Riding over motorway bridges

[Little_Grape]

Unfortunately where I live our hacking crosses the motorway and we have to regularly ride motorway bridges. This strikes the fear of god in me every single time and makes me feel physically sick. Thankfully my mare is perfect and we always get across without incidedent.

However, there seems to be a recent trend where lorries (in particuar) spot horses on the bridge and lean on their horns which obviously makes the horses jump. I hack out with a couple of youngsters and every time this happens they get very frightened. It makes me cross as I am sure it is only happening for the drivers entertainment- laughing at the frightened horses on the bridge.

Someone please tell me there is an actual reason that the drivers need to do this and it's not some joke!

 

[Kezzabell2]

what the hell, that's damn right blimmin dangerous, I've never seen this, I too have a few motorway bridges that I have ridden over but have never had this happen to me! like you, my mare wouldn't be fazed but I now have a youngster and I'm dreading the day that I have to hack him over!

luckily they are wide bridges and on pretty quiet roads, so I would just ride in the middle so if they do freak out, I wouldn't end up being chucked over on to the motor way!

I also have a train bridge near me that I had to ride over! I pooped myself about it for months, but when I finally road on it he didn't even bat an eyelid. its only wide enough for one car and is metal, so quite noisy! I always make sure the tracks are clear before crossing though!

 

[PollyP99]

No idea, sounds awful. My mare in her previous home regularly went over an m4 motorway bridge apparently, it's made get brilliant in traffic but we don't encounter many motorway bridges here in the Cotswolds, thankfullyjust think of the good it's doing, they will become oblivious to it.

 

[Little_Grape]

Have done the bridges 3 times in the last 2 days and 3 of the times we have been hooted and the youngster has attempted to canter off in fright. Hacking buddy said she had been several times in the week too luckily they are quite wide but there are narrower ones around that I think we are going to need to avoid hopefully they get used to it just can't understand why it's happening.

 

[Penny Less]

Used to ride over a motorway bridge that was very narrow. I always felt that if horse had a panic I would be straight over the rails !
Started getting off and leading over.

 

[Noodles_3]

The only route to hack involved us crossing over a motorway bridge and it is extremely noisy! However the pony didn't flinch or bat an eyelid so I never thought about the scary possibilities!

 

[Spiritedly]

Take note of the time, location and company then phone them. Most transport companies have trackers on their lorries and the drivers lose their bonus if there are complaints made against them.

 

[meesha]

We have lots of motorway bridges some v low sided and narrow, never had a problem with horns but maybe worth you investing in a headcam as you may be able to catch them on camera and report to their employer. I once crossed a bridge in front of another rider and her horse went loopy as I disappeared from sight, heard commotion and went back to her and rode across with her,nothing worse than one going mental in middle of bridge.

 

[stormox]

I cant really believe they are hooting at your horse, or someone on a bridge above them. Its probably just coincidence and they are hooting at some idiot car driver on the motorway.
I would rather go over a motorway bridge than the type of bridleway crossings on the dual carriageways near us, where you have to go through an insanely narrow gap between two staggered bits of crash barrier on the centre reservation.

 

[Hoof_Prints]

I have a motorway bridge on a bridlepath near me, I take my horses up there to bombproof them but only if I can trust them not to panic and act dangerous- obviously I expect them to jump a bit but providing they don't rear I can cope! I have on a few occasions had idiot hooting at my horse, luckily none have taking the slightest bit of notice to the hooting so the drivers would have been disappointed at the lack of reaction, I do hope they drive in to a brick wall or something.

If you skip to 8:43 on this video, it is my youngster hacking over the motorway bridge near me. Does make you feel a bit nervous watching it! I actually had a car hoot at me on this video but you can't hear as it was really windy, yes I did jam my phone in to a fence and leave it while I filmed haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zF968zRUfo

 

[Supertrooper]

Take note of the time, location and company then phone them. Most transport companies have trackers on their lorries and the drivers lose their bonus if there are complaints made against them.

100% agree!

 

[Little_Grape]

Thanks for all then replies, unfortunately it happens too quick for me to get details but I had not thought of a helmet cam- I will certainly consider it! My fear is falling over the side if a horse spooks- am terrified of heights anyway without adding horse into the equation! Stormox the first time it happened I thought it was coincidence but it happened too frequently and the third person was a van driver who I saw pointing and laughing as he did it! A man in a car stopped for us and told us how ridiculous and dangerous he thought they were being too!

Hoof-prints that is a truly terrifying bridge! At least the ones we cross are designed for cars too so are a bit wider!!!

 

[RobinHood]

We have to cross a motorway bridge to reach our grazing and our hacking routes zig zag across the motorway. Consequently our horses are completely unphased but I have never had anyone hoot at us.

If it's one particular bridge perhaps there's a reason why people are using their horns, maybe the lanes merge or there's a slip road?

 

[OldNag]

I had to do one on a sponsored ride once, and it scared the life out if me. I hate heights, and being able to see over the edge of anything, so it was my worst nightmare Luckily my lad was brilliant .

But I certainly wouldn't do one again!

 

[Gloi]

I ride over motorway bridges all the time without problems. Sometimes a new pony will take a time or two to get used to it at then be okay. However if I had lorries blowing their horns at me I would go spare at them and do my best to get their numbers to report them.

 

[suffolkmare]

Definitely try a real/fake helmet cam, stupid drivers, they should be concentrating on the road they are on, not you!
That said, I may once have caused some drivers a little confusion many years ago when riding a nappy pony on a bridge over the M25. He wouldn't go forwards, so I allowed him to turn, reined back 4 or 5 strides, turned and went forwards till he stopped again, repeated, etc. so we basically crossed the bridge backwards, . I'm glad it wasn't a very narrow one though!

 

[Pedantic]

Try and get number reg and report to police, better still head cam for proof, be a nuisance, we aren't second class citizens.

Ride over this one regular, went over it today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvUL7NpxOWw&list=UUp4fey_yy9ULlmUaptVmKwQ

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Hello Pedantic, was wondering where you were this week. Nice to hear from you.

 

[Talyn]

I ride over a motorway bridge every time I hack out as it's right next to the farm and the only way to go to get to any routes. On top of that the road itself is a 40mph main road - so motorway traffic underneath and fast moving traffic inc lorries etc passing next to us at the same time! I'm lucky that I have VERY good horses!

 

[YorksG]

It may be worth posting your concerns on a trucking forum, they may be able to apply some pressure to other truckers, communication can sometimes help.

 

[lhotse]

I recently read a scary story on a truckers forum where a lorry had tooted at two horseriders going over a bridge and one of the horses actually threw the rider onto the railings, luckily she kept hold of the reins and managed to scramble to safety. This was witnessed by another lorry driver who was so disgusted that he reported the other lorry to the police, who did nothing. I often used to ride across the motorway on my old horse. If I was on a roadbridge with low railings, I would wait until the road was clear and ride on the white line, and the other bridge was a bridleway with high sides and I would get off and lead. Not tried with my new horse yet!

 

[alainax]

We used to cross the m8 every week as kids, check road was clear and ride along the white line. Horses never bothered. That's unbelievable though that trucks would beep, why on earth would they do that!

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

We regularly hack over dual-carriageway road bridges: have to do it here coz otherwise we'd never get anywhere!!

All horses round here can cope with it, even youngsters. We found the best way with a "new kid on the block" or a nervous horse, was to jam them in between my two who're well used to it, and hack across three-abreast (OK OK so you "road safety critics" can rant, but that was the only way to solve a difficult problem); and it worked.

We've not encountered the trucker's hooting problem, tho' one day we did have an emergency vehicle, blue light & sirens job, flick on his siren just as he was going underneath us - but to be fair I wouldn't necessarily blame the driver for this, tho' thinking about it, it wasn't the most helpful thing to have done. Horses were fine with it.

Re. hooting in general: every time I drive past my field and see the horses next to the hedge, or close to it, I hoot at them. Also if they're in the yard, and I can drive round and have a toot, I'll do it. We've been out hacking several times and drivers have (in total ignorance) tooted at us, not realising its not a good thing to do, and/or we've got a blind corner and have had a car coming round it and blazing on their horn, unaware (obviously) that there are horses the other side, and they've been fine.

So whether OP you could find some way of de-sensitising your horse to the noise of hooters??? I'm just suggesting this as a possible solution; as if the situation is that truckers or other vehicles are sounding hooters when you're going over this bridge, you might need to just try to be ahead of the game here.........

Also; for you when you are riding over it.......... it sounds like you are anticipating a problem and are very tense, which will affect your horse. It may be that you need to find a way of managing your own stress in these circumstances - learning some relaxed/Yoga type breathing exercises and/or diversionary tactics to relax would help you, also have a look at Michael Peace's website, or NLP, which may give you some coping mechanisms. And/or Rescue Remedy always works for me; you can get them in pastille form, ideal for shoving in your pocket and sucking on when needed! When I first had my current horse: he went over the roadbridges OK for the first few times, then obviously got the measure of me because I'm not good with heights anyway, and he must have sensed my hesitation coz he started jumping and prancing around up there, which then got me REALLY stressed! I got an expert to help me with the issue as otherwise I could see it getting out of hand. She helped me to learn to treat this stretch of road just like ANY other stretch of road you'd encounter out hacking, no difference, and that I needed to take the lead for the horse - so we started off by me just leading him across, then the next time I'd ride over in walk, next time in trot, next time doing six paces in walk then six paces in trot, and so on, basically it was about me as the rider doing something as a "distraction" in effect. Then she had me reciting poetry, and/or singing, and/or thinking of the latest silly joke just as I was riding across. This helped me to manage the feelings of being up high (and being extra high because of the horse) and feeling wobbly when I was looking down at the traffic. I really found that an expert was invaluable in giving me some good coping strategies and wonder if, just if, you might consider this? It needs to be the right person, who can deal with YOUR fears, as a rider, and not just concentrate on the horse basically! But for me, it brought about a fundamental mind-shift in the way I was riding over the bridges

 

[Little_Grape]

I'm really pleased to have had so many genuinely helpful and interesting replies to this! Its amazing how super our horses are to put up with some of the things we expect of them isn't it!

Thanks MiJodsR2BlinkinTite that is really interesting and lots of good ideas- it's not actually my horse that is the problem, she is perfect and the hooting doesn't worry her. You are right I am tense but luckily it again doesn't bother her and I find if Ido positive visualisation exercises as I cross, e.g. imagine how the even rhythm of her footsteps would sound as she walks perfectly across and imagine I am watching myself back crossing it successfully and just focus on getting to the other side and not the crossing itself I have found this has helped keep keep me calm and my breathing even. It's actually 2 of my friends horses that I hack out with that are both big youngsters that are having problems with it and even my calm nanny horse does not help them when the people hoot. I will pass on your ideas to their owners though as I know for a fact they would be useful so I really appreciate the time taken to write such a long, helpful and generally comprehensive reply!

I had not thought of putting it on a trucking forum- I might go and have a look into that now!

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Yeah, nine times out of ten it IS the rider which is the problem!!!

Sorry meant to say that the other thing you/your friends could do would be to try and replicate a similar situation in the yard/the arena, if you can, i.e. the sort of obstacles you'd find in Horse Agility and/or Trec would be the thing - the "walk, trot and canter corridor" you get in TREC would be ideal as it would, sort of, replicate the road over the bridge. Very easy to do with poles/bins etc., and of course you could decorate it and also get some non-horsey friends or other people at the yard to make noises, and be a distraction. But take it easy to start with coz its very easy to do too much too soon.

Also, to help with the hooting situation, it just might be that this could be tackled with positive association, i.e. when your friends feed their horses, then someone toots a car horn at the same time - so they'll begin to associate the noise of a horn with something pleasant.

Sometimes its about finding a quirky solution to a quirky problem............. my friend/expert helped me a lot in this, to devise "tricks" to solve this sort of problem!!

 

[OWLIE185]

If the parapets on a bridge are less than 1.8 metres high contact the local highways department and ask for them to be raised.
Please see:
http://www.bhs.org.uk/~/media/BHS/F... for Equestrian Use in England and Wales.ashx