LGV meets horse & rider on hairpin bend at 20 mph

[ROG]

http://www.trucknetuk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=143932

Might get some interesting comments on here

Would also be interested in what you think of my comments on that thread

 

[ester]

They make it sound like if they stop or slow down they will start rolling backwards

 

[pennyturner]

TBF, 20mph isn't excessive speed to pass, unless the horse is obviously a wally. It certainly doesn't sound like driving worthy of 'dobbing in' to the boss.

 

[cauda equina]

I'm hoping that 'said rider' 'phoned the OP's boss with some constructive comments, not just abuse.

Slagging people off generally doesn't help; educating them might. I agree with the OP that 20 mph doesn't sound too bad, but maybe it was a particularly noisy truck, narrow road, nervous horse; who knows?

 

[PorkChop]

I can see this from both sides tbh.

If he genuinely was going 20mph around a blind bend then I hope he doesn't get in trouble.

 

[rachk89]

If it was a nervous horse take someone with you until its happy. I know mine will be an idiot if a bicycle comes near him and since we get a lot of cyclists around here I don't go out unless I have someone with a sane horse with me. Its just the safer thing to do.

20mph is the speed limit requested by bhs isn't it or was it 15? Either way its not far off and I think the rider overreacted a tad here. To phone up and try to get the guy in trouble too is a bit extreme. I can understand give constructive criticism but to complain and get him in trouble? If the driver wasn't driving aggressively or reacted badly to the rider being there I wouldn't have been bothered. But I doubt my horse would react to a lorry he only reacts to quiet non noise making things.

 

[Rowreach]

If you ride on a main road then presumably you have a modicum of faith in your horse, should you meet a lorry, and it sounds like the horse wasn't too bothered (even by the rider screaming her head off at the driver) - but on the other hand, if the lorry driver was going round a blind hairpin, was he going slow enough to avoid a collision if another lorry had been coming the other way? If not, then he was going too fast even at 20 mph.

Either way, it doesn't do much for horse rider/lorry driver relations.

 

[YorksG]

I think the clue to why the rider responded as they did was the comment about "giving it gas", this would make the truck louder and also make it obvious that the driver was making no attempt to slow, which may well have suggested that the driver was taking no notice of the horse. The truck would take up more room than the cars and they do take longer to stop, so I can see both sides, the rider should have been expecting to see trucks on that road, if it is the main route back to the yard (or it may be similar to local to here where some numpties decide to take an unsuitable route, as it shaves two minutes off their journey time, even though there are signs saying the roads are unsuitable for HGV's)

 

[ycbm]

I thought your comments were great ROG. Can you point out to the last guy that we would love to ride in the fields but we have no right to ride on other people's land in England and Wales. I'd do it myself, but the site delays registration

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

He sounds like a perfectly reasonable driver! Cripes! If there were more like him round here than the lunatics we currently have to deal with life would be souch easier! It was a 2 lane road, they were going in opposite directions, he did nothing wrong.

The rider sounds like she is more scared of traffic than her horse. Which in time will translate to the horse who will then become scared of traffic. She needs to take a chill pill!

 

[AdorableAlice]

Rog - your comment was very valid and balanced.

Hair pin bend, is that the same as a blind bend ,I would guess it it and therefore there is no way of knowing what is on that bend, unless the lorry driver is rubbing his balls - glass of course, as he approaches it.

Even the most confident in traffic horses can be taken by surprise and I would think in this case the rider could hear the high level of revs - driver states he was giving it gas. I think everyone of us has been on a horse, able to hear something coming but not see it, certainly an unnerving experience. I wonder if this driver saw the horse but kept the revs and speed up regardless.

 

[ester]

yup I read hairpin+ giving it gas suggesting he was going 20mph anyway for the hairpin and continued with his planned acceleration for the hill regardless of their being a horse there because he thought his speed was ok, he also now seems to think because he was passing from the opposite direction and not going round the horse it doesn't matter much either.

 

[Goldenstar]

It's my view that horses that can't cope with an oncoming lorry going 20mph should not be on the road and certainly not without a nanny horse .

 

[AdorableAlice]

yup I read hairpin+ giving it gas suggesting he was going 20mph anyway for the hairpin and continued with his planned acceleration for the hill regardless of their being a horse there because he thought his speed was ok, he also now seems to think because he was passing from the opposite direction and not going round the horse it doesn't matter much either.

There is also many a main road with 'A' classification that is not wide. I travel the A448 daily, it is littered with smash wing mirrors, many bits of it are narrow and two HGV's need to be careful when they meet. If the road the lorry and horse were on is a road like the A448 the front end of the lorry could easily have been within around 10' away from the horse.

 

[splashgirl45]

ROG your comments were right as far as i am concerned....i think the horse rider over reacted though and screaming abuse and reporting him is not the way to deal with it...i feel a bit sorry for the driver but if he had taken his foot off the gas it probably wouldnt have been so scary and the rider may not have reacted in the way she did.....we are very lucky as all 4x4's,big vans, lorry and bus drivers round us are extra careful and mostly stop so we can trot past.....the worst seem to be people in little cars in our area.....

 

[HashRouge]

i think the horse rider over reacted though and screaming abuse .

I really wish horse riders wouldn't do this. I understand it if someone whips past you at 50 with little space between you and them (sure most people would swear a bit in that situation!), but generally speaking it serves no purpose and use makes us look rude and is hardly the way to get drivers on our side.

 

[FfionWinnie]

Good to see that most of the respondents are suggesting slow is better.

The road does not belong to one set of people and let's face it if you hit someone with a truck even at 20mph your career and probably enjoyment of life is over from that moment on whether or not it's your fault.

 

[paddy555]

I think LGV drivers have a way to go if they think that blowing up balloons and popping them is a training method (final post)

 

[ElleSkywalker]

Thanks ROG for making very valid points on behalf of the horsey world As none of us were there I don't know if Mrs Horse was over reacting or if Mr Truck was underestimating his speed so won't comment on that but would you possibly be able to point out that NO horse riders ever want to go on the roads but sadly we need to to get to bridleways etc, also that the 'fields' that we should ride on are privately owned and equate to us popping into Mr Truck drivers garden for a wander round instead of walking on the pavement.

It's very reassuring to read the majority of comments being positive and understanding of horses on the roads. I always make a point of calling the company of good professional drivers I come across to say thank you and so their bosses are aware of what good drivers they have 😊

 

[ycbm]

I have managed to register and told them that we have no right to ride in fields, and asked them not to tar us all with the same brush, nicely

 

[ester]

and been told to ride round your field

 

[ycbm]

and been told to ride round your field

I was stopped once by a driver and asked why I wasn't in the fields. He was really shocked when I told him that I have no right to ride on the fields because they don't belong to me.

 

[millitiger]

How nice to see 99% of responses to that thread are sensible and see it from both POVs

 

[ihatework]

Driver doesn't sound like he has a great attitude, but to be fair I don't think 20mph is excessive. Obviously lorries sound worse than cars, and I could understand a riders frustration if a lorry driver made no attempt to ease off the gas and slow down.
That said as riders we do have some responsibility in acclimatising our horses to traffic and you can usually hear a lorry on the gas from a way back, so surely you would position your horse accordingly until lorry has past. From the limited info I'd probably say equal responsibility in actions!

 

[Rowreach]

I was stopped once by a driver and asked why I wasn't in the fields. He was really shocked when I told him that I have no right to ride on the fields because they don't belong to me.

I was stopped once by the wife of a Famous TV Gardener, who asked me if I had permission to ride in "that field". I replied that yes I did, as it was my field, but that she didn't have permission to park her car in my drive while she walked her Retrievers (or indeed to wash them in my water trough, but that was another day ...)

 

[WelshD]

Interesting that they say they were going 20mph 'when they looked' I wonder what speed they came round the corner at before they saw the horse

 

[ameeyal]

makes for interesting reading.

 

[Slightly Foxed]

Very interesting, thank you Rog.
My nephew was once screeched at (yes, screeched) for not slowing down to pass a rider. He had, indeed, slowed down, he was brought up with horses, but had a silly mini (sorry, his pride and joy) that was particularly noisy, even at snails pace. The horse wasn't bovvered, the rider was almost hysterical.

 

[turnbuckle]

Replies just seem to show how very considerate and aware most wagon drivers are. There was a very funny thread on that forum way back started by a guy asking for advice on driving a horsebox, tongue-in-cheek ideas included magnetising the floor so shoes would hold them steady and wrapping the horse in shrink-wrap and strapping it down!

 

[holeymoley]

Not really enough evidence to the situation here for me in terms of the width of the road , was he going uphill? Assuming there was no clear vision round the bend . Yes I think 20mph is too much for going round a bend . Especially in anything larger than a car. But then , as a horse rider, if I approached a road as such and heard something about to appear at the bend I would slightly hang back off the bend .