Joggers

[stormox]

If you are riding your horse on a fairly narrow country road and a jogger (theres a plague of them around at mo - singles and groups) would you expect a jogger coming towards you to slow to a walk?
I always slow to a walk and move to centre of road for them although if a car is coming the other way it can be a bit tight at times, but very few joggers slow up, or even acknowledge my action. I would find it much easier if they slowed to a walk, and itd be much less scary for my horse.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Umm, no, I don’t think I would. I appreciate them slowing or calling from behind but not towards us.

 

[bouncing_ball]

If you are riding your horse on a fairly narrow country road and a jogger (theres a plague of them around at mo - singles and groups) would you expect a jogger coming towards you to slow to a walk?
I always slow to a walk and move to centre of road for them although if a car is coming the other way it can be a bit tight at times, but very few joggers slow up, or even acknowledge my action. I would find it much easier if they slowed to a walk, and itd be much less scary for my horse.

No but about half of them do.
I’m grateful if runners or cyclists approaching from behind call out so we don’t jump.

 

[Crazy_cat_lady]

I was hacking yesterday down a country lane and one kept running past

The worst is when cyclists ring the bell rather than call out, makes me jump a mile

Was rather relieved H doesn't kick as a family on bikes got right up behind him the other day, I did tell one of the kids could you not get so close please, as while he doesn't kick if he'd suddenly spooked or slammed the brakes on there was potential for an incident. The adult wasn't telling them so I had to!

 

[ester]

nope

(tho F did once manage to drop me in the middle of the road when one come round a corner, definitely not the joggers fault!)

 

[Sandstone1]

No I would not expect them to slow down.

 

[AmyMay]

Nope ??‍

 

[oldie48]

No but they do often slow down on narrow lanes

 

[dogatemysalad]

My expectations of other road users is pretty low, so I always ride prepared for other people to do risky things. To be fair, you can't expect non horsey people to know how to keep safe around horses, so it's my responsibility to try and keep me, the horse and the public as safe as possible.
It depends on the situation and the space available, but if it seems that there's going to be an issue, I'd either pull into a space in advance, or use a halt hand signal to the runner, along with a polite request and brief explanation, or, if appropriate, I'd trot briskly past. Spooky horses often cope better if they're allowed to move forward quickly. It also makes the runner more likely to hesitate and slow down at the sight of a very large animal coming up close.

 

[teddypops]

All the runners I meet either cross over and keep going or they are glad of an excuse to stop and slow right down. I had one woman keep running right at me on a single track lane, I couldn’t move out as there was a car passing me. She freaked my pony right out. She now crosses over when she meets us!

 

[Caol Ila]

Nope. I fully expect other road users like joggers and cyclists to behave like kamikazes and try really hard to get kicked. So like dogatemysalad, I train my horse to tolerate that crap. You can't stop stupid, but you can teach horse that stupid isn't dangerous.

 

[Wishfilly]

I don't think I would- but would appreciate a shout if they were coming from behind. I would probably expect horses to cope with being passed by a jogger coming towards them without an issue? If I was the jogger, I would slow down- but mainly because I would appreciate the excuse to walk. If I wanted the jogger to walk, I would call to them to do so.

A few years ago, I had cyclists actually cut through a ride at fairly high speed (we were turning across the road to get back into the yard, the cyclists were coming down a hill and around a blind bend)- luckily they cut behind the saintly cob and not the pony behind her who kicked! In that situation I did speak to the cyclists, mainly because if we'd been the horse lorry or the tractor instead they probably would have been seriously hurt!

But my point is that ideally horses out on the roads need to be able to cope with members of the public who don't understand horses, without causing an accident.

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

No I wouldn't. A call out if approaching from behind is always appreciated. Where I hack share horse there are lots of other horse riders, cyclists, cars, off road bikes, walkers and dogs, so we have to just crack on.

 

[irishdraft]

I just keep riding on my side of the road & other road users go round me apart from large vechicle s where i would pull in .I'm not sure why you would start riding in the middle of the road ?

 

[Muddywellies]

As nice as it is when they walk, I dont expect it. Many people don't know to approach a horse slowly. I had to ask a parent to get their child to stop waving a large branch around this weekend as my horse was terrified and wouldn't go past. We all made a joke about it so no offence was taken on either side, but many people don't know how horses think and react, and we can't expect them to. Key to it is communication and keep things light hearted.

 

[Pippity]

Nope. I usually hack on the TPT, which is currently lockdown-chocka with joggers, cyclists, dogs, other horses, a bloke on grass skis, and we encountered our first off-road wheelchair the other day. I appreciate it when people act sensibly but I don't expect it, and I expect my horse to cope with people being idiots.

I will ocasionally ask people to modify their behaviour. A few weeks back, some people were having a snowball fight across the trail, and I asked them to stop throwing until we were past. I've also warned dog owners that, if their dog keeps snapping at my horse's heels, it'll be their dog that ends up hurt because Blue weighs well over half a ton and has lumps of metal nailed to her feet.

Joggers are ignored, other than moving Blue into the muddy bits if necessary for the joggers to stay dry.

 

[scruffyponies]

Nope. I fully expect other road users like joggers and cyclists to behave like kamikazes and try really hard to get kicked. So like dogatemysalad, I train my horse to tolerate that crap. You can't stop stupid, but you can teach horse that stupid isn't dangerous.

^^this
Sometimes the local lanes are so busy it feels like we're using baby strollers and balance bikes as bending poles in some kind of high-stakes handy pony gymkhana game.

 

[Caol Ila]

Yeah. The park can be like that, but in slow motion because you have to do it in walk.

 

[greenbean10]

No and thinking about it if I was out jogging, running towards a horse and it knew I was there I am not sure I would slow to a walk. Wouldn't even think of it to be honest, unless the horse looked terrified or hadn't spotted me.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

If you are riding your horse on a fairly narrow country road and a jogger (theres a plague of them around at mo - singles and groups) would you expect a jogger coming towards you to slow to a walk?
I always slow to a walk and move to centre of road for them although if a car is coming the other way it can be a bit tight at times, but very few joggers slow up, or even acknowledge my action. I would find it much easier if they slowed to a walk, and itd be much less scary for my horse.

Depends on the narrowness of the patch, I do find some do and some even stop. On a wide enough lane coming towards me they keep jogging
, some smile some don't

 

[EarsofaSnowman]

As a runner i call out when approaching from behind, and if approaching head on, will slow my pace a little to judge the reaction of the horse, and prepare to walk and/or give a wide berth as necessary. Unfortunately there are a number of riders around here who look as you as if you are dirt at their feet, which does not endear other road users to them. They are not the majority of riders, but a significant minority, with one of the local riding schools amongst the worse culprits. And they are an approved training centre?

 

[Tiddlypom]

I always appreciate it if someone approaching from behind calls out in good time to alert us.

‘Hello, cyclist coming through’ or some such (that’s what I tend to say when I’m cycling, anyway).

 

[Caol Ila]

As a runner i call out when approaching from behind, and if approaching head on, will slow my pace a little to judge the reaction of the horse, and prepare to walk and/or give a wide berth as necessary. Unfortunately there are a number of riders around here who look as you as if you are dirt at their feet, which does not endear other road users to them. They are not the majority of riders, but a significant minority, with one of the local riding schools amongst the worse culprits. And they are an approved training centre?

To be honest, the two times per year joggers approaching from behind actually say something are so surprising and rare that I get startled and look at them in a vaguely baffled way (why are random strangers talking to me??? what's going on???), and then they zip past, probably thinking I'm an a$$hole. We get passed by hundreds of joggers and cyclists who just appear. So I'm always startled when someone says something.

 

[ester]

I'm actually kind of a bit confused why a jogging person is more of a problem than a walking one ?. I'd definitely rather they kept running than the ones that think it's best to hide in a hedge ?

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

I'm actually kind of a bit confused why a jogging person is more of a problem than a walking one ?. I'd definitely rather they kept running than the ones that think it's best to hide in a hedge ?

Haha yes we are fairly frequently letting people know the element of surprise and horses usually don't go together so they can come out of hiding ?

Eta - in a nice way, with good humour.

 

[Caol Ila]

I'm actually kind of a bit confused why a jogging person is more of a problem than a walking one ?. I'd definitely rather they kept running than the ones that think it's best to hide in a hedge ?

LOL. Very good point. When my horse was younger, she would get far more worried about the hedge-hiders than the joggers, walkers, and cyclists that did their thing as if she was not there. Now that she is old and wise, she knows some humans hide in bushes. To avoid drama, I used to say, "Hey, nice day, isn't it?" or something to that effect, as I approached the hiding ones. So long as they answered, the horse knew they were normal humans, and she was cool with it.

 

[Pippity]

I'm actually kind of a bit confused why a jogging person is more of a problem than a walking one ?. I'd definitely rather they kept running than the ones that think it's best to hide in a hedge ?

We passed a bloke peeing deep in a hedge a few months ago. My friend's gelding still snorts and goes sideways past that spot. I can only assume he was horrified at how small the bloke's willy was, and thought there'd been some terrible accident that might happen to him.

 

[Caol Ila]

S. Lanarkshire was fantastic for desensitizing her to these things. Coming across people drinking Buckie in hedges was par for the course.

 

[teddypops]

We passed a bloke peeing deep in a hedge a few months ago. My friend's gelding still snorts and goes sideways past that spot. I can only assume he was horrified at how small the bloke's willy was, and thought there'd been some terrible accident that might happen to him.

We came across a woman peeing in the hedge which freaked my pony out. She then pretended she had cramp and started doing stretching exercises with her trousers down. This was even worse and we went prancing down the lane sideways?

 

[ester]

Whereas peeing in hedges is something we are actually quite used to (as is the horse )