Rant alert! Road surface. Sorry, a bit long

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Merrymoles

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This is the first time I've started a thread but I am cross! I used to share a mare with a friend but had to stop the full-time commitment due to moving further away. My friend went on holiday on Friday and asked if I'd like to hack her horse while she was away so I said yes.
So off we went, with an old friend and a new friend, for a fabulous hack and a nice canter. Coming back, we were careful to walk on a notoriously slippery piece of road but she lost both her back legs and nearly sat down. She walked on OK but after half a mile, we trotted across a junction and she was hopping lame in a back leg. I got off and walked home and she is now tucked up in bed after having a bute. I don't think it's anything catastrophic, more like she's pulled a muscle in her stifle, but she is obviously uncomfortable and resting it a lot. The plan is that the YO will bute her tomorrow and then, as we have the vet coming on Wednesday, we'll see how she is without on bute on Tuesday and then she'll see the vet if necessary.
However, I am cross about the state of the roads where we were riding. She did a lot of sliding on the way out today, despite having road nails in her back shoes, because although the road was only resurfaced last summer, it was such a poor job that the chippings have come off in huge patches and are now sprayed up by every passing car. The council has even put "loose chippings" signs up. The bald parts of the road are like ice and there is no way of avoiding them. We have nowhere to ride on the yard and nowhere we can hack without going on the road first.
I don't know what the answer is but needed to vent my steam!
 
i suppose you could write to the highways dept at your council and have a moan about the road surface, and point out at the same time that there is a lack of off road bridleways.

i don't know what good it will do, but they may come out and re-spread the grit?
 
You could try contacting the council (although lets face it they are usually slow to act!) But surely if its that slippery its a danger to cars too?
At the end of the day I guess roads these days are designed for cars, not horses, and there's probably not much you can do...
Hope both you and the horses are ok :)
 
Thanks both. There is a woman on our yard who is a rottweiler with the council and very good at getting bridleways cleared and flytipping removed so I might just ask her to take them on as I don't live in that council area!
 
You poor thing, how unlucky for you as well when you were riding the horse for your friend.

As you say hopefully she has just pulled or strained a muscle when she slid down so should come right quickly after some rest. We have country lanes around us for hacking, no bridleways and some of them are so worn they also get really slippy. Last time I hacked my mare out she did the same thing, her back end slipped right under her, I was really worried that she would be sore too. Luckily she seems to be Ok but it can't be good for them. As other poster said its worth dropping a line to the council just to warn them how dangerous it can be.

I find the roads are less slippy when they are damp, so I am going to avoid them on dry windy days until they are resurfaced! I really hope the mare recovers soon and there is no serious damage done.
 
Slippery road surfaces are a well known problem not only to horse riders but motorbikers.

I did once get a stretch of road recovered after complaining to the Highways dept, after having been ignored by the local council.

Some riders have sued by using their insurance policies, and have to say that when I mentioned legal action to the local council, along with the support of a very forthright ROW officer, the road was resurfaced 3 days later.
 
Just to let those who sent me good wishes, the mare was still a bit stiff on Wednesday so we gave her until today off and she has hacked out sound as a pound today so it obviously was just a bit of a pulled muscle. We had a lovely time today but avoided the slippy bit of road!
 
Herts05 said:
Please report this to the BHS. They are keen to understand what issues cause accidents/near misses
Click to expand...

Yes please report it to BHS here's the link - but try later, it looks like they're updating the site. http://www.horseaccidents.org.uk/

They've been campaigning for years about slippery road surfaces and have helped to produce a booklet for local Highways departments advising them on suitable road surfaces for regular horse routes.
Contact the local Highways yourself and let them know what happened, I found them quite helpful and I think they have tried to accomodate horse riders on their resurfacing plans, they won't if no one lets them know about the problems we face.
 
The slippery road may well be due to a road surface called Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA). As a result of pressure put on them by the British Horse Society (BHS) Cambridge, Devon, Somerset and Surrey Councilsno longer use SMA on roads used by horses. It is important that you write to the Highways Department of your County Council and advise them of the problem and the precise location. When writing to them do it by Royal Mail SpeciaL Delivery so that their is no doubt that they received it.
 
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