stupid driver

Pearlsasinger

Up in the clouds
Joined
20 February 2009
Messages
44,732
Location
W. Yorks
Visit site
I completely agree with you PS - to me, that is not a safe reaction, especially from the horse bring up the rear.

Thank you, RTE.
We have very safe, well-mannered horses but always avoid our local road which has big puddles after heavy rain. There are plenty of other routes that we can take. I would expect any-one taking a horse out in order to accustom it to puddles/cars/wet weather to build up gradually in a safe environment to having a car drive too fast through standing water, rather than expecting drivers to know what to do when the horses start jumping about. I would also expect to see more capable riding from riders taking horses out on the road.
 

AmyMay

Situation normal
Joined
1 July 2004
Messages
65,914
Location
South
Visit site
I suspect that neither horse would have batted an eyelid had the riders not taken their hands off the reins to flap their arms around - and just ridden forward.

I've watched the video a few times. The driver's speed didn't seem excessive, and there seemed plenty of room.
 

Wiz201

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 April 2012
Messages
723
Visit site
yeah I was thinking that. If you look close the horse didn't react until the rider started flapping his arm up and down and shouting, I think the horse was reacting to him as much as the car.
 

bluewhippet

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 February 2011
Messages
536
Visit site
I don't know if I am very dense but I didn't think the driver went that fast. Yes, it is lovely if everyone slows down to a crawl but I consider that I ride in a very polite area and quite a lot of cars will pass like that. But maybe it is faster than I judge?
 

minesadouble

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 June 2005
Messages
2,941
Visit site
I haven't read the whole thread so forgive me if someone has already pointed this out but - watch the recording again. In my opinion the horse is spooking at the White gate. It is looking at the white gating well before the car gets anywhere near it. The horse is already on high alert (not because of the car) the rider then starts shouting and waving his arms and the horse then spins. In my opinion the car was just not a factor.
FWIW I don't think the car was going terribly fast either. All of my horses would have coped fine with the car - though one or two might have reacted in a similar way to the White railings as the horse in the vid!!
 

Lexi_

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 August 2013
Messages
2,781
Visit site
It makes me very glad that share horse is so sensible in traffic. Drivers pass us like that all the time and it didn't seem particularly fast to me. In that instance, at least they could see them coming. It's the ones that zoom past you from behind at 40mph and practically touch your stirrup that scare me.
 

hcm88

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 October 2011
Messages
493
Location
Cotswolds
Visit site
Horses reactions to the car weren't even that bad... I've had much worse with mine spooking at a cow popping up out of nowhere at a gate and mine are all very very good to hack. The reaction of the horses was likely more due to the rider flapping and spinning around when shouting at the driver. But whether or not these horses had a bad reaction isn't quite the issue, in another circumstance it could have been a young horse fairly new to the roads and could have been much worse... a driver isn't going to know whether a horse is perfect or a bit twitchy in traffic, so should approach every time slow, wide and with caution no matter what. In this circumstance its clear the driver thought the car was going too fast - its very hard to judge speed on camera and we all know when someone is going too fast when we're riding so I think we can trust their judgement!

And forgetting the details, this video has gone viral through Facebook and whether or not we think the driver was going too fast at least it has raised awareness that horses can (and will) react badly on the roads and hopefully drivers will be a little more cautious now upon watching it.
 
Top