Speeding giant tractors and huge farm machinery

patterdale said:
Most tractors are limited to 32kph which is roughly 25mph. That is full pork and it can take a bit of pushing to get there :D
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Sorry but that is rubbish. My Dad's old Fendt tractor will easily do 40mph, so the enormous new ones you see would no doubt go faster than that. Also, on a windy, narrow country lane 25mph can seem very fast!

However, mostly the farmers in my area are very good and do slow down or stop; its the cars that seem to drive at me full pelt which have caused all the problems I've had.

I agree with the OP, riding on the road is too dangerous these days and I have given up and box my horse to ride her now. A sad state of affairs, but the only safe way.
 
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Can't say I'm in the habit of buying ready made horses, but still don't have a problem. Schooling a youngster to be ok with stuff is straightforward if you know what you're doing. Or even with green older horses. The problem comes when numpties take out a horse unused to traffic, without the benefit of an experienced horse to learn from. And then said numpty works themselves & horse up about anything bigger than a micra or going above 10mph.
Patchworkpony, are you called Jill in real life & do you have two ponies called black boy & rapide?
 
Thanks StarcatcherWilliam - you at least have grasped the exact point I am making. Horses and modern traffic don't mix. No I'm not new to the country and I didn't have a rich, Enid Blyton childhood - my parents struggled to buy me even a cheap pony BUT I did have a childhood where everyone I knew in the area I rode in (which was a highly agricultural area in Worcestershire) had manners and were naturally kind and considerate so it was quite safe to let a 10 year child out on the roads alone. Times have changes and not for the better!
 
Patchworkpony said:
Thanks StarcatcherWilliam - you at least have grasped the exact point I am making. Horses and modern traffic don't mix. No I'm not new to the country and I didn't have a rich, Enid Blyton childhood - my parents struggled to buy me even a cheap pony BUT I did have a childhood where everyone I knew in the area I rode in (which was a highly agricultural area in Worcestershire) had manners and were naturally kind and considerate so it was quite safe to let a 10 year child out on the roads alone. Times have changes and not for the better!
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Dont have issues in where i am in Devon i regularly see kids out riding their ponies with no trouble
 
StarcatcherWilliam said:
Sorry but that is rubbish. My Dad's old Fendt tractor will easily do 40mph, so the enormous new ones you see would no doubt go faster than that. Also, on a windy, narrow country lane 25mph can seem very fast!

However, mostly the farmers in my area are very good and do slow down or stop; its the cars that seem to drive at me full pelt which have caused all the problems I've had.

I agree with the OP, riding on the road is too dangerous these days and I have given up and box my horse to ride her now. A sad state of affairs, but the only safe way.
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My dad has a new Fendt 416 and laden that will do top 26mph, very few tractors during harvest go unladen.

I take the view that if you are on a road, your horse should be safe with vehicles passing at the speed limit of that road, for most country lanes that is 50/60mph. It is lovely when people slow down for you, but a tractor going 40mph should not cause such an issue.

I have done a complete u turn this year after vowing not to ride on roads again. I now ride in hi viz and ride on roads I feel are most safe. Our horses live on the farm with us, and are good with machinery, however I do feel it is idiots in cars and on motorbikes that un nerve me.

I do think it is worth remembering that farming and horses often go hand in hand, and maintaining that relationship instead of slagging them off is worthwhile.

Harvest may be over, but as we are all a good month behind, were still working very hard to drill for next year.
 
Patchworkpony said:
Horses and modern traffic don't mix.
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Providing the driver and rider use the road properly and respectively of others - I really can't see what the problem is.

I do an awful lot of riding on the roads - and I can count on less than one hand the amount of times I've had a serious 'uh oh' moment.

Many of the problems people post about are brought about by their own inexperience in riding on the roads, and the expectation that when they are riding no one else should be around; car, dog, pram, child, umbrella......

That's not to say that there aren't some terrible drivers out there, of course.
 
We're on the outskirts of a town so have a combination of country lanes & agricultural vehicles, plus stuff like industrial parks with artics going in & out, going through housing estates with hgvs passing on narrow roads delivering to shops etc. Crossing a mway bridge with an artic coming the otherway is normal for us. Likewise not long ago we shared a layby with a tractor & baler to let a fire engine with its siren going come from the opposite direction. Stuff like passing noisy car repair places with large vehicles coming the other way is normal. Horses just get used to it. So maybe by comparison meeting farm vehicles on country lanes is nothing to get worked up about for us.
 
Well, this has been an interesting thread. I, like the OP, am in Worcestershire and in the main, the farmers are gentlemen and have never frightened my horses or me. I do agree with contractors being a bit too quick though.

Let's move on to the cycling clubs that sweep round the corners in groups of 30 and regularly scatter the horses. At least the farmers can be heard coming. I have had more than a few canters up the road being pursued by flipping ignorant cyclists.
 
RunToEarth said:
I take the view that if you are on a road, your horse should be safe with vehicles passing at the speed limit of that road, for most country lanes that is 50/60mph. It is lovely when people slow down for you, but a tractor going 40mph should not cause such an issue.
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the speed limit is the maximum you can drive at (within the law) when it is safe to do so, it is not safe to do 60mph if there isa horse on the said road-as a tractor driver and horse rider i would take great issue if a fellow tractor driver overtook me at 40mph whilst i was on a horse
 
Where I live, the majority of riding routes (including roads and track) ARE actually owned by the farmers (myself included) and are not public roads. Horseriders walkers and cyclist have rights of responsible access. The advantage of this is a much bigger choice of routes, which means that if the farmer is busy harvesting I can choose to take a different route on my horse. But this is is Scotland, peeps not so lucky in England.

I do think OP your last post was undermining to the sympathy people have shown about the genuine difficulties faced - it starts to come across as rather obnoxious farmer hating more than constructive. As both a small farmer and a rider, I object to that stereotype. Go and talk to the farmer and the tractor drivers. If they dont show more consideration after that, then you have proof of them being careless/reckless and should then report them.

In the end if the farmers were not able to farm the fields economically (which these days and esp with the awful changes in the climate making harvesting almost impossible) then the only option for the fields is to build housing estates all over them - I doubt that would improve the situation for horseriders.....
 
RunToEarth said:
Farmers derive their living from the land, and as a result running machinery up the road. Most horsey people around me ride on the road for pleasure, of which they pay no tax.
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mmmmm tax, how much does a farmer pay for each tractor on the road with regards to road tax?

and some of us do earn a living and pay tax on it whilst riding horses on the road, does that mean tractor drivers should be more careful of me?

i dont have a big beef with the majority of the tractor drivers round my way and you can get prats in all sorts of vehicles (even pushbikes) but i will jump on my soapbox in defence of horses on the road, legally they have right of way but i just think more consideration would be nice-i have a hi vis that says 'i am this good due to polite drivers' and i really think it is true it only takes one bad incedent to create a horse that is a problem on the roads
 
This may sound trite and a bit 'wouldn't it be nice if everyone was nice' :p BUT if everyone actually obeyd the road laws, ie speed limits, road markings etc. etc. and acually read and understood the highway code, then none of these problems would occur. This applies to farmers, contractors, riders, car drivers et al. Just as a side issue, regarding road tax, am I not correct in thinking that most farm machinery is exempt?
 
AdorableAlice said:
The tractors and machinery are certainly a lot bigger then they were in my childhood, but it must be remembered the farmers are doing a job and this year their job has been near on impossible.

At harvest time and silaging I think, if at all possible, we should ride our horses very early to stay out of the way of the farmers. They cannot combine and haul corn before the dew is off.

The farmers are governed by the weather and I really think horse riders should stay out of the way at busy times if we can. I am fortunate enough to be able to go out very early and it is a lovely time to ride in the summer months

Remember they are harvesting horse feed, bedding and the food on our tables, at the height of the season they are working 18 hour days. I really don't think it is unreasonable for us not to get in the way.
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100% agree, they are doing their job, you are out for pleasure. If you know there are going to be tractors on the roads around you especially if the weather is dry make a conserved effort to go out early in the morning. Or if you cannot do this and know your horse is not 100% with farm traffic, don't hack out! Farmers have such a small amount of time to bring hay, corn etc in. You have all year to hack. My OH has been working 100+ hour weeks whilst it has been dry, he has a potato harvester on the back of his tractor (which is 11metres long!) and needs an escort in front to go down some roads! It's not a thing you can reverse up a road easily just because there is a horse coming towards you.
 
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YorksG said:
Just as a side issue, regarding road tax, am I not correct in thinking that most farm machinery is exempt?
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yes that was my point:)

also as for speeds of tractors most fastrac's can do 40mph some can do 49mph

i am aware that not all tractors go this fast but they are getting faster and faster

YorksG I agree if every one followed the road laws it would be a much safer place to be
 
Patchworkpony said:
Speeding giant tractors and huge farm machinery on country roads make it pretty well impossible to hack safely and happily anymore. No wonder lots of people ride only in arenas. Oh for my childhood days when I could ride for miles in a totally carefree fashion!!!!!!!!
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Our first horse frequently hacked along the 'main' B road through the village. In the middle of the day during the school holidays, in the days before 2-car families, the only traffic you saw was buses and transporters I'd happily go back to those days. The horse never turned a hair, oh and he didn't worry about dustbin wagons or the local farmers' tractors on the side-roads either.
But I was out earlier this week on my current horse, a muck-spreading tractor was coming towards us on a fairly narrow road. I knew the horse wouldn't bother but the tractor driver didn't, so I stood her up at the side of the road until he had passed. He thanked me, I thanked him and we all continued on our way, quite happily.
As others (including OP) have said, we ALL need to be sensible about getting out of the way and allowing every-one to use the roads and tracks safely, a traffic-proof horse certainly helps.

We do have a couple of teenage idiots locally who use their father's tractor as a 'runabout' and speed round the local narrow roads doing their shopping etc, there have been a couple of near-misses with them and horses. I believe the police have had a word though and there don't seem to have been any more incidents
 
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I think you will find that not too many Farmers have fastrac tractors as they are so expensive. That is usually the contractors.
 
Forever_broke said:
I think you will find that not too many Farmers have fastrac tractors as they are so expensive. That is usually the contractors.
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i did say i am aware that not all tractors go this fast, most go over 30mph these days though and it makes no differrence if its a contractor or a farmer its still a tractor being driven on the road, i have done/do some contract farming and i still slow down for other roads users,
 
Our village is 30mph but a lot of folks speed its not just the tractors. The new huge ones do seem to have gotten worse probably built for some american farm intensive style farming and not for the UK roads and small ROWs(we are I understand one of the few countries if only one?? that have rights of ways across private land etc and they were'nt designed for the huge machines we now have).The smaller farmers are the ones round my way that seem to have shut up shop as they cant compete with the big boys. However the road verges are eroded due to all the huge new HGVs /tractors damaging etc with the tarmac and soil being about a foot drop at the edge.The whole situation is dangerous, I have reported it to our council etc. The only solution is to widen the road with more tarmac?

To find a road traffic police officer ie one with a speed gun etc is nigh impossible. I remember asking why we couldnt have one in our village and got told that speeding is the biggest complaint in rural areas. But no police to run the services? or money. I dont think speeding is unique at all to the big vehicles and its more the individual driver(most HGV lorries and motorcyclist are very considerate). But I have noticed the difference in the changes in farming etc Our harvest season has ended but it will be starting up again for the second year running for the maize crop to go into the digester. So just when we thought it was peaceful and done its not anymore. I say crop but its not for eating its for electricity.

When looking for a horse last year finding one use to traffic was very difficult, non existent. 100% traffic advertised was probably a car or bicycle or it had seen a tractor on a farm. I was suprised reading this that someone mentioned the farmers only owning the fields etc & not ROWs etc but they usually maintain and cut hedges etc on the ROWs, this is utterly incorrect some do, some dont(most do). So they arent all bad,99% good. Most of our local ones are fine if you are polite and friendly! But we do have many urban meddlars waving their rights about. Please work your horses and get them use to traffic situations practice and practice etc. It is worth it and makes a better safer horse. We lost more ROWs to footpath status due to the huge numbers of Ramblers instigating their rights and forgetting equines in the process. Another subject!
 
I haven't gone through the whole thread but I would like to add that this has been the worst harvest for a very long time, the brief breaks in the weather which make us all want to go for a hack (as a hobby?!) are also an opportunity for farmers to get on. Contractors have eveb more land to work in a short window of opportunity. My husband and his family often speed by me on their tractors because they know my horse isn't bothered and I don't begrudge it at all as I know how hard this year harvest is continuing to be.
 
jools1234 said:
i did say i am aware that not all tractors go this fast, most go over 30mph these days though and it makes no differrence if its a contractor or a farmer its still a tractor being driven on the road, i have done/do some contract farming and i still slow down for other roads users,
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Yes it does make a difference when you have people like the OP BAD MOUTHING farmers for somthing that contractors are doing. Funnily enough there are always threads on here telling people to find a freindly farmer to help with jobs etc, IMO why should they when they then get bad mouthed, its what gives us horsey people a bad name.
 
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