Re Rider Attack in Epping Forest - Rider pulled from horse and raped

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I have just got in!.

The lastest is that this second report is a hoax..... a sick one at that.

According to the forest wardens who were out in force today they have not been informed of any second attack, but they do know where this second report stems from and the police and themselves are dealing with it.

My yard and some others are on lock down at the moment.

HOWEVER........ The initial assalent is still at large, so please please could everyone in the area try and hack out in company..... PLEASE STAY SAFE

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lets hope the police deal with this individual very strongly...
 
I was out hacking in a country park once and 2 chavvy like people - a man and woman asked if they could stroke my horse.. Of course I said no and moved away from them as quickly as I could. I was very suspicious.
 
I hack out alone, may carry a whip, am definatly going to insist the girls carry whips when they ride out from my place, usually ask them not to on my horses!
 
What a terrifying thought that someone gets off on attacking young girls and seemingly seems to go for horse riders.
Can HHO admin not make this a sticky thread????
 
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This is terrible! I hacked out alone almost everyday when I was younger and things like this never crossed my mind.

Once I was riding through some local woods and I saw something in the bush ahead (I was about 15), I only noticed because my pony could be very spooky. When we got closer a man walked out of the bush and towards me and my pony. He really made me feel uncomfortable and continued walking towards me. So I hit the GO button and nearly flattened him
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He could have been an innocent man hanging around in bushes and approaching young girls, but I doubt it.
I reported it to the local police. Any1 who sees any1 suspicious MUST report it, even if they turn out to be harmless I would hate to think I had done nothing.
 
I ALWAYS carry a whip with me, not because i need to use it on Monty but because i always ride out on my own (i dont know anyone in the area to ride out with!). Even though routes i ride (Carn brea/Carn Marth) are very popular with other riders, because i usually ride more during the week, i never see anyone, maybe the odd dog walker, but then again, they could be up to anything, so the whip is more for if anything was to happen, i could use it for self defence. After reading this, even though i live nowhere near Epping Forest, it shows that even though you think somewhere is safe enough to ride, anything could happen and now i wont think twice about taking a whip with me.
 
I always ride on my own, generally at first light. It's far more peaceful and due to using what can be, very busy bridleways, I prefer it this way. As does my horse! I've never once thought about being approached by people... And those unmounted people that I do come across usually back away from my large, snorting, ginger beast!
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Having read this though - I may have to find myself a hacking buddy! :S Safety is paramount!
 
The rape story is, as far as I am aware untrue...however

Aug 2009:
A WOMAN was left frightened and shaking after a man set his dog on her German Shepherd.
The lady was walking her dog along a footpath in Epping Forest near Abridge when she saw a couple coming towards her.
She said: “He was staring right at me and all of a sudden he called his dog and this Staffordshire Bull Terrier jumped up the bank from the water and it came straight for my dog and attacked him...the man just stood there laughing
Sept 2009:

Police in Chingford are investigating an attack on a 25-year-old woman who was riding in Epping Forest yesterday (14 September).
The woman was pulled from her horse by a man as she rode close to the corner of Bury Road and Hornbeam Lane in Chingford at 5.15pm.

Also in 2009 the City of London took the step of abolishing its mounted keeper section in Epping Forest...In what world are the City of London living?
The expansion of paths open to riders around the forest area and the coming of the Olympics will almost certainly cause a renascence in horse riding in the Epping Forest area...not to mention cycling, running etc...yet it at this very time when they scrap mounted patrols (a wonderful visible deterrent to crime and a great PR opportunity) in favour of bikes and four by fours. Will a touchy feely less military uniformed cycle mounted Warden that the City want command the same respect as a neatly turned out mounted keeper? The regular police know how important the reassurance of a visible uniformed presence is on our streets...hence the PCSOs...like them or not...how come the City is not as clued up?
What can we as riders in the forest do? Well the interests of everyday forest riders are purportedly represented a the toothless anachronistic ‘Darby and Joan Riding Club’ EFRA (Epping Forest Rider’s Association) who in truth have only half of the riders in their membership and have lost every major battle they have engaged in with the City. It is no use in approaching that national waste of space that is the British Horse Society for any assistance either, as it was their ‘behind closed doors’ dealings that helped to barter a scandalous trade off: opening other routes in Essex to horses in exchange for supporting fencing and putting in cattle grids all over the forest... against the wishes of the vast majority of properly informed forest users.
We as riders in Epping Forest have been let down by the City of London, EFRA and the BHS...and it is only a matter of time before we have a fatality amongst our number either from traffic or from crime.
 
Shadowknight, I think you are being a bit harsh on EFRA. They are after all a group of people giving up their time voluntarily to try to do their best for riders in the Forest. I was a committee member of EFRA from 1976 to 1989 during the early years of the licensing debacle. I know that we worked blooming hard to keep the licensing at bay. If you feel so strongly that EFRA is ineffective why not stand for election to the committee where you might be able to help reverse the 'Darby and Joan' image. I moved away from the Forest in 1989 but still consider the area to be 'home' and visit to walk and ride whenever I can.
I so hope that this was an isolated attack and that riders can continue to enjoy the Forest without fear.
 
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6 foot something bloke, grabbed her from behind and dragged her off her 15.1 horse, who then reared and kicked the attacker allowing the girl to remount and get away

TBH I have never thought twice about riding alone in this area until now

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What a good horse - I hope that girl gave her horse some big treats for kicking the attacker!

There are some people in this world who DO deserve to be publicly executed
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Shadowknight, I think you are being a bit harsh on EFRA. They are after all a group of people giving up their time voluntarily to try to do their best for riders in the Forest. I was a committee member of EFRA from 1976 to 1989 during the early years of the licensing debacle. I know that we worked blooming hard to keep the licensing at bay. If you feel so strongly that EFRA is ineffective why not stand for election to the committee where you might be able to help reverse the 'Darby and Joan' image. I moved away from the Forest in 1989 but still consider the area to be 'home' and visit to walk and ride whenever I can.
I so hope that this was an isolated attack and that riders can continue to enjoy the Forest without fear.

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I resigned from EFRA in disgust at their inability to coordinate any form of concrete response to the machinations of the Warren over forest fencing issue. At the time I pointed out that the ‘wedge’ that started with the taxing of horse riders in the forest and continued with the fencing and cattle grids would soon include the scrapping of the mounted patrols as the City of London does not in fact want riders within the forest. I was right.
There will be other limitations put on riders by the City very soon…they have seen that there is no effective opposition and so they will carry on.

Yes I am being very harsh on EFRA, but if an organisation sets its self up as representing my interests and it fails woefully then it must face the flack. EFRA a supposed riding organisation but is at the moment headed by a former City/Warren employee who does not even ride...in fact many of the top committee movers and shakers also never get on horseback…this demonstrates admirably the relevance of this organisation! Also the standing EFRA committee appears to have been selected on social/nepotistic criteria rather than ability.

As you pointed out, you moved away from the area in 1989 so with the greatest of respect you are hardly best placed to comment on currant forest matters.
I ride every day within the forest and see the unacceptable levels of fly tipping, antisocial behaviour and uncontrolled dogs. The mounted patrols were a highly visible deterrent and are now no more. Letters were written by EFRA, sure, but though a few riders with placards could be mobilised to protest at speed limits on Bury road a few years ago the existing hierarchy of EFRA is so frightened of upsetting the City that no other forms of protest will be considered.
No, I would not seek election to some form of reactionary pensioners social club that draws its hierachy largely from one livery yard....that would be about as useful as possessing a jelly bicycle.
 
This is awful!! I'm from enfield where we have lovely wooded bridle path/public walk way nd years ago we had a major problem with flashers until the yard manager and the yard owner took there horses out everday nd till he apperered nd then when he did the stole his clothes nd chased him into the public park where he was promptley arrested.
 
This is something which has worried me.

I usually hack out alone (not so often nowadays) and i used to hack a few miles to some woods and ride around the woods before hacking home again.

I don't go there on my own anymore.... not since the time when i was just hacking down the lane towards the entrance to the woods and Blue went all tense, and then i heard something behind us which was a crazy looking person on a horse trotting pretty fast towards us, so i pushed Blue on to trot and then faster once we got to the woods to get through them as quickly as possible and on the way home as quickly as possible!

I have no idea to this day who that person was but it freaked me out! It was like it wasn't real....only it was.
 
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