Riding on roads

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SplashofSoy

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Went for a hack last night and was just wondering. I always wear a high viz tabard and head band round my hat. We were riding at about 6.30 so still light.

Anyway the hack i went on involves a bit of road work along a quietish single road with quite high hedges. There are loads of horses in area and drivers are very used to it. Never ever had a problem with cars and horse is bombproof (even for a TB).

My question is how do you ride blind bends on a narrowish road with quite high hedges. I can never decide if

1. You stick to the inside as close as possible so you are out of the way of any oncoming traffic
2. You ride slightly away from the side of the road towards the middle so you have more chance to see oncoming traffic and them to see you, but if someone is coming too fast and doesnt see you, you are right in the middle of the path of their car.

How would you ride such bends.

Thanks
 
I tend to ride away from the edge slightly i feel that people have chance to see me more if i do so. As said above though i always trot out of a blind bend and high viz is a must for me also.
 
if i cant hear anything i always trot, even home, but my boy has good breaks so only if your horse wont try to run for home is that a good idea. i tend to stick to the edge, you are just as likely to hear the car so best to make sure you're out the path in my view, if they really do misjudge the corner or speed then it could go so wrong
 
Very much dependant on hearing round bends, BUT this can be a problem if the wind is bad (we live very high up, so gets very windy). I am currently trying to decide whether it is safer to ride slightly out or not. My mare is traffic proof, but not shiney leaf, small birds and dragons behind walls, proof, so is more likely to spook into the road.
 
I keep to the edge and trot on, particularly if there is a car behind me. I can't stand it when cars overtake me in the middle of the road around a corner when they can't see around it.
 
I tend to keep close to the verge of the road and get past the bend as quickly as possible.

If a car is approaching me from the front I look behind me as if to say ther is somethiong coming from the rear. That normally slows them right down.

I also always wear a long sleeved Hi-Viz jacket so that other road users cabn see my hand signals more clearly.

Ask the local highways department to erect traingular horse warning signs for motorists that approach the bend from both directions.

Could a local adjoining land owner provide you with an off road track so that you can avoid this section of road?
 
I keep to the edge and trot on if it's a bit busy.

I can see the logic in riding near the middle of the road, but if an accident does happen you won't find much sympathy if you say "well, I was riding in the middle of the road and..."
Also, it doesn't do much for the reputation of horse riders if people see us riding all over the road.
 
Interesting replies to see how everyone approaches it, i tend to go with what i feel is best at the time and that particular bit of road. I do listen out for vehicles and i usually do trot on if i can and tend to stick, as Amymay says, to inside but not quite in the hedge!
 
On a narrow single width road with high hedges, I hug the outside of the bend, so facing oncoming traffic. All continental, like. People behind can see you and people coming round the blind bend see you earlier. Nobody’s ever questioned me on it and I simply cross back over as soon as I’m well past the bend. The lanes here are so narrow, it’s hard to have a ‘left’ or ‘right’, so I guess that’s why people don’t question it.

I did used to ride a wider road (standard width with centre markings) with a nasty left hand bend. On the right (outside bend) was a pavement and I always crossed over and rode down that before the bend (and coming back up I rode on the pavement, too). I actually had a pedestrian say what a good idea it was, as she’d seen a couple of near misses on that bend involving horses and cyclists.

Another thing I used to do is have a wide reflective piece of tape on the end of my whip, likea mini-flag. On bends, I would hold the whip right out, as if I was signalling right (I’m on a 12hh pony, so it’s not much above driver head height) and wiggle it if I heard a car coming, so the tape caught their eyes. Always worked really well!
 
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