Terrifying road experience

[smiffyimp]

About 6 weeks ago me and pony nearly went through a windscreen. Blind bend, country single track lane - arse driving like a proper anchor, I was screaming for him to stop before i saw him - I could sure hear the gravel spitting up off the road. He flew round the corner, skidding, grit spitting everywhere, and stopped about 1 meter in front of us. At 1 side was a shear drop, at the other a ditch and hedge. Thankfully my horse, who is only 7 and great in traffic, but not overly experienced on roads (i avoid them like the plague!) stood like a star. The abuse that came out of my mouth is not for a public forum and the lad did know what he'd nearly done as he hung his head and drove of asap. I reported this to the police (and BHS) i told the police who it was and to this day they still havent been round to ******* him! In over 30 years this is the worst i've had, and i've ridden my old boy through Scarborough town center before now Ive had people reverse backwards and chase down the road (granted my hand aids weren't polite but were definately required at the time) he came back got out of the car and threatened me - police *******ed that one though! Now wherever possible I avoid roads. They scare me to death! and one day will be too late for me and the horse.

 

[gonebananas]

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.

saying this i was riding back from a hack on saturday and this driving instrcutor with a pupil drove past me on a busy road, cars parked on my left, nothing coming the other way left no room whatsoever!! luckily she didn't spook although she'd had a spooky day :/
I told my driving instructor today who also happens to have horses and told her the name of the driving school and she confirmed that yes he is a bit of a d******* like that reeally annoys me as on the theory you have to know about passing vuneral road users, shouldn't that be brought into practise aswell?

 

[nixxyz]

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.

i had the same thing in my theroy test, and the hazard perception test which had only just come out when i did my test in 2003. so like LB says people just choose to ignore it ..... some folk really do need their heads banging together.

 

[monkeybum13]

Op, That must have been scary!

Regarding the theory test there are questions about "vulnerable road users" and questions on passing horses safely, what to do at roundabout etc.

On the hazard perception videos every practise one I did had a horsey clip.

The stuff is in there but people choose to ignore it.

 

[ThePinkPony]

Op, That must have been scary!

Regarding the theory test there are questions about "vulnerable road users" and questions on passing horses safely, what to do at roundabout etc.

On the hazard perception videos every practise one I did had a horsey clip.

The stuff is in there but people choose to ignore it.

not enough then, because im not the only one whose noticed.

out of my 35 questions i had 4 on motorcyclists and 2 on cyclists. Not one on horses.

What i think makes it worse is that the information given is pretty generic, what it doesnt stress is that by passing a horse incorrectly you could be endangering not only the horse and riders lives, but your own and any other road users at that time.

 

[Ranyhyn]

I had to go around a rider, riding and leading yesterday. She made no attempt to stop to allow me past, or to pull in any where, or to signal me past or to thank me once I passed wide and slow.

Riders like this are half the reason we are hated on the roads, if I see her again I will stop and tell her the same.

 

[Hippona]

I had to go around a rider, riding and leading yesterday. She made no attempt to stop to allow me past, or to pull in any where, or to signal me past or to thank me once I passed wide and slow.

Riders like this are half the reason we are hated on the roads, if I see her again I will stop and tell her the same.

True.....I took my youngest one out a couple of months ago...went around a local housing estate- car behind us really slowed down and hung back until I found a place to 'pull-over' (mind you, we were going sideways.)......driver actually stopped, wound the window down and said 'thanks for pulling over- you're the first person to ever do that'.....which really is horrifying considering how many horses are around my way.

Passed a girl myself a few weeks ago in heavy traffic- she was slouching along, tailback behind her a mile long- whilst she chatted on her mobile.. No wonder people get fed up and try to overtake....

 

[MerrySherryRider]

OP, hope you're ok, but do get back out on the roads with a bombproof horse asp. If it helps, have a car driver with hazard lights on driving behind you to give you a sense of security.
Hope the youngster you were riding isn't too worried by the incident.

Few years back we had a tragic accident from our yard which resulted in two horses being PTS on the road. One of the riders in the group was an 11 year old girl on her pony, they were unharmed and her genuine pony took her back to the yard to raise the alarm.
Next day, her parents asked me to hack out with her and the pony because they wanted her to get back to normal before she lost her confidence. Fab little kid, but then they are, aren't they ? Much tougher for adults, but do get back to hacking soon with as much support as you need.

 

[Merrymoles]

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 I don't think he expected the torrent of abuse he got from me and my sister, none of which is repeatable on here

Blimey - I'm in God's own county too and had exactly the same experience with a beamer driver when I had stopped to let the traffic pass before I passed some scary cows, even down to the "out of control" comment - wonder if was the same £$%%^^& - he got a torrent of abuse from me too!

 

[caterpillar]

I had to go around a rider, riding and leading yesterday. She made no attempt to stop to allow me past, or to pull in any where, or to signal me past or to thank me once I passed wide and slow.

Riders like this are half the reason we are hated on the roads, if I see her again I will stop and tell her the same.

This is very true.

 

[Muchadoaboutnothing]

A few years ago there was a woman in our local village who would rev her engine and yell abuse at horseriders, so much so there was a meeting about her with the local police and some of her victims. Nothing was done though

After being on the end of her aggression one day I decided to print a picture of a horse that had gone through a windscreen of a car and delivered this along with a letter to her house. I pointed out that the driver had also been killed and the way she drove at people and tried to scare the horses this is what could happen to her.

I belive this touched a nerve as she always passed me carefully after that.

I think a lot of drivers think themselves indestructable (sp) in their tin boxes.