juliehannah58
Well-Known Member
This is my first ever rant in two years on here, but really need to let off some steam.
Last night I out for a hack, now as I have no facilities at home at all, I tend to hack everyday (as I need to hack out to get to a local school etc etc). All of the riding round here is on roads, I have nowhere off road to ride at all and although its a ruralish village, its getting more and more busy and there are new house being build all over- so all in all its a pretty awful place to try and hack out around at the best of times. My new horse is pretty good hacking out (as I always have to go alone) and is excellent in traffic.
Anyway, last night I had got off the main road onto one of the quite lanes and all was well until I was approaching a house surrounded by a huge hedge. There was all this banging and shouting and a few kids were kicking a dustbin around behind this hedge. Chloe was a bit spooked by this point as we could hear all this noise but not see anything, so I shouted to them (very politely!) if they would mind being a bit quieter just while I walked past. The response I got was no, even when I said Please! to which they ran up to us with their tee-shirts over their heads screaming, waving their arms about, absolutely freaking my horse out. I told them how dangerous it was and said they wouldnt find it so funny when I tell their parents later, to which I got more abuse hurled at me. Managed to get her past although she was terrified and they were still screaming at her and running at her. Then, just when I thought it was over then jumped on their bikes and raced after us (at a distance but they kept charging round corners behind us making my horse shoot forwards). We got a bit away and there were some dog walkers parked up and they seemed to stop following us by this point.
Now I was absolutely stuffed and quite shaken TBH, as my horse was now a nervous wreck and scared of her own shadow and the only way to get back home was to come back on myself!! In the end I had to phone my OH and get him to drive down and meet me so he could walk back through with me as I knew they would be waiting there. Sure enough, when we walked past one of them sprang out of a dustbin frightening the cr*p out of all of us the other two appeared and took one look at my OH (dreadlocks and head to toe in tattoos LOL!) and legged it, but still popping up every few yards shouting abuse.
WTF.
What do I do? These kids were about 12 yrs old I guess, parents no where to be seen for the 10mins I spent being terrorised outside the house. Im guessing thats where they live but no 100% sure as there are other houses in the area. There are only 3 lanes to ride down if I cant go there again its going to be a real problem for me. My horse was so frightened by it, god knows whether shell even want to go down there again.
Do I go and knock on the door and face getting similar abuse from their parents (might not even be the right house) ??
Do I report it to the police as anti-social behaviour?
Or do I forget about it and try not to ride there again? :-(
Cant help but think how nice the village used to be, Ive kept my horses here for over 10 years. Its hard enough to deal with the traffic, but getting terrorized by little brats is taking the mick.
Sounds silly really, but I couldnt sleep last night for worrying about it!
Advice please
Last night I out for a hack, now as I have no facilities at home at all, I tend to hack everyday (as I need to hack out to get to a local school etc etc). All of the riding round here is on roads, I have nowhere off road to ride at all and although its a ruralish village, its getting more and more busy and there are new house being build all over- so all in all its a pretty awful place to try and hack out around at the best of times. My new horse is pretty good hacking out (as I always have to go alone) and is excellent in traffic.
Anyway, last night I had got off the main road onto one of the quite lanes and all was well until I was approaching a house surrounded by a huge hedge. There was all this banging and shouting and a few kids were kicking a dustbin around behind this hedge. Chloe was a bit spooked by this point as we could hear all this noise but not see anything, so I shouted to them (very politely!) if they would mind being a bit quieter just while I walked past. The response I got was no, even when I said Please! to which they ran up to us with their tee-shirts over their heads screaming, waving their arms about, absolutely freaking my horse out. I told them how dangerous it was and said they wouldnt find it so funny when I tell their parents later, to which I got more abuse hurled at me. Managed to get her past although she was terrified and they were still screaming at her and running at her. Then, just when I thought it was over then jumped on their bikes and raced after us (at a distance but they kept charging round corners behind us making my horse shoot forwards). We got a bit away and there were some dog walkers parked up and they seemed to stop following us by this point.
Now I was absolutely stuffed and quite shaken TBH, as my horse was now a nervous wreck and scared of her own shadow and the only way to get back home was to come back on myself!! In the end I had to phone my OH and get him to drive down and meet me so he could walk back through with me as I knew they would be waiting there. Sure enough, when we walked past one of them sprang out of a dustbin frightening the cr*p out of all of us the other two appeared and took one look at my OH (dreadlocks and head to toe in tattoos LOL!) and legged it, but still popping up every few yards shouting abuse.
WTF.
What do I do? These kids were about 12 yrs old I guess, parents no where to be seen for the 10mins I spent being terrorised outside the house. Im guessing thats where they live but no 100% sure as there are other houses in the area. There are only 3 lanes to ride down if I cant go there again its going to be a real problem for me. My horse was so frightened by it, god knows whether shell even want to go down there again.
Do I go and knock on the door and face getting similar abuse from their parents (might not even be the right house) ??
Do I report it to the police as anti-social behaviour?
Or do I forget about it and try not to ride there again? :-(
Cant help but think how nice the village used to be, Ive kept my horses here for over 10 years. Its hard enough to deal with the traffic, but getting terrorized by little brats is taking the mick.
Sounds silly really, but I couldnt sleep last night for worrying about it!
Advice please
