Road Rage - longish!

[CorvusCorax]

Just reading all the awful stories about road accidents involving horses and am wondering why the authorities blame everything except driver error.
Where my mother lives now we have room for a horse (a stable and small turn-out) but it is just too dangerous to have one because of the road outside.
To boot, after two high profile fatal road accidents (both driver error) they have now felled a number of trees (it was the tree's fault for being there for 50 years!!!) and replaced the soft verge with a high kerb - I thought it would be better to roll into a ditch than bounce off a high pavement into an oncoming vehicle - very narrow road.
Our old dog is trained to pop onto the verge and sit when a car comes, we now have a new pup and when I hear a car I have to physically throw them both (German Shepherds - fun!) over this in-construction kerb and jump over after them or risk us all getting mown down on a blind bend.
Why why why do they always blame the trees, the road, the verge, everything else except the person behind the wheel and work on the driver's attitude instead?!?
We have of course complained to police, but no one is breaking the 60mph speed limit.
Where I hack there are still some courteous drivers but more and more people are moving out from the city to the country and are not adjusting their driving.
I have been driving for ten years and my instructor always said "expect the unexpected" - do they not teach that anymore?!?
Cheers if you got this far.

 

[Lobelia_Overhill]

I totally agree with you - I still get the shakes when I remember the near accidents I had on the roads over 20 years ago - a narrow windy country road that the locals knew like the backs of their hands and drove along as fast as they bloody liked

 

[Ottinmeg]

ditto that, where mine are currently stabled is on a country lane with a nursery right next door and the farm next door to that ,all run by members of the same family. the worst offenders are the nursery mums and the farmers sons, you would have thought they would know better than to speed up and down the road like they do knowing there are horses there. I am moving mine soon and the only hacking will be all on country lanes which dont see much traffic which is great, BUT it is the speed that that odd car may be doing which will be the problem!

 

[NeilM]

They did something like that around here. A bunch of young lads got killed and injured driving a stolen car way over the speed limit. What did they do, simple, put the speed limit down! Oh yeah, I'm sure a bunch of drunken idiots in a nicked beemer will now be safe on the roads because of that.

We also have to ride through a village to get to our off road riding, and despite it being narrow, having traffic calming measures and an infant / junior school right in the middle of the village, you still get the sat nav shortcut jockeys belting through the 30 MPH limit at 50 or 60. One of them has already destroyed the gates of the school (and his car)!

I ride motorbikes, and you learn to read traffic, be prepared for everything and to react like lightning, I never thought I'd need those skills (when dealing with cars) on a horse though!

 

[Rollin]

I rode for 8 years on a busy main road in Scotland and like other contributors suffered greatly at the hand of motorists although fortunately without accident or injury. You need to have your wits about you all the time.

Sadly many fellow riders were amongst the most unhelpful. I was told not to ride my horse on the road -to buy a horse-box - not very green!! Never be nasty to a pig of a motorist they might be even more nasty to another rider 'give them a friendly wave'. Oh so next time they pass a horse they will put foot to the floor and possibly kill someone!! If your child has a tantrum in the supermarket or bites other children you give them a big kiss and reward their bad behaviour.

I had three super bomb proof horses, but I always took registration numbers and complained to the police if motorist behaved in a dangerous way. A dressage rider out hacking near Stirling was threatened by an abusive farmer whilst out hacking. He was taken to court and fined £500.

We should learn from Sustrans and be more assertive. Perhaps H&H should organise a petition. By the way it is easier to transport a bike than a horse and I found the cyclists pouring into the Trossach and Loch Lomond National Park with their bikes on the roof were just as appalling, as the motorists THEY complain about, when they encountered another vulnerable road user namely a ridden horse.

Time to Man the Barricades!