Nearly invisible horse and rider.

I too think it is a vanity thing. Sadly a lot of hi-viz is not that 'stylish'?

Personaly, I'd rather be unstylish and alive, than 'in vogue' and flattened :-)

I put hi-viz on both me and horse, who is black. We wear it all year round, no matter the weather as I have stuff for hot and warm climes.
 
I rather enjoy looking like mounted police!!

I've a grey horse but I prefer yellow to pink tbh :)


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My boys may be retired, but when we do go walkies there is no way that anyone could say they didn't see us! We go out in full hi-vis - leg bands, exercise sheets (held on with a racing style surcingle and breast girth) for the boys and jacket and hat cover for me. Most stuff is yellow, but my hat cover is yellow, green and pink with a reflective stripe across the top, in case that's not enough I have a 'POLITE' hat band that goes on as well. I can also swap to orange or pink reflective tabards depending on the time of year, if it's too warm for the yellow reflective riding jacket.

If I'm riding someone else's horse then as we don't go on the road just round farmland, then it's minimum hi-vis/reflective jacket or tabard in case I come off whatever the time of year or weather.
 
Moya_999 said:
what do you gals think of this???

Don't normally buy Masta because its relevantly cheap and tight on my horse. I decided to try one as I want to try orange now and like the idea its a complete rug so brought the size up to my boy takes.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171500281969
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I considered one of those, but decided I was looking for something with more reflective and a tail light. Although the orange is, in the flesh, a LOT brighter than it looks in the photo.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
orange is the colour railway line workers wear as its the most visible apparently, I am currently changing all my hi viz over to orange.
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Ah but Heathrow uses yellow...

I think they're all good. I prefer yellow, I think it's the most visible but gets the dirtiest the quickest. You have to keep it clean or it quickly isn't that visible!

I don't like the Polite range, it comes off in the wash! I wouldn't buy it again.
 
I don't think its ALL down to vanity. Us 'more mature' riders had it so drilled into us at pony club etc to wear hacking jackets (brown) for hacking, to look unobtrusive and to 'blend in' to the countryside, that it feels 'wrong' to look bright. It just wasn't the 'done thing' in the 60s and 70s. And though I know its sensible to wear high-vis, I still feel slightly embarrassed to be wearing such bright clothes, and have to force myself to put on my Aldi reversible gilet with the bright side showing!!
But my pet MUST for the roads is have your mobile phone switched off. You can switch it on if needed, but I often see riders slopping along, all the high-vis but wandering all over the road because theyr texting as they ride, or chatting with phone to ear, riding with one hand and not concentrating on riding at all.
 
My Horse
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Me
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I always wear my hat cover, its fab, a tabard as a minimum but I bought a hi viz running jacket for £10 from sports direct because it had pockets! Bargain :) i Have a waterproof hi viz jacket too and I do have a yellow hi viz breast plate, leg wraps and hi viz fly veil but its a bit small for my big horse so my cob will wear them. I like to be seen :)
 
Renvers said:
That's interesting, yellow seems to have become prevalent.

We all wear hi vis on my yard; whenever we see riders without any on, we always remark that they look really clueless and very novice to not be aware of these things. Plus several insurers now state your insurance is invalidated if you don't take precautions on the road like hi-vis.
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I used to wear yellow but he blended in so well it changed my mind completely. We mainly use Orange at work and it does stand out much better then Yellow
 
stormox said:
don't those sheets flap about when you canter? Or get caught on hedges, trees etc? I would have thought it would really scare some horses.
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Not as much as being hit by a car would scare them! A correctly fitted sheet won't be a bother, just like those people school in when its really cold.

I always wear hi-viz on me and an exercise sheet on pony as long as it isn't too hot.

Not worth the risk.
 
Do not use exercise on my friends horse as it cause more of an accident then if not as he would not like it. I think Hi-Viz should be made compulsory and also a clause in your insurance that if you and your horse do not wear it and you have an accident on the road you cannot claim.
 
Pippity said:
I considered one of those, but decided I was looking for something with more reflective and a tail light. Although the orange is, in the flesh, a LOT brighter than it looks in the photo.
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Thankyou for that................ I was hoping it was brighter in real life
 
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As Ester said, choosing the colour according to the season and the horse is wise. Orange isn't great on a chestnut, or a bright bay or for Autumn when the leaves are turning. Yellow's not so good on a grey / palomino or in any areas with rape seed oil in the summer. Pink seems to be ok on most colour horses but isn't great in low light. Green can be very effective in built up areas, but not in open countryside for obvious reasons.

There is one mother and daughter I know of who refuse to wear it as it's 'ugly'. They spend a fortune on matchy matchy in all sorts of awful garish colours even buying coats to match their red/blue/beige/grey/green/pink banadges/numnahs/jumpers/jodhpurs/socks but won't spend anything on protecting their horses. It makes me so angry that they put their lovely, genuine, honest boys at risk for the sake of vanity.

A friend told the mother once she hadn't seen her until she was driving past her (on the other side of the road thankfully) and a movement of his white socks just caught her eye, and the mother just said "well it would have been your fault if you'd hit me." We've even told them it could invalidate their insurance if they have an accident and aren't wearing it but they insist it's not the case and therefore won't consider it.

Nobody takes my horse on the road without it, it's one of two rules I have (public liability insurance is the other).
 
annagain said:
As Ester said, choosing the colour according to the season and the horse is wise. Orange isn't great on a chestnut, or a bright bay or for Autumn when the leaves are turning. Yellow's not so good on a grey / palomino or in any areas with rape seed oil in the summer. Pink seems to be ok on most colour horses but isn't great in low light. Green can be very effective in built up areas, but not in open countryside for obvious reasons.

There is one mother and daughter I know of who refuse to wear it as it's 'ugly'. They spend a fortune on matchy matchy in all sorts of awful garish colours even buying coats to match their red/blue/beige/grey/green/pink banadges/numnahs/jumpers/jodhpurs/socks but won't spend anything on protecting their horses. It makes me so angry that they put their lovely, genuine, honest boys at risk for the sake of vanity.

A friend told the mother once she hadn't seen her until she was driving past her (on the other side of the road thankfully) and a movement of his white socks just caught her eye, and the mother just said "well it would have been your fault if you'd hit me." We've even told them it could invalidate their insurance if they have an accident and aren't wearing it but they insist it's not the case and therefore won't consider it.

Nobody takes my horse on the road without it, it's one of two rules I have (public liability insurance is the other).
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maybe they ought to view the photo on BHS website where a horse is dead on the rd
http://www.horseaccidents.org.uk/Advice_and_Prevention/What_To_Wear/Hi-viz.aspx
 
Today is the second anniversary of my lovely boy being mowed down on the road and becoming a BHS statistic. His rider was wearing hi viz so it is no guarantee but anything that saves anyone from having to see their horse a mangled heap in the road like I did has got to be worth doing. Looking good should not come into the equation IMHO. This was the worst experience of my life as a horse owner. No cancel that, just the worst ever.
 
I lived in Somerset for 10 years and we wore hi vis there whenever we rode, whether going on a road or not. Simple reason why - helicopters. Its so ingrained in me now I feel odd not wearing any, like wearing a hat really. If a helicopter pilot sees you they should stay higher, certainly army and police are required to, and if you're not wearing hi viz they won't see you in time. My horse was very used to helicopters flying over the field, but the really low ones would still spook him enough to risk his rider taking a tumble.
 
I'm another recent convert to orange, although the horses are still in yellow. I have an orange fleecey gilet with reflective strips, and it can be seen from miles away - both in bright sunlight, and on grey orrible days. It's about 3 sizes too big fro me, so I look like a whale in it, but I love it anyway!

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