OMG - near death experience out hacking last night!

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SassieSoz

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First off - no-one was actually hurt, spooked or overly traumatised, but, at what point does a driver of a full length, orange-cabbed tanker lorry think it's a good idea to come barrelling round a corner on a country lane doing in excess of 45mph?!?
(To give you an idea, this road is only wide enough for two cars).
So, I'm in front on my boy, friend is behind on her mare and and other friend is on foot with her two dogs. The three of us have nowhere to go, other than through a full height hedge or across a very wide, overgrown ditch - so no choice really.
I can see the driver trying to brake without losing control so at this point all we can see is this enormous truck heading towards us and all we can smell is burning rubber.....................
I remember mouthing 'pleeeeaaase stop' (probably more by way of wishful thinking!!!!!!!)

The outcome of this terrifying and potentially fatal event................

My horse stood like a rock on the verge without batting an eyelid or twitching a muscle (so much for taking any notice of my heart rate!), more keen to carry on hacking than worrying about being 'happy-slapped' by a bright orange tanker.
My friends horse stuck her head in the hedge and started stuffing her face without an apparent care in the world.
The two dogs were more interested in looking for squirrels.

So, we lived to ride another day.
And yes, we know the firm who the tanker belongs to and will be contacting them to request a little (or maybe quite a lot) more driver care - they use the road as a cut through on a regular basis so know how narrow it can be in places.
The final part to this is, if we had been another vehicle there is no way there would not have been a serious collision.

Thank you for reading and happy horsing!
 
Yikes - glad you are all ok and the horses and dogs were not phased by their experience. Definately give the company an earful - it could have been a lot worse as I am sure you are well aware. Driver must have needed new undies too though, his own fault though, moron!!!
 
Def write to the company concerned. A couple of years ago I was driving home from a lesson when a lorry came up behind me hooting, flashing and getting too close. There was nowhere for me to go so carried on. When we came to a wide enough road he overtook me and swerved in to try and run me off the road. Sadly for him my mate was with me and having videoed my lesson then videoed this pleb's driving. I wrote to the company who where brilliant and obviously the driver denied it. Faced with the video evidence the company told me he was sacked for dangerous driving (whether they did or not I don't know but made me feel better) They then offered me samples of their products, sadly they were not a saddle maker but a bakers.
 
Eeeek! Sounds exteremely frightening! Unfortunately we often come across the same problem but our roads are single lane with tall hedgerow either side so there really is nowhere to go. We hear the car/lorry/tractor belting it round the bend and just hope there is time for them to stop. Oddly enough we've also had a couple of cyclists doing the same, i.e. going very fast with no visibility, and nearly slam into us.
 
That is incredibly scary. What good horses and dogs you were with! I'm often tempted to take a long schooling whip along with a brightly coloured sign on the end saying SLOW DOWN so that it can be seen before we are on blind corners in our narrow country lanes. Unless the driver is a horsey person or they've had an experience similar to yours, some are totally clueless. My horse is an absolute saint in every circumstance, but I never take it for granted. Make sure you contact that company and try to give them as many details as possible (date, time, route lorry was on, etc) then the driver can be named and shamed. Good luck!
 
Report it to the police and ask for an incident number. That way it will be recorded and if they are found to be driving without due care and attention again there is more chance of them being charged. Incidents of this sort could also be used to challenge the re-newal of their operators licence at the present location.

Let the company know the time this incident occured so that they can identify the driver and vehicle concerned.
 
OWLIE185 said:
Report it to the police and ask for an incident number. That way it will be recorded and if they are found to be driving without due care and attention again there is more chance of them being charged. Incidents of this sort could also be used to challenge the re-newal of their operators licence at the present location.

Let the company know the time this incident occurred so that they can identify the driver and vehicle concerned.
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First of all, thank god you are all alright! What saintly horses and dogs you have!

I agree with the above TBH. I don't like getting people into trouble, but just imagine if one of your horses had panicked or spun. It doesn’t bear thinking about. The driver may even currently be thinking all horses stand rock solid like yours did, and he might not even be overly concerned about what happened last night? Being contacted by the Police should put the wind up him and make him remember to be careful in future!
 
What good horses you have, I am glad all ended well for you. I had a similar thing on our single track lanes this morning...I was just approaching a steep downhill with a blind bend when I heard someone coming like they were doing a BTC Rally stage up the hill and fast approachng. I had no where to go other than to tuck into the verge and hope and pray my horse did not flip out...the driver roared around the corner, ******d himself and tried to slow, which resulted in some wheel spin and then had to keep going...and I could hear even after that him roar around the next bends regardless of having just had a fright!
My wonderful horse stood like a rock bless him... what a star!
 
Ended up cantering along the bottom of a deep ditch once..same thing,this time a concrete lorry,headlights on barreling down on me at at least fifty,I held up hand ..as the mare was`nt great with big stuff..no result..just barreled on. I do wonder if these idiots even look in a side mirror to see what might have happened.:eek:
 
Oh poor you, at least you're safe though and what wonderful horses. I get this occurance practically every ride out where I live, the local drivers, farmers and haulage companies genrally seem pretty oblivious to the needs of horse and riders. My heavy cob is really quite nervous about speeding lorries so sometimes I get off to hold him.
He tends to swing his rump out if anything so I am always so worried when I hear them approaching on blind bends and try to tuck into the verges which we do at least have most of the time.
Riding on the roads is a nightmare where ever you are.
 
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