. In the pitch black darkness though, is what has made me fume.
 
Always wear hi vis-got a wonderful hi vis fleece from Machine Mart £10-so you can wear all year round.

Pony has got hi vis fleece too-made it and put the reflective tape on and also got the police reflective blue and silver chequers-brilliant stuff.

Got the idea from that new hi vis waistcoat that from a distance looks like a police jacket-so now I have a police pony in the making!

It does work! Makes people really SLOW right down.

there is a page on facebook trying to raise the profile wanting horse and rider insurance companies to make it COMPULSORY for riders to wear hi vis-think that's a great idea not that many people read their policy!
 
I do not understand why people feel it is ever ok to ride on any road without Hi-Viz, summer or winter, full daylight or not. Are these the same people who drive without a seat belt, or over the drink drive limit? People who do not feel any responsibility forthemselves or to others.
Our local Riding Club is currently running a campaign to get everyone to wear Hi-Viz and to be polite to drivers. We do not allow people to attend club events (except fancy dress) without at least one piece of Hi-Viz on the and one on the horse. My usual minimum is jacket or tabbard, hat band and gloves, leg wraps for the mare and a quater sheet, pink for summer and yellow for winter. I don't always use the quater sheets becaue of her getting too hot, but the rest is always on. The tabbard has lights.
 
Yorksg I think they host pony club shows there... so would be a great way for them to promote high vis.

They're not the frendliest place though. Our bedroom window looks out onto the fields and they had some kind fo event on. I always look out of the window. Am only there weekends and can't get used to looking out onto lots of pretty horses rather than into someone elses window. I got glared at and waved at (in a 'what you looking at?!' sort of way) a couple of weeks ago. Which does put me off going and talking to them about the high vis thing. Can't even look out of our own blooming window...
 
It does my head in....How hard is it to grab a reflective when you grab your tack - leave it in your hat then you can't forget.

I was walking down the yard the other day about 3.30ish - so wasn't really dusk but the light/conditions weren't brill - and saw (and ended up following most of the way) 2 people out, both on dark horses and both in dark clothes...with out a stitch of hi-viz on. Tho as I followed them I have a feeling one may have had those reflective bands on the horses legs, either that or it had socks - tho to me thats worse as they aren't that effective on their own and if you're going to go to the effort of putting them on grab a tabard while you're at it! - then they went and rode down the awful road near us...2/3 blind bends and a big steep pretty much in one go....i wouldn't ride it even if I was covered in hi-viz unless I had a very good reason (and there is a way to avoid it).

An hour later caught a glimpse of another 3 and the only Hi-viz I could see was a reflectice sheet on one of them - again no tabbard on the rider...better than nowt I suppose.
 
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