How many people have been hit by cars out riding?

Have you had an accident with a vehicle

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I've had a motorcyclist almost run into the back of me while riding down a narrow country lane. Luckily the horse anticipated it and rushed forwards and the bike just clipped her and ran off the road. The guy picked up his bike, dusted himself off and drove away. We went home luckily unscathed...
I've had several near misses like this...
 
I was hacking out with someone else 6 weeks ago. We were hit by a car from behind. I came off and broke a vertebrae in my back which needed surgery. My beautiful horse that I was riding was killed. The other horse was also hit, and after a great deal of vet bills and advice, is being pts this week. I will NEVER ride on the roads again.
 
I'm with Hullabaloo here - yes it can be dangerous but i have been riding out on roads since about the age of 6/7 and have never been hit by a car in all that time (just under 30 years). My pony has hit a car himslf when he spooked and hit it with a hind leg - no damage doen to horse or car. My friend was hit by a car once when she was rioding in low sunlight it was many years ago before anyone really wore hi viz. Her horse didn't suffer any major injuries although she did come off and hit the roof of the car.

I have known two horses to be killed by cars but both times the horses have thrown the rider and bolted riderless onto main roads so not any fault of the drivers.

It doesn't stop me riding on the roads and I think road hacking is a must to bring on a youngster. I don't care if it can do x,y,z in a school I want it to be used to and sensible in traffic! I think the % of people actually in incidents with cars is minor compared to the amount who regularly hack on roads and in the case of 'near misses' how many are due to rider fault not driver fault? Sure there are some idiot drivers out there but I don't want the few of them to put people off riding on roads.

Obviously we all have to be safe but if i am honest I know more people who have been seriously injured in car accidents or who have had accidents travelling their horses in trailers than i know of people who have been hit by a vehicle out hacking.
 
No I haven't *touches wood*

But my YO's horse has been. His other owner was riding him, and car screeched round the blind corner and hit him up the back end. Rider fell and horse bolted into village, but was luckily fine. Luckily rider was fine too. But I absoloutely hate that corner for that reason, and always make sure it is clear as far back as I can see before going round.
 
I was hit by a lorry in Ireland in around 1995. It was a terrifying experience, I was on a young horse who I was riding for an owner. He was a promising young show jumper and a valuable horse. I took him for a short hack on a country road - straight, quiet, familiar. A lorry came thundering along, and I waved at him to slow down. He obviously wasn't looking and then slammed on his brakes, skidded and hit the back of my horse. I immediately jumped off and was screaming at the driver to cut his engine. The horse was on his feet but shaking like a leaf.

Luckily, the horse got away with some bad scrapes and bruises and was not seriously injured. The lorry driver took one look at me, gunned his engine and was gone before I could get his license plate. Leaving me with a petrified 17hh 5yr old having hysterics in the middle of the road.

The horse never hacked again and would throw a wobbly whenever he heard an a big engine. And he missed the Boomerang final which we had worked for months to qualify for. But he was ok, so I guess we were lucky. It took me many years before I hacked on the road again.
 
I have been riding on the roads for about 40 years now as have many of my friends. In that period of time two people I know have been killed and four horses have been killed.
What I have learnt from this is to never ride out when the sun is bright and low as this blinds other road users and always wear Hi-Viz long sleeved jacket so that other road users can see ones hand signals. Always be aware of vehicles approaching from behind and take great care on blind corners. In 3 out of the 4 accidents the drivers claimed low bright sunshine had blinded the drivers.
In another incident my friends horse was hit by a bus that failed to slow down and he took the bus company to court claiming that the horse was no longer happy to be ridden in traffic. The judge awarded him a substantial sum in compensation and the bus company dismissed the driver. This was one of the best things he could have done as all the bus drivers then took far greater care when driving along the local roads.
 
My pony kicked a car once which came too close down a narrow country lane with high banks either side.

Woman had 3 springers spaniels in the back all barking and attacking the window.

My pony was terrified. He booted the side of her car, jumped over the corner of the bonnet, I fell off and he legged it.

He suffered a minor cut on his leg, and I really hurt mine, though nothing broken in end.

Awful thing was - woman for one reason or another wouldn't get out of the car, and I couldn't walk - so I just lay in the road crying until a lovely chap who seen my riderless horse go whizzing past his house came to look for me.

He scraped me off the road, sat me in his car. Got name and address details off the woman, and then took me home.

My Dad knew this chap, and the woman.

I ended up paying £250 for a new wing and respray for her car. That took me a year to pay off as I was only 16yrs old at the time.

I'm still very wary though have to go on the road every day
 
Same as booboos above. Car was coming towards me on a dark country lane, I pilled onto a 6" verge, car accelerated and the wing-mirror clipped my foot, we teetered on the verge of the ditch but my mare is quite sensible in dodgy situations and we stayed on the lane..I spun her round and shouted at the driver, he was going to turn one way at the little triangle then changed his mind and went the other way...weird! It was probably a dodgy old man who couldn't see (or some old chavvy ****).
 
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when I was a kid, hacking out with my dad a car came up behind us really fast, and my dad tapped his horse with his crop at just the wrong moment to stop him shying at something else. Horse fly bucked and freakily managed to take out the back windscreen of the car.... still no idea how really, but there was glass everywhere. somehow horse wasn't hurt, but the @rse of a driver went and reported my dad to the police. The police told the man he should have been more careful when passing horses and was obviously too close. Luckily it went no further.

Then a few months ago someone tried to overtake me and Ron on a single track road when another car was coming towards us. He went to pull in too quickly and we took out his wing mirror. He never stopped. luckily it was the stirrup iron that hit the mirror or my ankle would have been really sore!
 
My mother was out hacking on her friends horse, accompaning friends daughter on her new pony. A drunk driver lost control around a corner and smashed into my mother at speed. Mum was thrown from the horse and lost conscienouness. The horse fractured both it's forelegs and suffered vast injuries to it's head and neck and had to be shot. Luckily the car missed the child. The pony spooked and bolted down the road but pulled up a couple of hundred yards later.

The driver was procecuted but escaped jail. My mother woke up at the side of the road with a severly broken knee, and various other injuries. This was before the days of mobile phones (25+ years) and hi vis.

Mother had bad arthritis in her knees now and can't really ride anymore. I have had acfew near misses. One recent one left me in tears. I was hacking on dee dee when a White hire van sped around the corner coming toways us on the wrong side of the road. If dee hadn reared and spun around we wound at been hit! He broke my whip and was very close to us. He didn't stop but did toot his horn at me. Leaving a very frightened horse who was very upset. I was head to toe in hi vis.
 
benson21 said:
I was hacking out with someone else 6 weeks ago. We were hit by a car from behind. I came off and broke a vertebrae in my back which needed surgery. My beautiful horse that I was riding was killed. The other horse was also hit, and after a great deal of vet bills and advice, is being pts this week. I will NEVER ride on the roads again.
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its good to see you back on here benson!! we were all very worried when we heard the news, very sorry for your loss!
iv had some near misses that make your heart skip a beat, my friend was out riding last september when her horse was hit from behind, she fell off onto the road damaging her hip, the horse had severley lacerated his back end from the car windscreen, the horse ran up the road into a lamp post and died on the scene. my best friend was riding with her at the time and was completley uninjured and managed to compose herself enough to ring an ambulance,police, parents, get her horse back the yard that was around 200 yards away and tend to a dying horse while waiting for the vets. never ever want to be in a situation like this, we did lots of campaigning to make our rides safer by reducing speed limits and getting off road riding, we did a walk along the road where it happened to make drivers aware, they certainly noticed 150 people in hi viz walking along the roads lol. im lukcy that i have some off road hacking.
 
benson21 said:
I was hacking out with someone else 6 weeks ago. We were hit by a car from behind. I came off and broke a vertebrae in my back which needed surgery. My beautiful horse that I was riding was killed. The other horse was also hit, and after a great deal of vet bills and advice, is being pts this week. I will NEVER ride on the roads again.
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I'm really sorry to read about your accident Benson21. I remember all too clearly the pain over those first months after my accident and my thoughts are with you and your friend x

I got hit by a car whilst out hacking 12yrs ago. My sister and I were walking calmly down a country road (which is easily wide enough for two cars to pass) and a car came around the corner on OUR side of the road. It was going fast enough to flip me and my 17.2hh HW hunter over the bonnet and he crushed the roof of the car as he got rolled over it.

I got thrown clear but was knocked unconscious when I hit the road. I woke up in hospital to be told William had been PTS and the drivers explanation for her driving was that she had been changing radio stations!! My poor sister was only 14 at the time and she had not only witnessed it all but had to call the ambulance and my parents :(
 
Wow, some really terrible stories here. It's a shame the drivers all seem to have got off so lightly.

I've never been hit but have had a few near misses. I hate riding on the road but where i am currently there is a very busy a road to cross either way you go to get to hacking (which is VERY nice) Mostly people are prett good and the roads are wide enough to pass even if they don't slow down.

But on my first propper hack on the lad when i started sharing him, we were crossing a few hundred yards from a bend, which going that way we can't see around, but always stop and listen, can see far enough to get across is they are not speeding, and they have enough time to slow down if we are already in the road and see them. Howver, a big lorry decided he didn't want to slow down, despite my giving him a stop signal. We were already half way over the road when he came around the corner, so he had plenty of time to slow. He sped up! By the time we were nearly across the road Osc haqs to fling himself onto the pavement and the lorry hurtled past us missing us by about half a foot. If i had fallen when osc had spooked (if you can call what he did spooking!) i would have been absolutely crushed to nothing. And if Osc hadn't flung himself out of the way in a blind panic then we would both have been dead. He was doing at least 50 on a 40mph road. Probably thought it was quite funny scaring a horse like that. Didn't get the plate as both horses were obviously freaking out, even K who had been a couple of feet in front of us. I am terrified on the roads. I hate them. But i love hacking so i just suck it up and deal with it (although i think my million mile an hour heart gives me away to the horse)
 
miss_buffay said:
its good to see you back on here benson!! we were all very worried when we heard the news, very sorry for your loss!
iv had some near misses that make your heart skip a beat, my friend was out riding last september when her horse was hit from behind, she fell off onto the road damaging her hip, the horse had severley lacerated his back end from the car windscreen, the horse ran up the road into a lamp post and died on the scene. my best friend was riding with her at the time and was completley uninjured and managed to compose herself enough to ring an ambulance,police, parents, get her horse back the yard that was around 200 yards away and tend to a dying horse while waiting for the vets. never ever want to be in a situation like this, we did lots of campaigning to make our rides safer by reducing speed limits and getting off road riding, we did a walk along the road where it happened to make drivers aware, they certainly noticed 150 people in hi viz walking along the roads lol. im lukcy that i have some off road hacking.
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Miss Buffay, my OH and I were also on the Hutton walk.

We have had so many near misses we have almost lost count. I recently had an old guy driving a big Jag straight at me on a single track road, my OH, who was riding behind thought were were going to be hit. The old boy saw us when he was about 10 yards away and did an emergency stop. I'm pretty sure that's as far as he could see.

My OH was nearly hit from behind by a van speeding down a hill. It missed her by inches as it skidded to a halt. The van driver was a rider and the van a mobile tack shop.

There are plenty more examples, but we've all had close shaves, unfortunately.

I often ride with a long whip, and use it on roofs, windscreens, sun roofs. If I can hit them, they are too damn close!
 
In Jan 2006 I was hacking out a new RDA horse for the Cheltenham branch, to see how he behaved in traffic. The Cheltenham RDA is bang smack in the middle of the racecourse, and you have to hack out on some seriously busy roads to get to any decent galloping spots!
My friend was with me on an older RDA resident to act as a "calming influence" for Smurf's first big day in busy Cheltenham traffic. We were mooching along through Bishop's Cleeve, on a semi-busy road and had established that Smurf was in fact a diamond in traffic, coping beautifully with buses, motorbikes, the lot!
We had just turned a corner when a car came up behind us WAY too fast, and clipped Smurf on the off side, swiping his off hind out from underneath him. He flipped over and rolled right over me with me still sitting in the saddle - had we been in a circus it would have been bloody funny! - he ended up on his side with me still sitting on him, my left leg trapped underneath him, both us bleeding (not heavily, but definite blood going on) and NOT ONE CAR STOPPED. Nobody came out of their houses to see if we were ok, a woman unpacking her shopping saw the whole thing and just went inside, ignoring us completely.
Smurf was a rather large, and rather heavy cob, and I was rather squished! He got over the shock after about 5 minutes and managed to get up, leaving me in a heap on the road. Bless his cottons, he stayed with me, and stood like a lamb while my poor friend hopped around me shrieking and trying to feed me polos to keep me alive!
When I get a real shock, I get something called "hysterical blindness" which means that I am basically completely blind for up to 3 hours after said shock. Everything goes all rainbowy first, and then just sort of whites out and all I can see are flashing white lights and a bit more rainbowness. I also get a terrible case of the panic giggles. So I was lying in the road, with my hat in 3 pieces on the floor next to me, a broken leg, pelvis and arm, shrieking "I CAN'T SEE HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA". Needless to say, I freaked my friend out rather a lot. Somehow she managed to shove me onto her horse and he was a real saint - we had a 4 mile hack back home, and he looked after me beautifully while I just sort of wobbled about blindly, giggling and sobbing at the same time. Smurf had bitten his tongue and grazed his left hand side pretty badly, and really shredded one knee, but he walked home beautifully too.
Somehow, I managed to untack and walk back to the school, where I had to be cut out of my boots and coat and was rushed to hospital.
Everything is fine now, but I really lost my confidence and even now I get the odd flashback of the moment when I sat there thinking "he's falling over, he's falling over, oh my god, we're going to hit the floor" and get a serious panic going on.
What makes me even more angry is that nobody stopped. I hate people in cars sometimes.
 
My stirrup was clipped a year or two ago - by a POLICE CAR. Luckily Meg is very good and didn't flinch, but it makes you wander if they do it and get away with it, then we don't stand a chance.
Been plenty of other near misses, but some of your stories are just simply terrifying.
 
OMG Starzaan! I am so glad you are alright. Thats a terrible story (as are many on this thread) - what is wrong with people??? Nobody stopped, thats horrendous.

Luckily the majority of drivers around us are very considerate. We are in a very horsey area (near Burghley) so I don't know if that makes any difference to people's mentality or not.

I really think that being aware of horses on the road should be part of the driving test, as obviously people are horrendously ignorant.
 
NeilM said:
Miss Buffay, my OH and I were also on the Hutton walk.

We have had so many near misses we have almost lost count. I recently had an old guy driving a big Jag straight at me on a single track road, my OH, who was riding behind thought were were going to be hit. The old boy saw us when he was about 10 yards away and did an emergency stop. I'm pretty sure that's as far as he could see.

My OH was nearly hit from behind by a van speeding down a hill. It missed her by inches as it skidded to a halt. The van driver was a rider and the van a mobile tack shop.

There are plenty more examples, but we've all had close shaves, unfortunately.

I often ride with a long whip, and use it on roofs, windscreens, sun roofs. If I can hit them, they are too damn close!
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i moved from that area mainly because the hacking was getting so unsafe, iv moved to kewstoke now and even though the road i ride on is national speed limit there is very little traffic if you pic the right times of day and i have off road riding on my doorstep! as nice as it is round that way i dont think i would go round the again unless it was up canada coombe or windmill hill where the off road riding is!!
 
Seraphim thank you!
I think that some sort of series of properly informative tv ads would help. Not just the "slow down for horses" thing that the BHS are doing, but something made BY riders, FOR riders. Telling drivers everything they need to know - ie don't sit behind a horse when it is safe to pass, that's just as bad as speeding past them. My big boy is blind in his right eye, and stopping for cars to pass isn't an option as he starts rearing and being a complete tit, so I pull in the the verge and walk along, waving cars on, but so many of them just sit there expecting me to stop completely for them, which just winds Roy up even more!
I'm seriously considering going for this ad campaign...anyone out there want to help?
 
I would love to help launch a campaign aimed at car drivers. Our village is pretty good really, but one day I was passing some parked cars when a van came racing round the corner towards us. He had plenty of room but was very close to us and I had to move Chad over very quickly which caused me to knock the wing mirror off one of the parked cars. As we hit the wing mirror Chad leapt sideways back into the road, thank goodness the van had gone past at this point and there was nothing else coming. People really do need to me made aware of the potential consequences of driving too close/speeding/being an arse.
 
I have had several near misses (have lost count and had many what ifs!) and been hit once, luckily it was at low speed and the horse was unharmed. Totally the drivers fault- insisted on driving at me in a narrow lane and i had nowhere to go as i was next to a brick wall.

My friends horse was hit by a car at a massive wide junction, the driver just drove out of the t junction straight in to her. Horse needed alot of vet care. Still rideable but it caused alot of damage. Also know someone who was hit by an ambulance! And they drove off afterwards. Again, they kept coming and the rider had nowhere to get out of the way, horse span at the last minute (thankfully) but got hit up the backside. Luckily horse was ok, only minor damage.
 
I was smashed in the back and shoulder by one of these long wing mirrors on a big lorry, and my horse was seriously spooked - ended up the verge and very lucky I wasn't under the lorry wheels - if my horse had a bit less in front of the saddle I might have gone down.

Also left a bloke size dent in a parcel force van. Horse unscathed. Driver on phone and looking at handheld device. Idiot. Drove straight to the depot and "discussed" it with the manager.
 
I had an exceptionaly near miss about 6 years ago when i was riding my pony along a very fast main road. He was a very flighty very lively arab.....but BOMBPROOF in traffic of any sort.
I was riding along and a car speeding towards me in the opposite direction swerved towards me onto my side of the road probably doing about 60 mph. Luckily due to my fantastic pony he didnt hit us, my pony saw it coming and literally jumped into the verge over a little ditch, if he hadnt have done that the car would have hit us and more than likely killed the both of us.
I am so lucky he was so ood and reacted the way he did. Now any horse i have has to be exceptional in traffic. I dont have great hearing so it really helps if i can sense a car behind me due to horses body language etc. My new pony is wonderfull in traffic too so i am really lucky. But i never ride along that stretch of road any more.
I still to this day cant work out why the hell they swerved from their side of the road to mine but i am so thankfull to pharoah for getting us safely out of the way. The car driver didnt even slow down after they had gone past. I had a hi vis jacket, and stirrup strips on too so there was no excuse that we wernt visible.
I really really feel sorry for anyone actually hit by a car, it must be terrifying and traumatic for both rider and horse even if everyone is ok.
Take care everyone.
 
I've had two near misses.

One time a speeding car was coming round a blind bend and had to hit the breaks so hard on seeing me he skidded towards me, but my horse panicked and bolted on hearing the screeching tires and it was only my horse doing that that saved us from being hit. It was the most frightening experience of my life.

The other time a woman was impatiently behind me, unable to overtake for 30 seconds or so, and she got so close her bumber touched my horses hocks. I was so angry and I went completely balistic at her for ages, and she had to wait a pretty long time for me to finish saying what I had to say to her, and I was going to make her wait for the police to arrive, but because no one was actually injured they didnt want to know.

I try not to ride on the roads between 8am and 9am in the week, as I find people drive more dangerously and have no patience with horses during those rush hour times.
 
i have! :eek: haven't read the other replies (i don't like riding on the roads enough as it is, don't want to scare self anymore)... was riding down the road (an estate road 30mph but near a school, lots of kids out playing in the park etc) and was overtaking a parked van so i was pretty much in middle of road. lady was coming towards me and tried to squeeze thru the gap...at that minute Ozka spooked and i landed on her bonnet- horse and all :mad: fortunately horse was fine but her bonnet wasn't. she was shouting and yelling saying she wanted my insurance details. i gave them her and said i'd be in touch re. the vets' bill- amazingly never heard anything from her, think she realised it was her fault when she'd had time to think :eek:
 
Luckily I have never been hit while on the roads *touches wood* I go out dolled up in hi-viz on myself adn the horse and I carry a long schooling whip.

Does anyone know if there is a camera that can be fitted to the top of a riding hat? Hopefully not one too ackward or heavy.
 
Tharg said:
Luckily I have never been hit while on the roads *touches wood* I go out dolled up in hi-viz on myself adn the horse and I carry a long schooling whip.

Does anyone know if there is a camera that can be fitted to the top of a riding hat? Hopefully not one too ackward or heavy.
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yes there is, they put it on eventers hats when they xc, dont think you can just go out and buy them though!
 
Yes, twice. Once by a 40 ton Artic lorry, when we both ended up underneath. Pony fractured a pedal bone and spilt her face. Only the quick action of the driver prevented us being killed.

2nd time, same pony, clipped by a car on a private road to a private school, that ran along side a bridleway. He was going to fast, and, understandably, pony was a bit wary and dancing around. He caught her hocks with the side of his car. I had 'serious' words with him!
 
Lucily never been hit. Always wear hig viz but one day last summer I was 5 minutes late setting off at 4.30 in the morning. I saw the milk man in the village at 6.30 as I had the dog not on a lead with me I stopped and made her sit thank goodness. he cut the corner and would have run streight into us
 
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