People in this day and age!!

Wildforestpony18

Wildforestpony18

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15 May 2010
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Well...Today I went on a lovely hack with my mare and she was brilliant , we went out round a huge rape-seed field and then back on the roads. Most of the time, cars and lorries etc are fine and slow down on this paticular road (not a very busy road at all) but not today!! :mad: The road is quite wide so we never need to pull over really, So we were just walking along and a car came along , probs doing around 60-70 mph :( and I thought "they aren't gonna slow down are they?!" I decided to wave them down and they didn't slow , so I tryed again and made it as obvious as I could , but they just glared at me and went even faster :mad:, thankfully my girl is very good in traffic and just jumped a little bit , but I was furious!!! :mad: And to top it off about 5-10 minutes later a different car came along and did the same thing!! Has anyone had an expirience like this? thanks. :) Hot chocolate if you get this far!! :D :D
 
This happened to me earlier this week, although it wasn't so fast, but much too fast and no attempt to slow down and it made my normally ploddy mare jump in the hedge. It was a local electrical contractors van so when I got back I just emailed the local pcso lady and hopefully she will pop round and seee him.
 
There needs to be some action on this, some sort of advertising campaign, actual punishment for these stupid, ignorant drivers, etc. It just seems to be getting worse and worse! We are all high-vis'ed up to the eyebrows (and above!) on horses that we are trying to make safe, we move out of the way where possible and move traffic along as quickly as we can but they just don't seem to want to bother. Perhaps we SHOULD get cameras, but in my opinion the police don't do enough to back this up until someone gets seriously injured or killed! Its a serious issue and its just being looked over by everyone who can make a difference.
 
This quite often happens to me - at least once during a hack! Luckily my boy is good in traffic, but some of the others horses I ride are not as good. A motorbike approached me today doing about 80mph, came around the bend and saw me and slammed his brakes on and his motorbike nearly skidded and made a horrible screeching noise. Luckily, nothing was coming the other way so he overtook me but he was still doing about 50mph! My boy was a star, but I hate to think what could have happened had it been a horse who wasn't quite so good in traffic!
 
When my mare was about 4 and I was getting her used to the roads, a motorbiker came at me at high speed. My mare started dancing about while he was still some way away and I waved at him to slow down - he pulled a wheelie as he went by then sped away! Horse was about as impressed as me :(

That said - most bikers are pretty considerate and I always make sure I thank them and smile.
 
I have had a couple but not many and certainly not at those speeds. They do tend to be quite good near me and I actually have to hack part way down a main road. It does have a 30mph limit though so it's not much of a hardship for people to slow down and we do sometimes have a police camera down there so people are possibly a little more cautious.

If it's any consolation I was told the other day that a friends horse panicked at some trotters coming the other way and backed into someones car who had slowed to a stop as he saw the distress. No damage to horse or car but the driver leapt out and expecting the worst she braced herself and he was more concerned the horse might have grazed/scratched it's backlegs and he was willing to check for her! Bless him. So a thumbs up for him!

Although last year a different friend (and a different horse to the one i have now) I were hacking along one summer evening about 7on so still very light in high-viz and this guy jogging on the other side of the road stopped and yelled abuse at us for riding on the road as a car patiently waiting to come by (as we were level with an island) had to wait!! The car behind rolled down her window and yelled back at him to mind his own jeffing business! It was the funniest thing! I think i'd have been quite scared if i'd been on my own though.
 
Unfortunately, there's always one person who flies past at a ridiculous speed :(
I've had buses pass so close that they almost touched us and cyclists ring their bell when they're pretty much right up my horse's backside.

Mine's quite nervous around farm traffic - the first time he met a tractor he had a bit of a breakdown. Thankfully, the lovely driver sat patiently and turned off his engine until my silly horse figured out that it wasn't going to eat him. Needless to say, he got a huge thank-you from me and my hacking companion as did the lovely Fillshill arctic driver who stopped and put his hazard lights on so I could get off the main road before he passed us.

I think that people tend to forget that the majority of horses are nothing like the police horses they see wandering about so calmly - As much as i'd like to train my horse to walk past burning piles of rubbish and scary loud crowds, it just ain't going to happen.
I'll definitely be investing in one of the "polite notice" tabards and possibly the exercise sheet too so that drivers have no excuse for not seeing me and slowing down.
 
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People completely leave their brain at home on sundays - it truley is the worst time to hack out on roads, driver's don't give a monkey's cuss who they upset/mow down as they are all in a rush to get to shops/amusement parks/ pubs/ etc etc etc.....I find best time to ride is mid morning/ early afternoon on weekdays.....and bank holiday monday maniacs are the worst and we have loads of those to look forward too...
 
my worst traffic experience wasn't even on the road was on a bridleway out on the fells on a 4 year that hadn't really done much in traffic yet (due to living no where near a road) motor cross bike just drove straight at me poor pony was terrified :mad:
 
Not about speed, but I was once riding this old pony and a cyclist cam right up behind her- she was absolutley terrified of bikes due to an earlier experience, so I asked him to stop, and her head was up, eyes white and though usually ploddy she was going v fast- he litterally just shrugged, and sped on past- it was obvious to anyone she was terrified but some people just are dicks!
 
It is why I do not hack on the roads any more EVER! there are just too many idiots not too mention the really nasty ones that do it on purpose. It is just not worth it
 
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