Low flying planes

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loisb501

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Hi,

Just wondering if there is anywhere to report low flying jets? Had a bad incident with one today while i was out riding, came over so low and fast! Was lucky enough to stay on but took me 45 mins to calm my horse down, trust it to be my first time taking her in the jumping paddock too!

Thanks!
 
loisb501 said:
Hi,

Just wondering if there is anywhere to report low flying jets? Had a bad incident with one today while i was out riding, came over so low and fast! Was lucky enough to stay on but took me 45 mins to calm my horse down, trust it to be my first time taking her in the jumping paddock too!

Thanks!
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I'm pretty sure they have to practise flying low....

Horses soon get used to them, first time my old mare heard one she went barmy, but she soon learnt to ignore them
 
Why not just desensitise your mare to plane traffic - if she's in the airspace for a local airfield she will soon get used to it :rolleyes:
 
I was sure they were only able to do it in certain areas after a few of serious accidents with people and horses and they had to be above a certain height? Don't think my horse would be getting used to that any time soon, flew over so low and fast!
 
Don't know about reporting, but if I were you I'd wear hi viz as they can see you from well over a mile away in this and will normally go higher as they don't want accidents. You may feel a bit of a lemon in the school but it's worth it.
 
Yeah that's maybe a good idea! Wonder if they could see my wee mare freaking out whilst they were flying over, bet they had a right laugh at me trying to stay on! Reared up then took off all over the shop because she couldn't figure out where it came from
 
Info is here

http://www.horseaccidents.org.uk/Advice_and_Prevention/Low_Flying_Aircraft.aspx

but they do need to train; at the end of the day all that happened was your horse was a bit spooked. We have a lot of low flying practice here and the horses should get used to it quickly, I have been on a particularly green, particularly big youngster who had a bit of a meltdown but I would rather our servicemen and women were equipped with the skills they need. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have been laughing at you :rolleyes:

ETA when I was in Dorset it was the Chinooks that were tested at the yard, those beasts are amazing!
 
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loisb501 said:
I'm guessing it was one of the jets from leuchars! She is ok with the light aircraft but this one was the army/raf ones. eek
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Best story I ever heard was on a TREC forum. Someone doing the orienteering / endurance stage out on the Welsh mountains somewhere. She could hear an aircraft but couldn't see it in the sky above her. Crested a hill and a giant military helicopter appeared in front of her - she couldn't see it above her as it was below her in the next valley! Apparently the horse didn't bat an eyelid and she was too busy waiting for Daniel Craig to leap out and mark her card :D
 
We get all varieties low flying over us. Jets, hurricane transport planes, even the old lancaster. The horses don't even notice them now. Sorry you had a scare but hopefully your horse will get used to them.
 
thanks! They normally avoid flying too low over the yard as we are not too far away from an RDA establishment. Was defiantly worse than normal however, even the YO was saying about it, some of the car alarms went off, so that gives an idea of just how loud and low it was! Hopefully it was just a one off :)
 
JFTD said:
Best story I ever heard was on a TREC forum. Someone doing the orienteering / endurance stage out on the Welsh mountains somewhere. She could hear an aircraft but couldn't see it in the sky above her. Crested a hill and a giant military helicopter appeared in front of her - she couldn't see it above her as it was below her in the next valley! Apparently the horse didn't bat an eyelid and she was too busy waiting for Daniel Craig to leap out and mark her card :D
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Jeez i hope my mare takes a leaf out of their book! Daniel Craig coming to the rescue would have been nice also, might have thrown myself off if that was the case! ;)
 
JFTD said:
She could hear an aircraft but couldn't see it in the sky above her. Crested a hill and a giant military helicopter appeared in front of her - she couldn't see it above her as it was below her in the next valley! Apparently the horse didn't bat an eyelid :D
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I've had that happen - not competing though, but was having a gallop along the top of the ridgeway just outside Weymouth, there's about a 3 mile stretch with hunt jumps between fields. I could hear a helicopter but couldn't see it until it came up from the valley directly beside us. It was seriously close - made eye contact with the pilot and 'raced' for a short way :D :D Ginger horse thought it was brilliant - but then he's a bit of a plane spotter and loved watching the red arrows display in the summer :rolleyes:
 
Right that's it, you lot are making me jealous with your brave horses...:p I've a feeling if i let mine look at herself in a mirror she would get a fright, so I'll take today as the beginning of her man-up training phase! :D
 
My gelding is more plane proof than he is traffic proof.He was kept very near a military base and commercial airport..The RAF were having a huge training exercise..we would have Chinook helicopters (6 of them) flying over at about 100 foot with land rovers in cargo nets hanging below the Helicopters.Both of mine just stood there watching and taking it all in...

Low flying exercise is an important part of military training..Hopefully your horse will get used to them..
 
My youngster has got used to aircraft pretty quickly, she's not bothered about chinooks, or planes, or low flying single rotor helicopters (in fact we met one that was taking off in a field next to the road) the Spratt
 
loisb501 said:
I've a feeling if i let mine look at herself in a mirror she would get a fright, so I'll take today as the beginning of her man-up training phase! :D
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Desensitisation is hugely important (and quite fun :p), although saying that I think my boy was born without the 'spook' gene :D
 
Stupid phone......

Should have said:

Or hot air balloons.

The worst thing is the model aircraft, but she remains sensible with those.
 
We're right up on the hill tops and get fast jets roaring over and the odd Hercules rumbling along and the horses don't worry but what did seriously spook a neighbour's horse was a hot air balloon coming down in the next field! Cheeky s*ds hit the wall with the basket and took half of it down and the balloon was quickly deflated and they scarpered with a Landrover and trailer that had been following them before they had to face the music!
 
get low flying planes over us all the time (also from a fairly local RAF base) - have one very flighty arab but he's turned out in a field and can have a good run around that when they fly over- have had this for so many years that they fly over and he doesn't flinch. Whilst on board i cringe with the noise and that has a tendancy to tense him up :rolleyes: soon gets over it these days though. He'd be another to take flight at the sight of a helicopter i should think though we have had them check the lines before with no hassle.
 
We are in a low flying area both for planes and helicopters and the horses (TBs) take no notice of them at all.

Not long ago we were riding on the lane under some trees when a helicopter came directly over us, he was obviously keeping above the height minimum but I am sure that had I reached up I could have grabbed one of the skids. The horse I was riding went to jump forward but was very quickly corrected be being pulled up hard and made to realise it was unacceptable behaviour.

Horses have no fear of things in the sky, they have no winged predators so, absolutely no right to misbehave with low flying aircraft.

More adverse reaction from the horse comes from the reaction or lack of, from the rider/handler.

Pilots have to learn low flying and as the UK is well populated they are going to go over areas where there are houses and horses. Train your horse to trust and respect you and it will take no notice.
 
Foxhunter49 said:
Horses have no fear of things in the sky, they have no winged predators so, absolutely no right to misbehave with low flying aircraft.
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Once saw friend's ancient little pony (35+) having a peaceful nap in the field when he was investigated by a Buzzard flying over for a closer look - it probably thought the old lad was dinner seeing as they go after carrion! Didn't half jump to his feet though! :D
 
I have met quite a few really loud planes and it's made me jump and I think woahhhh horse is going to go loopy, (which they don't) but I suppose if you think about it, they hear them all the time when they are grazing in the field!
 
I dont want to sound offensive but I dont think as horse riders its our place to tell the military to go train somewhere else as we need to play with our horses! ;)
 
Living in lincs, we're surrounded by raf bases, so the horses are pretty used to aircraft! However a few weeks ago we had two planes fly very low straight over the house, one at 4.30pm and the other at 7pm. Let's just say I'm pleased I wasn't riding or picking their feet out or something similar at that time as it made me jump and my daughter jump a foot out of her pushchair! They were that low they literally just mIssed the house! Was unbelievable and dangerous! My neighbour who also has horses complained although I'm not sure where.
 
Not sure where you'd complain about them really unless you had an actual accident (which luckily you didn't!)
We have some really nasty low flyers round here, I know there's a minimum height they fly but I'm sure they go under it, they've been lower than the house before and on several occassions i've been in my room and actually seen the faces of the pilots as they go past the window! I think as others have said, it's just a case of getting them used to it and trying not to make a big deal of it when they go over - luckily ours are usually okay with it - they do sometimes run from them when they go over the fields low but my lad doesn't tend to do much more than throw his head up and shy away from the direction they're coming in when I've been riding him. He has had the odd panic, once 4 came over us at once and that was just too much for him and he reared and span, but he has improved.
I did have a loan horse quite recently who was afraid of them. She was a very highly strung coiled spring type and just the sound of them in the air (let alone low flyers!) really wound her up, when some did come over her field she went absolutely nuts. Whenever I was around her I always made sure to wear my hi viz - when leading her to and from the field, when poo-picking if it was a busy-flying day, and when schooling her in the menage, just to give anyone above that little extra notice - because she was very, very flighty and wouldn't have been at all nice to be around in that situation.
 
We often have jets coming over, but normally hear them coming.
The other day I was going up the field along the fence line and
a jet came over and I heard it as I saw it, it was lower than normal,
I took fright, fell over into the fence, got up to see my boy looking at
me as though to say, but mam it's just noise
 
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