Riding over motorway bridges

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Waffles

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I get a horrible vertigo effect! Haven't ridden over one for quite a few years and am going to do it (twice - 2 different ones on a loop route) later this morning. Good vibes please!:eek:
 
Huge vibes :) I used to ride over one and it was really hard to keep my eyes trained on the other side rather than the whooshy cars! Enjoy (if you can!) :)
 
thanks - the first bridge has a high side on one side, so that's ok, but the second (on the way home doesn't). At the end of the second bridge is a traffic calming thingy with upright black and white bollards with red bits on. Thankfully, I am going with a sensible woman who has a sensible horse (who is about 22 and is very well behaved). My horse hadn't seen traffic till August last year so it's quite a bit thing for him today - and me too! We're going to ride through a fairly busy suburban village too.:eek:
 
We have a lot of these... The roadway one is OK... there's actually a pavement separating you (on the road) from the railings. The pedestrian ones are rather terrifying, though, and since my horse is tall and the railings are just above waist height for me walking, I dismount and lead over these. I wish they'd design all of them with full height railings!

Good luck to you today, hope you have a lovely ride :)
 
I don't think I could deal with a footbridge one..... there aren't any near us. Luckily the road is reasonably quite, so we will ride down the middle I think!
 
phew! Glad you made it over ok! The one bridge doesn't have those safety railings on (but it's two lanes wide with pavements). Someone once told me that a newspaper blowing about spooked their horse and it went right up to the railings and her foot (in the stirrup) was higher than the railings. Still, M4 in South Wales on a sunday shouldn't be too busy.... was thinking of wearing my body protector...
 
We have 2 bridges we have to cross over, I generally get off and lead on green horses. Although im more scared then they are! Id rather be safe than sorry!
 
Pedantic posted a great video taken by helmetcam showing the ginger sausage crossing a motorway. I was very impressed as I've only ever crossed a small railway bridge (very nervously as the parapet was really low!).
 
i don't think I could do it unless the railings either side where taller than me on horseback, I'd just get dizzy and fall off the edge prob lol.
 
Just reading these posts made me feel queasy far less riding over one of these darn things. No circumstances would persuade me that it was a good idea.
 
When I got my old horse I had a phobia of riding over motorway bridges. I did it once on him, when out hacking with others - he didn't want to go, realised he was getting left behind and then shot over it like a mad thing.

I refused to go over the bridge again for a couple of years, even hiring a lorry to go a couple of miles up the road to avoid it! I had a good bond with my horse by then and one morning I woke up and decided to have another go. It took about 2 hours to get him halfway over, at which point he looked round, decided it wasn't scary after all and walked calmly the rest of the way over. He was absolutely fine over any motorway bridge from that day on.

With my current horse, I wanted to get the "motorway bridge issue" over and done with so found a quiet one to take him over quite soon after I got him. He didn't bat an eyelid at the traffic, but seemed quite concerned as there was a black line on the tarmac half way over which he had to step over VERY carefully!
 
Well, we did it!! No mishaps. Tucked right onto the tail of the horse in front and looked forward all the time. My horse wasn't that bothered. phew!! AND we rode through a really busy village with a constant stream of cars in both directions - my horse was fab!
 
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