No love for Hi-Viz?

Snowedinuk said:
I always wear some HiViz usually orange for many years. Glad to report that it is a lot more common round here now than when I first moved here 6 years ago.

Wore my new equi-safety orange jacket for the first time today and I know there are not a lot of cars on the road in Scotland on the 1st Jan but folks did seem to be passing 'slow and wide' a lot more than with my previous plain jacket.

I prefer orange to yellow now as after the local farmer started to wear a fluorescent yellow jacket - his cows and sheep were just too interested in us for my horses liking!

I think pink can fade quicker than orange and yellow for some reason. Yellow can not always be as visible in certain light conditions and against yellow fields.
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have you got the equisaftey orange rug??? hard to find
http://shop.salceysaddlery.co.uk/equisafety-wrap-around-exercise-rug-1303-p.asp
 
piebaldsparkle said:
Spot the rider!:eek:

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I see this all too often and frankly I do find it shocking, I wonder if these folk realise how invisible they really look? Or perhaps they just don't care....

Well I do and always ride out with hi viz, always, whatever the time of day or time of year (not wanting to sound preachy to any one who does not care for it either), I do not want to blend in with the background personally...
 
I hate hi zi I think it looks awful , but that does not mean I don't use it.
If the horse is safe in an exercise sheet they wear hi I exercise sheets with those broad and that go round there chests .
We have a collection of tabards in various sizes so we can pick according to how many layers we are wearing.
I wish I could find a good quality coat / waistcoat in hi zi but everyone I see is frankly awful quality .
There's a whole other area to road safety which being ignored , hi zi helps you be seen full stop that is all it does.
It will not make you ride better control your horse better train your horse better react appropriately and with calmness and without fear in an unexpected situation better.
It's more likely that these factors will come into play in a stress situation I see riders all the time on the roads all the time who I would not allow out on the roads if they worked for me , their positions are weak they look nervous and like
passengers .
 
Goldenstar said:
That's a great idea I never thought of cycle shops , I am an unashamed jacket snob and won't wear ( in my view ) a nasty jacket.
Thank you FW
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If you have a "Go Outdoors" they have cycle and running hiviz jackets to choose from. I thought some were quite nice although not cheap but I am stuck with my work (nasty) hiviz jacket for the moment. Not flattering but does what it says on the tin :o:D
 
I stopped two of the girls hacking out the other day until they put on high viz. I leant mine to one girl and the other (YO's daughter!!) put up a fuss until i said i wouldnt open the gate to let them out!

Saying that im really not convinced high viz in pink is suitable for an adult! :rolleyes: Its a bit ... erm .. well will leave it there! :o
 
I always wear my high vis tabard whether it's sunny, foggy, likely to get dark. I have yellow and orange but think yellow stands out better so tend to wear that most of the time. If visibility is likely to be poorer I also borrow my friends hi vis boots for my horse. My regular hacking buddy also wears a tabard and her horse wears a hi vis exercise sheet and recently our YM mentioned that she could see us from quite some distance away. I am planning to get a hi vis exercise sheet and like the look of the mesh one's some people on here have so will look into one of those.
 
i always wear some kind of hi vis. the least i'll wear is a tabbard but most of the time i have the tabbard on myself, a hat band and a strap around my arm, my horse has the breastplate, boots and sheet. sometimes we the only way we can ride is if we go around the farm in fog (only walking) and sometimes it gets so thick we can barely see each other, i have little flashy lights that i clip onto the saddle and myself so that at least if we part company we can both be found. others who ride out with me used to laugh but now they do it too and we can always see each other if only from the flashy lights.

i don't enjoy riding out on the roads with people who aren't wearing hi vis, i find i worry too much so now avoid it or offer them one of my tabbards.
 
Surely that depends how high your horse holds it's head? Mine tends to work quite low even when hacking but I do see your point hence why I am looking at an exercise sheet :) we don't do a lot of road work anyway but my horse is black and although I wear a lilac jacket I realise this probably isn't enough.
 
one day i borrowed a friends pink hi vis sheet and tabbard, went down the road and another livery came round the corner about half a mile away (from behind) and spotted the pink straight away, she said that was the first thing that caught her eye then she spotted the green/yellow of the others.
 
I couldn't find Hi Viz in the right size (or price!) for pony pilot's pony, so took a pair of brushing boots and glued hi viz to it from a cheap £2 jacket. I used the remainder to make sleeves for parts of the bridle and a tail wrap :D It took me ten minutes and I'll do a pink set for when this one looks tatty :)
 
Having just had a bit of a spat with another user on another thread, it would appear that the attitude of the OP's friends is alive and well on HHO :( along with the belief that if you wear Hi-Viz you will expect all other road users to get off the road :(
 
I certainly don't expect other to get off the road when I'm hi-vized out in pink but I feel a bit more safer that I'm more visible to the speeding townie who will then get the extra few seconds to (hopefully) slow down or at least, avoid me! :D

I don't ride in the dark anyways, most of my hacking out is in the late mornings so pink seems to work for the time of day I tend to hack out in.

LOL, although pink probably wouldn't be appropriate for my 40 something year old straight bloke polo playing friend who called it "stupid" (think it was a bit of a macho thing going on with that), I'm 37, pay my taxes, pink is my favorite color so why not wear it on hi-viz? Most of my non leather tack is pink and a lot of my clothes are. Pink isn't just for little girls but for "big girls" with their own money to spend :D My OH always reminds me to hi-viz myself up too and he always points out pink hi-viz when we go to a tack shop and asks me if I have "that one" :)
 
I like to think I am generally "cool" "groomed" and dandy. However very happily give all this up when riding and will not ride in summer or winter without hi vis. Why? For me - its just not worth the risk. Simple.

For the sake of looking cool, uncool, lovely, what ever - I believe if you are putting an animal in the line of traffic - its your job to protect them in what ever way you can.
 
FestiveG said:
Having just had a bit of a spat with another user on another thread, it would appear that the attitude of the OP's friends is alive and well on HHO :( along with the belief that if you wear Hi-Viz you will expect all other road users to get off the road :(
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Hi-Viz is simply to buy an additional seconds or two for people to spot you. Whether attached to your horse or not and on a road or not.

It doesn't give rights on the road, simply better chances or surviving.
 
My mare is blue and white with more white and is very clean and bright and I still wear hi viz! I can't believe people go out with darker horses with out it! And btw, I wear pink! I have to wear the pink hat band to hack on farm land so I thought the vest might as well match!
 
I don't understand why some people are still so reluctant to wear it. And tbh who cares what colour it is as long as it's bright? There's no set answer to the argument about what colour is best (just speak to the RNLI), it depends on conditions but any colour is a lot better than none. Round here I am the only person who wears hi vis which is ridiculous. There is a lot of traditionalism and hi vis still seems to raise eyebrows, along with the bare feet of course, but at least I'm giving myself and my horses a chance. Especially given how dark the days are at the moment. We caught up with two riders yesterday and apart from the fact my horse had detected them, I wouldn't have seen them until we were really close as they were both dressed in dark clothes and riding dark bays. Goodness knows how vehicles would have a chance.

Someone told me recently they did most of their riding off road - which is true - so they don't need to "dress up like a Christmas tree". I wonder if they'd still be thinking that if the air ambulance was flying round trying to spot them?
 
I read some research the other day about hi-viz (can't find the link now, typical!) It said drivers see hi-viz wearers 3 seconds quicker than non hi-viz wearers. If a car's travelling at 60 that 3 seconds equates to roughly 75metres. At 30 it's just under 40 metres. That's a hell of a lot of extra space to stop, slow down or take avoiding action.

The same research suggested different colour hi-viz for different times of the year / conditions. You should avoid green in summer (blends with grass and hedges), orange in autumn (leaves turning red) and at sunset and yellow in bright sunlight or foggy conditions. Pink is also not great at sunset. The same goes for different coloured horses - you should wear one that contrasts with your horse, so no orange on a chestnut, yellow on a palomino or a grey or pink on a bright or reddish bay. Green is good on all horses - but not in the summer!

I must admit all mine is yellow - on a grey - though and I doubt I'll be buying a whole range of it!

I let most people at the yard ride my boy and my only rule is you must wear hi-viz if you're taking him on the road. Put yourself at risk if you want, but not my horse.
 
el_Snowflakes said:
Mythical- silly answer. A cyclist coming through a drivers window is likely to injure/kill the car occupants as well.
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Their safety is their own lookout. I don't see why I should dress to accommodate them. If they drive at a reasonable speed for the road conditions, (which is NOT driving at the speed limit, but taking into account all limiting factors including visibility) we wouldn't have a problem. If its daylight and they can't see slow moving vehicle/animal on the road in front of them, they should consider handing their licence in. If its not daylight and they can't see my lights (which ARE a legal requirement and I paid a lot of money for ones which are adequate for the roads I regularly use) then they should consider handing their licence in. I'm so sick of this victim blaming and the attitude that the more vulnerable road users need to kowtow to the ones in the steel boxes who can't be bothered to pilot them properly.

Just last week I was hit by a car. I happened to be wearing hi-viz at the time and I had lights on. The motorist even said he saw me coming down the hill, but for some reason, chose to turn in front of me anyway at a point where it was too late for me to avoid a collision. What's the point of wearing hi-viz if they're still going to do stupid stuff like that?
 
Leviathan said:
From the front just wearing a tabard its not enough as it is obscured by the horses head;
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I stand by the general rule that you should be seen front and back. Horse and rider, together or separate. I would prefer to hi-viz my horse than myself if choosing... they're larger targets and I've chosen to take them out, they don't have the choice to hi-viz themselves. I only do top/jacket and figure that together the horse and I will be seen, separate there is no head in the way.
I really like the link posted earlier for the bib attaching to D rings... has gone on birthday list :)
 
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