Should we think of ditching cars in favour of horses?

Mine would be so game for that.

I WFH so he could hang out in my garden all day. Although he'd probably run me out if tea and ginger biscuits in a morning, two of his legit favourite things.

When I go to HO he'd be equally game when he discovered the onsite restaurant and bar 🤣

Win, win in his book!
 
Peregrine Falcon said:
It struck me earlier today whilst at the fields that perhaps we should be going back in time to old ways of transporting oneselves about. Horse drawn carriages and riding to work would lessen the issues surrounding petrol & diesels cars. There would be no problems recharging equine powered vehicles then either.

I could ride the 2 miles to work. Pop the pony in a coral on the school field. Job done!
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no!! I love the fact I can just dump the car outside and not have to feed it!!! and my horse would be forever lame and I am actually terrified of riding now having lost all my confidence
 
I would honestly do it if I was able. I live 9miles from my work (waiting for a school Closer to home mind you so could be less than half that) so if I could honestly get him stabled on site I’d ride that daily.

He’d be soo fit 🤣🤣 I’d probably have to actually feed him calories rather than watch them 🤣🤣
 
My little horse would be delighted, I work in a feed store, her dream 😂 she could also beg the customers for treats all day.

It would be a 12 mile hack though but I will pretend it would be all off road grassy tracks to get some good gallops, lovely scenery, sunny warm summer days etc since unfortunately it’s a hypothetical question so I can pretend as much as I like here.
 
spookypony said:
No, but I did take my pony to the university several times for a St Martin's Parade with the university nursery! A vet I know rode to work, however, when she was otherwise snowed in!

I couldn't ride to work, now: it would take most of the day, going at Endurance speeds, just to get there, and I'd have to go through large chunks of big city. Fortunately, there's a fast train! I do ride my e-bike to the yard most days, instead of driving, but that's only possible because the weather isn't as horrible here as it is in Scotland. I was full of good intentions re. biking, in Scotland, but short winter days, horizontal rain, and mud quickly sent me back into my car.

On a serious note, I've been thinking about it a lot since changing my habits after moving here. Seems to me that a lot of the initiatives around getting people out of cars involve some blue-eyed idealism that doesn't take into account the nature of people and the places they go sufficiently. E.g. while it's easy for me to hop on a bike when the weather is nice and the roads are flat and there are farm tracks connecting everything and I have the time to build the extra 20min into my ride and I have an e-bike to take care of the hills, I just wouldn't do so regularly, if the weather were ugly and I was more pressured for time by work/family and I couldn't avoid main roads and I weren't feeling physically up to it and I couldn't afford an e-bike.

Same for commuting to work: this country's investment in public transport infrastructure and in affordable transit passes means that it is both faster AND cheaper for me to take the train/subway to work, than to drive. After the floods in September, it took only a few days for the trains to run again at reduced capacity and somewhat slower. After 3 months, the multi-million damage was repaired, and the trains were back up to full capacity. Sure, there's constant complaining about the capacity of the park-and-ride in the nearest city, and about rural buses not being as good as they should be, but I COULD take a bus to the yard at a pinch, and it would be about the same speed as biking, albeit with less time flexibility.

I think to get more people to drive less, it's not sufficient to appeal to their better nature, or to make them feel guilty. It has to be more convenient and preferably also less expensive to use public transit or to walk/bike/ride. And the system has to take account of people who are physically unable to bike/walk, as well, and make sure that they have convenient public transit available: I saw how isolating it was for my mother in Canada to give up her car. The system also has to acknowledge that for certain types of trips, cars are going to be the most convenient solution, e.g. large shopping trips, towing things, certain types of group journeys. The sorts of car-share initiatives that one sees in certain cities have the potential to help there, but I think that to really get people willing to give up their cars, they'd need to be integrated into a reliable publicly-funded system. The second a public system stops being reliable, people head for their cars again, anyway!
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Yes, being serious, I agree with everything you say here and I've been saying it for years. Well, whenever our idiot council takes more punitive actions against drivers without doing a damn thing to improve the city's public transport network, or arguably make it worse, by cutting bus routes or increasing train fares.

People, by and large, are fundamentally lazy. If they can nip into town on a train or bus easily, without having to think hard or faff with lots of logistics to make timetables work, they will. No one wants to rely on public transport for quick errands when you know you'll be waiting for a long time if you miss a train. We were in Berlin for a few days in November, and that city has an amazing public transport system. At no point did we even consider using taxis to get anywhere because the trains, subways, trams, and buses took us exactly where we needed to be, and they are so frequent and reliable that you don't need to stress about timing.

Glasgow council has made it prohibitively expensive to park in the West End, but depending on where you live, it's not that easy to get there via public transport. I used to pop in now and then for coffee or shopping, but forget it. I'm not going to spend 30-45 minutes travelling all of three miles to just have a coffee for half an hour, then spend 30-45 minutes travelling home. The new parking charges must be hurting businesses there.

They are building more bike paths, but they are not that well linked, and our best off-road bike path that connects a lot of the city, the canal towpath, isn't lit at night and it's a bit scary. So most people don't use it after dark. It puts you off cycling to the pub. Besides, this is Glasgow. Who wants to ride their bike in pishing rain and 40+mph wind?

 
My husband’s much adored rising 3yo is going to be a driving pony if she doesn’t put on a serious growth spurt this summer. I was saying to my son the other day that she could pull a cart to collect hay and feed and be quite useful! Would be cheaper than fuel for sure!
 
There is a town near us and they all have them in stables in their back gardens. Coloured cobs. Pretty rough estate. Tether them everywhere.
 
Kaylum said:
There is a town near us and they all have them in stables in their back gardens. Coloured cobs. Pretty rough estate. Tether them everywhere.
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The horses sound like lovely animals but have you seen any owner take off road for a hack or riding lesson somewhere
 
Caol Ila said:
People, by and large, are fundamentally lazy. If they can nip into town on a train or bus easily, without having to think hard or faff with lots of logistics to make timetables work, they will. No one wants to rely on public transport for quick errands when you know you'll be waiting for a long time if you miss a train. We were in Berlin for a few days in November, and that city has an amazing public transport system. At no point did we even consider using taxis to get anywhere because the trains, subways, trams, and buses took us exactly where we needed to be, and they are so frequent and reliable that you don't need to stress about timing.

[...]

They are building more bike paths, but they are not that well linked, and our best off-road bike path that connects a lot of the city, the canal towpath, isn't lit at night and it's a bit scary. So most people don't use it after dark. It puts you off cycling to the pub. Besides, this is Glasgow. Who wants to ride their bike in pishing rain and 40+mph wind?
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Exactly! To get from my small town to the shopping district of the nearest city (about 6 miles) is 7 minutes by train, 12 minutes driving (and then worrying about parking). So I only drive there if I need to buy feed or other big things: the feed store isn't near the train station, and I don't fancy carrying feed bags on the train. But for restaurants or shopping, the train is very convenient! I've also shifted to doing most of my shopping by bike: I don't have car parking directly outside, so I have to walk 5 mins to the car park where the car lives. In that time, I've biked (or walked) to one of 4 supermarkets that are within 1km of my place. Here, too, though, one can see the consequences of internet shopping and centralisation such as big-box stores: there are plenty of empty retail spaces and closed hospitality venues. The locals complain about how it's gone downhill, especially since Covid. To me, still fairly new here, it still seems more alive, but I can see the empty windows!
 
...I did use to imagine putting an electric fence around the empty patch of rough grass beside our work building in Scotland and parking a horse there for the day...and I may have imagined already what it would be like to let the Ballerina Mare graze in the central yard of my current workplace...😊
 
Cobxfan55 said:
The horses sound like lovely animals but have you seen any owner take off road for a hack or riding lesson somewhere
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Yes they are always riding around. My point was everyone worried about planning permission for stables etc but these guys literally have them in their back gardens. I am not saying it's right just facts.

They have their own horse fairs as well, which are very popular in the area.
 
When I was about 6/7 years old. My best friends mum would walk 3 miles to school with friends pony and we would be lifted on, bare back and ride home, dropping me at grandads to pick up my pony and then go for a ride up lanes. That was mid 1960 s hardly any cars on roads. In fact we would meet more cows and sheep being g herded than cars. God we had some fun them days. No one worried about us as if ponies got fed up of us they just went home , we had no say in matter. Pony knew its way home.
 
Kaylum said:
There is a town near us and they all have them in stables in their back gardens. Coloured cobs. Pretty rough estate. Tether them everywhere.
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Used to be like that in the town nearest my grandparents (early 1960s), before the moorlands were fenced off. Teenagers and children would go and catch a pony - any pony - from the common grazing and ride it about, or keep it at home for a bit. In snow, ponies would come into the gardens, or even mug shoppers with groceries. My gt. aunt was terrified of ponies, she’d throw a loaf down and run!
A bit Wild West, but some lovely ponies.
 
It is a lovely thing to do occasionally, however having no other means of transport is quite a strain on both humans and horses IRL. I had to do it for a while when I could not afford a car and a horse ( the horse stayed obviously) and lived in north Wales up a mile long extremely steep hill. I even did the Christmas shopping with my horse and my son's pony complete with four year old child on board one year. We left the horses in a pen in the cattle market across the road, wheeled the shopping trolley back to the horses and tied up all the bags to every possible D ring before going back up the hills. Ok as long as nothing goes wrong with the horse or the weather is plain abominable. Putting an open newspaper on a horse plastered in mud before saddling him because he saw fit to roll while you did your stint at work can be a bit yuck!
 
Peregrine Falcon said:
It struck me earlier today whilst at the fields that perhaps we should be going back in time to old ways of transporting oneselves about. Horse drawn carriages and riding to work would lessen the issues surrounding petrol & diesels cars. There would be no problems recharging equine powered vehicles then either.

I could ride the 2 miles to work. Pop the pony in a coral on the school field. Job done!
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Just live over the shop.
 
I've done school pick up with the pony before. My son used to ride to the local shop with his friends, and then one hop off and go in, whilst the other stayed and held onto both of horses, then put their snacks in carrier bags to attached to D-rings and head out on a long hack. The issue was it taught naughty pony that rustling 'up top' meant there was food about, at which point he would stop and turn his head around for his share! Polo for me, polo for you! He is completely food obsessed, and even 10 years later (long after son had outgrown him) if he noticed you put your hand in your pocket/rustle he's stop dead and turn his head round optimistically!

About 13/14 years ago now I know the local teenagers used to ride up to the McDonald's drive through with the ponies. Not that I've tried (!) but I don't think they'd let you now.
 
Sugarplum Furry said:
and I've ridden to the local shop and brought the shopping home in saddle bags as an adult.
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as an adult I used to ride to our local shop, stay on the horse, the owner came out and took my shopping bag, list and a £5 note, then came back with the goods. I got change from a £5 note so this was a long time ago.
For my first job that lasted 3 months I rode to and from work. I had no car, couldn't have afforded one let alone to run one and the only alternative to riding was to walk.
 
For all his infant/junior school years I would collect my son from school in reasonable weather with the donkey and carriage. Near the end he refused to get in at school due to overhearing a new child telling his father that he felt sorry for us as we could not afford a car. He would walk to the edge of the village and then get on. We lived two miles away from the school.

The donkey knew the time and always got us there on time, even if I thought his timing was a bit off. Other parents would guard the prime parking space directly outside the gates for the donkey and prevent anyone else using it. Everyone drooled over the idea of a ride but only a chosen few ever got a go.
 
I should probably mention that the difference between driving to/from my friend’s yard and riding the same distance is… 2 hours and 40 minutes 🤦‍♀️. Slower pace of life that would be! It takes 10min to drive there and 1.5 hours (ish) to ride!
 
We've been known to drive a horse to the shops. The traffic doesn't seem to know what to do with us, but we are quite a big outfit and they tend to hang behind. I wouldn't want to take a small pony. Irritatingly, he always dumps in the car park or when at traffic lights. He's concentrating on his ridden career right now, but he will be a big part of our transport arsenal at some point. When back from his trainer, he was butcher boy fit for 15 miles easily. We can travel a fair way.
 
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