Terrifying road experience

4faults

4faults

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The thread about dangerous drivers has touched a nerve for me because I had quite a scary experience last week, I was hacking out a youngster who belongs to the competion yard I work for, despite only being 4 she's quite sensible and we had her boxed in with a very experienced horse on the outside and one behind. We went into single file to go around a blind bend and a bus came hurtling up behind us and proceeded to attempt to overtake, now this is a bend that buses usually crawl around anyway as they have to take up both sides of the road to turn. We pulled as far into the hedge as we could get, youngster was freaking out a bit at this point, my boss was frantically signalling the bus driver to stop and woman on the bus was shouting at him, he eventually stopped and reversed back a bit and we carried on walking got past the corner onto a straight run and he took off, sped past us and youngster went wild rearing and plunging. I put her as close to the horse in front as I could to try and contain her, 2 cars and a White van who had been behind the bus were crawling along behind us keeping their distance and a car on the opposite side of the road pulled as far to the kerb as he could and crawled along when suddenly White van man decided he wasnt waiting pulled past the 2 cars and started beeping his horn, mare exploded shot out into road, he had to swerve to avoid hitting her and hit the car on the opposite side. I was holding on for dear life, my boss and other groom were both on very experienced horses and even they were spooked. Managed to calm her a little and rode the next 500 yards to the yard in a jog coupled with a few bucks. My boss drove back to give a statement as the police were called and we are putting in a complaint about the bus driver. I don't think it was deliberate from the bus driver but the white van man was laughing his head off up until he crashed. I do think more emphasis should be put on other road users when you learn to drive, not just horses but bikes etc too. I'm terrified of the thought of hacking out now :-( what have you done when you have had a bad experience? Should I just put it down to a one off and get on with it?
 
Gosh, your poor thing, that sounds really frightening. There are so many idiots on the road these days. I sympathise especially as I have a young horse also who is still learning the way of the world let alone with incidents like that on the road.

The first time my 4 yo went out I had some old lunatic just drive at speed towards me, it was a straight lane and he just kept coming despite my pleas to slow down. He ignored me, thankfully my boy didn't react but there was nothing I could of done if he had and we would of been in front of the car.

I think the sooner, you get back out there the better really before it builds up and up. Maybe you ride one of the older horses to get your confidence a couple of times.

Will keep my fingers crossed for you.
 
We pulled as far into the hedge as we could get, youngster was freaking out a bit at this point,
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Didn't read any further.

At this point the horses on the outside and behind should have been positioning themselves in the road so that the bus could not go past. Stopping the traffic if necessary to ensure the horses safe passage.

It's basic road riding with youngsters.

It's awful that you were put in this terrible position.
 
^^ i was thinking that.

When i last rode on the road the person i was with rode next to me on the road side and said that the most experienced person/ horse should always be on the outside to reassure the other horse/rider as they are able to take action and know how to react sensibly.
 
ThePinkPony said:
^^ i was thinking that.

When i last rode on the road the person i was with rode next to me on the road side and said that the most experienced person/ horse should always be on the outside to reassure the other horse/rider as they are able to take action and know how to react sensibly.
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The OP has said that this was how they were riding. But rather than being defensive the riders all pushed themselves in to the verge.

But there's a real skill required to not only ride on the roads, but to riding on the roads with youngsters.....
 
I don't do a great deal of road riding - I have to cross a road from my yard onto a housing estate which leads to lanes, and I usually wait until theres a break in traffic and scuttle along the 50m until the junction.

Last night I though no, sod it....wearing my 'Polite' tabard I rode correctly into the road, not up the hedgerow- and moved over to the white line and 'indicated' exactly as a car would do.......traffic then HAD to wait behind me and pony like they would have done if I were a car- rather than speed past me squashed in the hedge.

I guess we just have to be bold, ride correctly and yes... re-claim the roads...after all- we were here first;)
 
Amay may i was agreeing with you?

And It amazes me that on your driving test nothing is really said about passing horses safely.

My first instructor advised me to pass fast as you can.. to get past them before they play up. Obviously i put him straight but i think that it should be covered much more in depth in both your theory and your test.
 
poppymoo said:
I rode correctly into the road, not up the hedgerow- and moved over to the white line and 'indicated' exactly as a car would do.......I guess we just have to be bold, ride correctly and yes... re-claim the roads...after all- we were here first;)
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Um, it's not actually the right thing to do, to put yourself in the middle of the road when turning right. It leaves your left hand side open to t*ssers coming up your inside, and makes you very vulnerable to traffic coming the opposite way.

There is a lot to what AmyMay says in terms of "defensive riding", although when a bus is bearing down on you it may take balls of steel to hold your line as it were - after all, it's you and the horse that will come off worst, not the bloke in the metal box :(

I can strongly recommend either, ideally, doing the BHS Riding & Road Safety exam, or getting hold of the latest R&RS book or finding a trainer with the DVD to look at.

I teach loads of kids R&RS and it's amazing how much the parents (who are almost all drivers) take on board at the same time :)

I feel very strongly that driver training should contain a lot more about other road users, particularly horses.
 
There is a lot to what AmyMay says in terms of "defensive riding", although when a bus is bearing down on you it may take balls of steel to hold your line as it were
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I absolutely agree with you.

However, anticipation is the key. Ride as if you're going to encounter a problem - then you're prepared. And with things like buses, you can hear them coming a mile off....
 
Sounds terrible, I'd of been fuming if cars started beeping in that situation, what is wrong with people these days, they have no patience or understanding?!
 
That's what we would normally do and indeed were trying to do but if you imagine a bus turning a very tight bend, the nose goes out into the opposite lane an the rest of the bus follows in a straight line. This is what happened, the bus overtook us regardless and as the rest of the his was going round the corner the horses were almost getting squashed, he had not allowed enough room to compensate for the horses, nor could he as the road is fairly small. If we hadn't moved up to the hedge we would certainly have been scraped along the side of the bus.

Thanks for the link Unicornleather I will show it to my boss.
 
Its hard to understand from a drivers point of view. we were in sussex at the weekend and a guy was riding down the main road causing a bit of a queue but nothing major.

OH was at the front and was like.. why wont he move over? i said well, why should he? we are coming up to a bridge so theres nowhere for him to go, his horse seemed completely unbothered and he wasnt doing anything wrong. i explained that if he squishes his horse into the hedge he is more likely to be hadardous as there isnt really enough room or visability to squeeze past without getting too close. Asked OH to imagine it was me on that horse and he kind of got the message.

If i were him i would have probably moved into trot just to speed things up a bit to avoid stressy drivers but really there was no need.
 
amymay said:
The OP has said that this was how they were riding. But rather than being defensive the riders all pushed themselves in to the verge.

But there's a real skill required to not only ride on the roads, but to riding on the roads with youngsters.....
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I totally agree with this, but what are the realistic chances of finding a bombproof horse belonging to an experienced rider willing to to regularly place themselves between nervous young horses and psycho bus drivers? Seriously, the rock solid older cobs are often owned by inexperienced novices who haven't the understanding or the quick reactions to be where they need to be exactly when they need to be there, and the horsepeople who might have have the confidence and experience to be the escort are usually the ones trying to educate their young horses. Most traffic issues can be vastly helped by having great escorts, but IME the combinations you need to do a good job are damn hard to come by.

OP, I totally know where you are coming from. My last horse was terrible in traffic and while my current one is a lot better he is still learning and the speeds some people come past at makes me shut my eyes and hope I don't die, and a few years ago I used to toddle off merrily down A roads.
 
I hope that the white van driver gets a ticket for 'beeping' at you - that is completely illegal - what an idiot!

I am so sorry for you - horrible experience! It is so ridiculous that drivers on the whole do not seem to understand when you signal for them to STOP - I have had so many cars ignore my hand signal and verbal plea for them to stop as my horse has been spooking or suchlike and they just continue regardless or worse still accelerate past you!
 
Haha I have my R&RS, although it may be an idea to speak to the owner of the RS I work at and maybe get it introduced there, we could do our bit to educate people
 
Rowreach said:
Um, it's not actually the right thing to do, to put yourself in the middle of the road when turning right. It leaves your left hand side open to t*ssers coming up your inside, and makes you very vulnerable to traffic coming the opposite way.
r.
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Errrrm...possibly didn't make myself clear. I was on my side of the road, not right up by the white lines nor skanking around in the hedgerow.....I had effectively blocked my half of the road off so no-one could have squeezed past.

Would have had a job on squeezing past ponys fat arse, but I know what you mean:D
 
there seriously needs to be some sort of campaign to educate drivers about the dangers of spooking horse and dangerous driving on the roads or harsher penalties surely its classed as dangerous driving! sometimes i doubt whether drivers actually know what certain hand gestures mean eg. slow down unless they either have horses or ride bikes a lot it really should be covered in your driving test
 
I really don't think riders know what the hand signals mean. I only know from R&RS training - I don't remember learning it in driving theory (although that could be because I already knew it from R&RS?). At any rate, I know a lot of my non-horsey friends don't know what the hand signals are.

A while ago I was signalling for a driver to slow down as there were two loose horses on the road behind me (not mine, I hasten to add, escapees from somewhere!) and driver thought I was waving at him :rolleyes:

4faults - really sorry you went through such a traumatic experience. Try not to let it wreck your confidence though - just hope that the drivers involved will have learned their lesson and there're now, as a result, a couple fewer dangerous drivers on the roads. :)
 
I totally agree with this, but what are the realistic chances of finding a bombproof horse belonging to an experienced rider willing to to regularly place themselves between nervous young horses and psycho bus drivers?
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It's the type of horse I've always ridden when accomanying youngsters. And in this particular case it was the owner of the OP's horse who was riding the older companion. If he wasn't up to the job, he shouldn't have been used, and the OP not put in that position.

I actually feel very cross for her.
 
That sounds awful :(

Thankfully, although my horse can be lively - he is not bothered by horns beeping. This was learnt when guy in a beamer decided to beep at me and my sister for riding two abreast (on a wide enough road, not a small country lane :) ) and started shouting at us, that we were 'out of control' - wtf? We were walking :rolleyes: I don't think he expected the torrent of abuse he got from me and my sister, none of which is repeatable on here :D
 
As someone who has recetly taken a driving test (sept) we did have to learn about Horses on the road. I had 2 questions on Horse saftey in my theroy test and then one of the hazards videos, featured a Horse spooking in the road. People taking tests/learning/recently passed do learn about Horses on the road, they just choose to ignore it.

OP that must've been scary for you. I would ride out on a more experienced Horse to get your confidence back.
 
I'm sure I remember a thread on here a few months back about educating riders on the roads, and someone suggested asking H&H to do an article about it, and I suggested asking them to push for educating car drivers at the same time (although this really should be something the BHS Safety department does). Somebody was going to put the idea to H&H but I don't remember ever hearing an outcome.

The sad thing is that many riders don't actually know what to do when they are being drivers and come across a horse on the road! So what hope do the rest of them have?:confused:
 
LaurenBay said:
As someone who has recetly taken a driving test (sept) we did have to learn about Horses on the road. I had 2 questions on Horse saftey in my theroy test and then one of the hazards videos, featured a Horse spooking in the road. People taking tests/learning/recently passed do learn about Horses on the road, they just choose to ignore it.
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LaurenBay I took my test sept 14th 2010 and i had not one question regarding horses on the road in my theory or HP.

My instructor and i met horses on the roads and luckily his wife was horsey so he knew what to say but not all instructors are like it.
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I agree with the earlier poster that one of the older horses should have moved into the road and stopped the bus. I will do it when we are riding out the youngsters.

I had an incident a couple of months ago when three of us were riding out - two of us were leading other horses. A tractor came roaring up behind on a straight road. The lead horses were well into the side but when two ponies galloped up the hedge the horses moved out a little, still room for the tractor to get past but he came up alongside us revving and then dropping back to repeat. I pulled up to a walk and he still kept doing it, and when he finally did go past I called him a anchor!
With that he stopped and proceeded to reverse back towards us. Fortunately my horse and the lead horse are both trusting creatures and when asked actually moved towards him. He then drove off.
I had his number but a few minutes later he had turned around and was roaring towards us but, there was a car behind him and others coming up behind us so he slowed slightly but had covered his number plate up with a rag.

I called the law and they went round to see him and to give a warning. His excuse was that we were riding five abreast and would not let him past. Totally untrue and we were believed as he had been in trouble for many things and was well known to the police.
 
The trouble with a lot of drivers is that they have never been very close to a horse on the ground, and have no idea of the implications of poor driving, all they have seen are things like a royal parade on the TV.

I ride defensively when on the road. I have a AES and she's quite springy at times. I wear a decomisioned police jacket which is fantastic! She wears an airtex hi-viz sheet which is great if we are crossing the road as a group. She can and does stop traffic. We really do look like the mounted and seeing a look of terror in the car as they crawl past, and not have one on the riders face for a change is fab!

Two weeks ago my friends sister lost her eventer on a country lane. The car overtook the horse behind and pulled sideways into hers smashing his ribs through his skin, which also caused internal bleeding. She was thrown onto the car windscreen and then she horrificly had to watch for 30 minutes for him to die in the road.

Don't care about the driver behind who is waiting, he can damm well wait!!

Get yourselves some decomisioned jackets OP, and get back out there
 
My friend and I had an encounter with an aggressive driver a few years ago, we were riding two abreast as it was safe to do so and we had a youngster out.
The driver slowed to a crawl beside us and hurled a load of abuse about how we shouldn't be on the road taking it up etc etc.

We completely ignored him and carried on riding and he was so incensed that we had ignored his 'advice' that he sped off while watching us in his rearview mirror, completely forgetting to watch the road ahead and he promplty mounted the kerb and crashed into a roadsign.

I like to think it was a bit of divine intervention. ;)
 
I am a horse owner, and yes i have encountered rude/aggressive drivers, but you know what i have encountered as may inconsiderate rude horse riders.
3 weeks ago i was the driver that stopped the car next to 2 riders and shouted at them, i know the horses they are typical safe sensible types, the 2 girls that ride then go down single track country lanes 2 abreast, chatting, many a time i am stuck behind them whilst they ignore me.
Well this time i was on my way to check on my ill horse, and again they just ambled along chatting not even bothering to recognise i was there even thought they were riding along side a large set a side field that the farmer does not mind you riding on, after about 5 minutes of this they finally pulled into a layby where 1 horse was still in the road so the riders could still sit chatting rather than pulling in 1 behind the other and drivers had to navigate the hedge opposite and hell i did give them what for, so did the 5 other cars that were stuck behind me.
Rude ignorate riders really get my back up, as someone up the road maybe on a youngster and then the driver will be angry from last experience and think sod it i am not darn well stopping for another rude horse rider
Op sorry for going off on a tangent there, glad you are all ok, you really need to get back out there sooner rather than later, as the more it plays on your mind the more scary it will all seem
 
4faults said:
The thread about dangerous drivers has touched a nerve for me because I had quite a scary experience last week, I was hacking out a youngster who belongs to the competion yard I work for, despite only being 4 she's quite sensible and we had her boxed in with a very experienced horse on the outside and one behind. We went into single file to go around a blind bend and a bus came hurtling up behind us and proceeded to attempt to overtake, now this is a bend that buses usually crawl around anyway as they have to take up both sides of the road to turn. We pulled as far into the hedge as we could get, youngster was freaking out a bit at this point, my boss was frantically signalling the bus driver to stop and woman on the bus was shouting at him, he eventually stopped and reversed back a bit and we carried on walking got past the corner onto a straight run and he took off, sped past us and youngster went wild rearing and plunging. I put her as close to the horse in front as I could to try and contain her, 2 cars and a White van who had been behind the bus were crawling along behind us keeping their distance and a car on the opposite side of the road pulled as far to the kerb as he could and crawled along when suddenly White van man decided he wasnt waiting pulled past the 2 cars and started beeping his horn, mare exploded shot out into road, he had to swerve to avoid hitting her and hit the car on the opposite side. I was holding on for dear life, my boss and other groom were both on very experienced horses and even they were spooked. Managed to calm her a little and rode the next 500 yards to the yard in a jog coupled with a few bucks. My boss drove back to give a statement as the police were called and we are putting in a complaint about the bus driver. I don't think it was deliberate from the bus driver but the white van man was laughing his head off up until he crashed. I do think more emphasis should be put on other road users when you learn to drive, not just horses but bikes etc too. I'm terrified of the thought of hacking out now :-( what have you done when you have had a bad experience? Should I just put it down to a one off and get on with it?
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Sounds like an awful experience for you, and you should never have been put in that position in the first place, I have nannied out many a baby, and one of the first things you learn is that:

if you are riding into a blind bend the nanny stays put on the outside of the baby and you trot on around the blind bend until you are way 'off it' and on the straight again, the third nanny you had stays behind you, pull out a little with right arm out straight to say to any traffic coming behind that they must wait.

Golden rule in all yards I worked on, 'always trot on' and get off a blind bend, it's called a blind bend for a reason. So glad that you are ok and hopefully the horse is too.
 
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