I've seen it all now...

Orchardbeck

Orchardbeck

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Yesterday when I was driving along the A594 in Waverton near Wigton, Cumbria, I passed a 3.5t flatbed van on the opposite side of the road, doing about 30mph. Not so strange, you may think, until I spotted a set of hairy feathered legs trotting madly behind it... When I looked round, a young lad was sitting on the back of the truck, holding the rope of the poor beast!

I've seen lazy people exercise dogs this way, which is bad enough, but I would never imagine anyone doing. that with a horse - what if the lad got pulled off the back of the truck? Or let go of the rope on an A road? Unbelieveable.
 
Sounds like travellers have seen similar things round here, not as busy roads but trotting horses out the window of their car on a leadrope :confused::rolleyes:
 
Lets hope the horse does not do a sudden stop and the lad ends up in the road.
I would be worried about this as can easily have a loose horse on the road, poor soul.
 
Was watching a horse version of 'wife swap' on horse & country tv last week, the English chaps went over to Canada to learn how to do waggon racing or something (english chaps drive horses at home) The Canadians exercise their carriage horses by tying them to a rig thingy at back of truck & away they go.

They were driving on a gallop type track tho, not a road!
 
Amymay - i'm ashamed to say I didn't report it as my mobile battery was dead, although I wish I had.

I do think they were travellers, it was a black cob type. I've seen them led behind the Romany type wagons around Appleby Fair time, but not at that speed, or in that fashion.
 
The lad deserves to fall off the truck....

Ok, maybe that was a bit harsh. But I've never seen anything like this and what shocked at what I read. Let's just hope some people get a realisation that will teach them a lesson, someday.
 
Many years ago we had an eccentric older lady in the village i grew up in.
My friend looked after her horses (loved the lady to bits and she was very kind to my friend) My friend told me of her coming home from hunting half pist driving along in her car very slowly with her hand out the window leading her horse home!
 
I confess I have tied a shetland to the back of an exercise cart (quick release, with a groom keeping an eye) being drawn by a bigger pony, and gone for a long drive as a way of trotting some weight off the blighter.

Just by way of challenge against any possible prejudice - is it really so different from ride and lead, especially if the horse is used to it?
 
Sounds like normal traveller behaviour to me, although that doesn't make it right.
When I was in NZ i saw they exercised their horses this way on the beach with about four of them tied to the back of a quad bike!
 
ElleSkywalker said:
Was watching a horse version of 'wife swap' on horse & country tv last week, the English chaps went over to Canada to learn how to do waggon racing or something (english chaps drive horses at home) The Canadians exercise their carriage horses by tying them to a rig thingy at back of truck & away they go.

They were driving on a gallop type track tho, not a road!
Click to expand...

Yes, quite common for the chuck wagon horses apparently. Mainly OTTBs by the way.

There is a TV series - Half Mile of Hell I think it is called - where I have seen it done.

As you say, slightly different to hammering along hardtop at speed though. I know loads of people that bring horses in leading off quads.

I have got to admit that I have done similar, at 2am (on dirt backroads) retrieving escaped horses from miles away. Two of us sat on the tailgate holding 4 horses with others following, we were only going at a jog speed though.

Penny has a point, is it really that much different from R&L, other than lacking a little manouverability ? I often see our neighbours (pacers) exercising with a horse at the back of the bike, tied or led I wouldn't know which.
 
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luckyoldme said:
Many years ago we had an eccentric older lady in the village i grew up in.
My friend looked after her horses (loved the lady to bits and she was very kind to my friend) My friend told me of her coming home from hunting half pist driving along in her car very slowly with her hand out the window leading her horse home!
Click to expand...

Ah yes, :D seen that too, and dogs.
 
I hate things like this. I saw one being driven last year which was blindfolded with gaffer tape from blinker to blinker. Terrible and it looked young and thin. It made me cry
 
Enfys, Penny, I see where you are coming from. The big differences from riding and leading I guess are that you control both animals and the speed, and hopefully, decide when you stop. The driver in this instance was in a cab, so there would be a delay in communication should anything go wrong.

Plus I doubt you'd be pelting along the road riding and leading at the same speed as they were!
 
A common site where I live, this was taken last summer, waiting at a speed bump. There was noone holding it either.

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I've done it before out the back of a 4x4 but on a farm track with no access to main road and at a walk speed. At the time I was recovering from a broken leg and couldn't walk as far as the field and between myself and my disabled mom we had 3 to turn out. They toodled along behind the car quite happily but certainly wouldn't do it on a normal road or any faster than the horse's walk.
 
The speed I've seen it done with horse tied to back of Transit with no one even looking at it and Transit driving at normal speed with horse trying desperately to keep up and not fall over....rang the police straight away.

Totally totally different from tying a young horse to the back of a wagon being horse pulled - the speed is of a different scale, and so is the control and care of the animal. I have no problem with the wagon leading, it's a way of training youngster what mum does for her day job but that's unrelated to towing a horse behind a motor vehicle.

From what the police told us, to do it like this at the back of a motor vehicle was an offence as they could not be in control of the animal, and also, hence, not of the vehicle.
 
dont think LBcan be far from me it normal practice round hear to just tie them on and go. last yr one fell over going round a roundabout over the A127 and just got dragged along till someone pulled up in front of them to make them stop
 
I used to keep my horse next to a breeders yard who'd quite often exercise their cobs by tying them to the back of a quad bike and going up and down the lane with the horses trotting along behind!
 
Ahhh I know who you are (or I think I do) I used to share Nelly at Stoneshot farm.

And I've seen this a few times around here. Only from the travellers that keep there's at the common.
 
There's a bloke out my way who exercises his trotters by driving up and down the beach (at speed!), leading a horse or two out the driver's side window.
 
I couldn't believe my eyes recently when I pulled up to a set of traffic lights and I could see some loose horses in between two cars queuing at the traffic lights. When the lights changed the landrover at the front of the queue turned across the road in front me. There was a cob tied to the back of the landrover on a long rope who was being followed by two loose youngsters and two loose young shetlands :eek:
 
In the polo world, well in Australia, this is a common way to bring horses to and from fields and im not talking about the outback either.
Some people even exercise the ponies by driving around the field, getting faster as horses get fitter, holding onto them off the back of a truck.
 
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