Riding on the road - the rider just as much to blame?

Its the traffic that dont take any notice of riders signals that gets me, I dont signal for them to slow down all the time, only when I want to let drivers become aware of anything I consider might be a problem for all, not enough space to pass each other, horses playing up for whatever reason, other traffic trying to overtake and nip back in just in time from hitting on coming traffic.
I should also say its not all speeding traffic I signal to slow, it can be traffic already slowed again to make them aware of a situation ( they can see anyway), we had tractor drivers stop and swich off their engine ( country lane ) to let horse have good look and walk by.
Horses and riders do have to learn roadwork, got to start somewhwere. We always thank drivers as we are grateful for their help.
 
I definitely agree with this! My friend hasn't had much luck with her horses and she is quite a novice buyer and she bought a welsh d who was fine when she tried him out on the roads but when he got home he bolted at anything and everything on the roads to the point that it got extremely dangerous and she wouldn't get on him. However one of her more horsey friends who is a lot more experienced and is a really confident rider took him for a hack and he was totally fine and he didn't bolt once! It begs the question was it just the way he was being ridden? I think that kind of proves that your horse needs to know you trust them so that they can trust you :) I think roads can be dangerous and you get idiots who don't care but if I can hear one coming I just walk on the verge and let them pass with a shake of my head! :rolleyes: Just trust your horse and you're fine that's what I say!:D
 
6 of one and half a dozen of the other i would say;) of course there are horses that will pick up on a nervous riders vibes and become nervous themselves, and of course there are some idiot drivers who could upset even the sanest horse with their bad driving.
i used to take out treks, those ponies could have had a bomb up their butt and not noticed:rolleyes: they were what any one would have called 110% on the roads, but one day an impatient driver couldn't be bothered to wait for us to get to the layby 10yards up the road so he could pass safely, he pushed his way past and clipped the rear pony on the leg with his bumper, poor pony shot up the hedge/bank and came down on top of the pony in front which then started a stampede of 8 ponies with complete novice riders, ignorant driver just drove on by and left me to round up the ponies:mad: that poor pony was never the same after that and we had to stop using her, the rest even tho they had just be scared witless went back to their good old ploddy selves within minutes!
 
My horse (an ex-racer) is pretty bomb proof on the roads but I've had 2 incidents that have caused him to take off.
1 was a car hurtling round a blind bend towards us - driver slammed on her brakes and skidded, and he spun and cantered away, but did stop, turn and go back and pass it with no problems.
2 was a cyclist suddenly comming up behind us - again he took off at a canter but stopped when asked and I got him to turn and face it and he was fine, once he could see what had scared him.
 
I wouldn't ride on all but the quietest of roads if my horse were likely to spook in traffic or get upset at cars passing him at anything other than walking pace. In other words, I don't feel the need to signal for traffic to slow down at all, because I am confident enough in my horse to behave should traffic fail to slow down. Yes, its always risky, but my horse is at least well enough behaved for me not to constantly signal. And if he were not so, I would stick to riding out in pairs on very quite roads only, or avoid road work.

I saw it from the other side of (driver's) coin once. I was driving to view a livery yard, funnily enough (south of Horsham if anyone knows it). There were two riders out coming towards me. I slowed down to about 10 -15mph - the road was easily wide enough for me to pass them as they were coming towards me. And one of them started screaming and shouting at me. I stopped and rolled down my window and got a lot of abuse, basically along the lines of my being a dangerous driver and how I would be responsible if her horse went into my car as it was a young one. I pointed out that I was doing nothing wrong but the abuse continued. Obviously by this point I was completely stationary. In the end, I just rolled up my window and drove off, bemused. I still have no idea what they wanted me to do. Maybe to have stopped entirely as soon as I saw them? Maybe I should have waited until they went into an entrance or something until I crawled past them?

I should say that their horses were far better behaved than they were. Neither of them turned a hair, young or old, despite the shrieking and hysteria that was going on above. Needless to say, neither of them were at all looking at my car and I would have described them as quiet, relaxed, easy to handle horses!

Its so easy though to see how some horses develop behavioural problems after being subjected to that sort of riding and handling, day in, day out...
 
No doubt at all that riders transmit nerves to horses but doesn't take away the fact that some drivers are f---wits
 
cindydog said:
Its the traffic that dont take any notice of riders signals that gets me, I dont signal for them to slow down all the time, only when I want to let drivers become aware of anything I consider might be a problem for all, not enough space to pass each other, horses playing up for whatever reason, other traffic trying to overtake and nip back in just in time from hitting on coming traffic.
I should also say its not all speeding traffic I signal to slow, it can be traffic already slowed again to make them aware of a situation ( they can see anyway), we had tractor drivers stop and swich off their engine ( country lane ) to let horse have good look and walk by.
Horses and riders do have to learn roadwork, got to start somewhwere. We always thank drivers as we are grateful for their help.
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Yaaay the best post ive read so far.
I am a confident rider but horses are flight animals and even the best of them have the potential to freak, i have a really good mare who you can drive a bus up her bum and she wont bat an eye, but having seen her mate struck by a van on a straight road, again another confident rider onboard, she gets really squirly if something clanks and clatters going past her.
I knew that, so if i heard it clattering id ask it to slow down, id have liked her to have got her confidence back on the road shes retired now so not an issue now, but this had been the proverbial bombproof horse involved in an accident through no fault other than being there, i tried for years to help her get her confidence back and make no apologies for ASKING drivers of vehicles who had the potential of stressing her to slow down for all of the 10-20 seconds it would take to pass us safely
 
One thing which annoys me is if car drivers slow down too much, I hate it when car drivers pass you at say 10mph because that gives my horse much more time to freek out. Yes I want them to slow down and pass wide but not that slowly. I always ask drivers to slow and always thank them.

As a car driver I hate riders (and cyclists) which ride 2 a breast and I really hate horse riders who dont thank drivers for slowing down. I think both horse riders and car drivers should be educated more about each other and signals.
 
Devonshire dumpling said:
Now the amount of times I pass slow and wind for young girls /older women on horses and I get a nod and a hand up, it kind of winds me up, maybe it shouldn't but I thinks ffs why can't you smile, bend down and say thanks or weathers nice etc.... I know I should be happy with a nod, but I think its so up yourself!
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How is it up yourself?

I always thank drivers who slow down but I'm often on buzzy tbs and need to keep my wits about me - sometimes that only allows for a quick hand up or even a nod if I need to keep both hands on the reins. I do smile if I have the opportunity to make eye contact with them - however perhaps the drivers around here are different as usually they just pass and go on their way - they don't wait around to make small talk about the weather!

With regards to the OP - I don't really agree. Yes, a tense rider can wind up the horse of course, but the fact is that drivers should absolutely not speed past anyway and I don't think that riders should have to "just accept it." As a general rule, the traffic isn't usually an issue - but its the fact that a horse can spook at a plastic bag, or a leaf, or a pheasant - any number of random things - and if a driver is going too quickly they won't be able to react in time.
 
feet said:
One thing which annoys me is if car drivers slow down too much, I hate it when car drivers pass you at say 10mph because that gives my horse much more time to freek out. Yes I want them to slow down and pass wide but not that slowly.
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I agree! If I've pulled into a gateway to let a car go by I like them to get on with it rather than crawl past as my horse will start fidgeting if asked to wait for too long!
 
What most drivers forget is that us horse riders are sat on maybe 5-600kgs of animate muscle and as much as we can say say we are in control of our horses they still have a mind of their own and can spook at anything in our way!!

My own horse has cataracts so anything suddenly appearing in his vision can distract him enough to spook- he is good with traffic but we still see ignorant drivers on the roads!! My last altercation was with a Mercedes Van driver who was on a single track road and trying to pass 3 horses in front of him!! We trotted on towards the nearest turn-off and he started getting abusive saying we'd made him late for work!! :(

Also I try to put my hand up to say thankyou as much as possible but sometimes you need both hands on the reins so a nod and a smile is all you can do and most of the time it's more than you get from the drivers if you stop for them!! :(
 
ticobay831 said:
another things it isnt always traffic that spooks your horse whilst out riding it could be somthing in the hedge somone strimming or even cutting down tree's in a garden that the driver zooming towards you is totally unawre off.
So it dosnt matter how good your horse is in traffic, it is an animal and they can all be unpredicatable.
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^^^^^I agree with this. I live in the middle of a busy village and the horses live with me. To hack out I have to go through the village to get out! We do get a lot of cars and lorries pass through as they use it as a short cut. What spooks my two is people cutting their grass, putting their bins out or slamming the wheelie bin lids! All it takes is for something like this to happen, whilst a lorry is passing you (at any speed) and.... squished!!!

Also, we have a lot of horses in the village and they all seem totally bombproof! The cars whizz past them and a lot of them are in no hi viz so are literally seen last minute on the bend! Drivers seem to think it's okay as their horses don't spook so horses don't in general (in this village)! For this reason I don't hack anymore, (feel bad for my horses as it's a nice change of scenery for them) but I'd rather not take the risk as they're very sharp, no matter who rides them. I'll stick to my menage, until we move to the edge of a village!!!!!
 
A tip for road riding is NEVER wave a car driver on as by doing this you take legal responsilbilty for anything untoward, even a car coming suddenly in the other direction & maybe an accident. Always acknowledge a car but don't wave it on.
 
Think my horse has a slight sense of humour, he sees something very scary in hedge and spooks, car comes he forgets spooky thing, car goes and he returns to spooking at what ever it was. Getting cross with him makes him find even more scary things. but trust him 100% not to mess around when traffic is about. train tracks run next to a bridleway and he spooks at a leaf instead of the train flying past the other side.

In an ideal world i wouldn't have to ride on the roads, though do think riders could be a lot more corteous to drivers and if a driver slows down etc, sy thankyou, nothing annoys me more to sit behind a horse for best part of half a mile and not even be acknoledged, normally is happy hackers with the totally bomb proof cob who don't acknoledge you, and I like horses, so think how much it annoys someone who doesn't like horses. And it takes no effort to smile and nod
 
Take this example; not the same horse but another horse I was riding, again, very good in traffic, hacking round a very quiet estate near the yard. A van (Royal Mail none the less!) approached us from behind very fast (I'm talking 30mph+, on a Sat morning when the estate was full of kids playing too) - we had correct hi viz gear on. My horse had a bit of a fidget and I asked the van to slow down; instead of slowing down, he got right behind us, inches from my horse's bum and revved, and revved, and revved. Obviously my horse spooked, so satisfied with that he sped past, spooking the other horse we were with.

As we caught up with him I asked him politely if he would mind slowing down a little next time he passed horses on the road - to which I got a mouthful with no hint of an apology for his behaviour.
K x[/QUOTE]

Report him to Royal Mail, i had a similar thing happen whilst i was out hacking with my friend and her daughter with a bus driver, speeding past us/driving too close on two occasions even though we asked him to slow down. I wrote to the bus company and made an offical complaint, they took it quite seriously as i mentioned about a duty of care to all road users and he was given a verbal warning and had to attend a training session. I don't feel bad that this happened to him, he should have known better.

I know that you can't do it to all road users, but certainly if they are a public service.
 
AprilBlossom said:
Having read a couple of 'the roads are so dangerous' threads recently, I get the impression the impending cars caused the riders to get a bit worked up and anxious, then find their horse spooks at said car.

Now I'm not trying to apply a blanket rule but it's just when I go out and ride on the road I have implicit trust in my horse and he in I, and no spookiness at all. Yes, cars pass too fast, yes cars pass a little closer then I'd like, but instead of gettingall angry/nervous I find I just sigh and continue on my merry way and have never had problems even on a very busy 50mph limit road.

So what I'm wondering is how much of an effect do you think the rider has on the 'normally good in traffic' horse, and how much is it actually the driver panicking the horse??
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There are definitely a lot of cases where nervous riders cause horses to become spooky and nervy on the roads. I can think of several people who do this! However these are the people who tend not to be inolved in the accidents as they ride so defensively and probably don't do as much road riding.

I know more people who are very competant riders and have very solid, super horses who are great in traffic. Unfortunaately there have been 2 horse fatalities and several accidents over the past few years in our village, and the accidents have all involved competant riders on safe, non spooky horses. The cause is always due to idiotic car and van drivers, driving far, far too fast, usually along narrow, windy roads.
 
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