Tractor rally!!!

ycbm

ycbm

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I had been home from hacking my young and inexperienced mare for 5 minutes when the first of about sixty tractors went down the road. This road is too narrow for two cars to pass and in some places to get past a huge tractor would mean climbing up a bank. I'm furious. If I'd gone out 15 minutes earlier I would have been stuck with 60 tractors between me and home.

These weren't cherished old vehicles which you do see sometimes out for a group ride. Many of them were enormous modern things and only a few were old or small.

I don't know who they were, I'm guessing a young farmers lot as most of the drivers looked young. I'm sure it's illegal to drive anywhere in convoy like that, as well.

Would you try and find someone to complain to, if only to try to get some warning next year? Does anyone know who organised it in the Buxton/Macclesfield side of the Peak Park?
 
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Definitely. That is not acceptable to block the road like that without warning. Round here we always get signs put up some days before when there is to be a tractor rally.
 
Cortez said:
How did Lindeza react?
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We were home just as the first appeared. I put her in her stable where she went crazy at them passing the gate beeping and revving (engine braking on a very steep hill).. She could see and hear them. I spoke sharply to her because she was swinging dangerously around the stable and she stood frozen and let me put on her rug and then ran out into the field in a mad dash.

If we had been out on the road she might have been ok, since she is fine with one tractor with a trailer. But I think it would have been touch and go with 60 of the roaring great beasts. I would have made them stop, got off and opened a gate to a field (if I'd been anywhere near one of the rare ones which aren't chained up) and gone and stood in it with her until they were all past, probably. But if they had just been polite enough to let me know, I would never have gone out on the road at all today. It was a narrow squeak.

I've left a message on Facebook asking for warning next time.
 
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We had this a few times during the clap for carers, YFC drive tractor convoy around villages honking making a right noise. At least we knew when they were coming
 
We have one of these every year but it is well advertised and signs put up a couple of months in advance. This however didn't stop idiot me forgetting and going out for a hack one year, despite it being written on my calendar, and meeting them on a very narrow road with little verge! Fortunately J is fantastic in traffic but even so I had a feeling of horror when I worked out what the approaching noise was, other than a bit big eyed as the tractor train first drew near he was foot perfect. I gave up counting at 57, newer tractors were at the front and they seemed to be in age order and finished off for good measure with a dozen vintage and extremely noisy motorbikes.

I was amazed and very relieved that J was not bothered at all but it would have been a terrifying experience on just about any other horse I've known as there is only 2 gateways on a two mile stretch so no way of getting off the road.

Very glad to hear you had just got home and weren't put in that position and I would contact them directly to ask that they put warning signs out in advance next year and if they could put you on their contacts list so that you will be given the date and route in advance as ours changes their route some years.
 
milliepops said:
local FB groups are useful for this kind of thing
does this sound like the right area? sound like an annual thing

https://www.facebook.com/mick.heath.54/posts/4005537482814005
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Well , thanks to their fund raising efforts , at least it's reassuring to know that there will be an air ambulance available to whisk you off to hospital after they've scraped you off the floor , if you get caught out next time . There's irony in there somewhere ...…..
 
thefarsideofthefield said:
Well , thanks to their fund raising efforts , at least it's reassuring to know that there will be an air ambulance available to whisk you off to hospital after they've scraped you off the floor , if you get caught out next time . There's irony in there somewhere ...…..
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That's true! And you'd need an air ambulance because the road ambulance wouldn't be able to get through the convoy of tractors....
 
We used to have a similar problem with organised bike races which used the roads near our village (about 10 years ago now) part of a hacking route me and a friend used was part of the bike race route. Trouble was, we knew absolutely nothing about it until the bikes turned up and were not happy to see us (?public road?). There were one or two other incidents of the marshalls trying to block other road users as well. I think we were very lucky that our horses kept it together when they came past and it was not a comfortable experience. They did eventually start putting warning signs up and mashalls at junctions which helped so that if we were riding out we could take a different route.
 
Elf On A Shelf said:
I am sure if it was an organised route for charity it would have been tauted about the local area, a lot of people would have known about it and I am sure it will have been advertised on social media somewhere. You can't donate to a charity event if you don't know it's happening now could you?
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It's questionable whether it was an appropriate road to use at all, it will have caused utter chaos with cars coming the other way needing to back up hundreds of yards around blind bends. And a convoy of 60 is illegal, they were blocking half a mile of road.

But at the very least you would think they could have dropped a note through my door to warn me, or put posters up, like other rallies do? There's only one house on two miles of very narrow country road. Mine. Not everyone scans social media constantly.
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thefarsideofthefield said:
Well , thanks to their fund raising efforts , at least it's reassuring to know that there will be an air ambulance available to whisk you off to hospital after they've scraped you off the floor , if you get caught out next time . There's irony in there somewhere ...…..
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Fund raising is not incompatible with warning the neighbourhood you are travelling through.

We have LOTS of charity events, mostly bike, through here and i am warned of almost all of them.,
 
ycbm said:
Fund raising is not incompatible with warning the neighbourhood you are travelling through.

We have LOTS of charity events, mostly bike, through here and i am warned of almost all of them.,
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Totally agree . There does seem to be this perception that ' if you're doing it for charity ' it gives you licence to do pretty much anything . My sister once got caught up in the middle of an unexpected Santa Dash , in the middle of nowhere ,whilst she was out walking her very large and very nervy lurcher . When she tried to stop them to give herself and her dog a chance to get out of the way she was told " It's for charity you miserable b*tch " .
 
We have an annual steam rally just down the road, they start arriving on the Thursday and leave by the following Tuesday. I stay off the roads as they often go for a little jolly in the area. Our local YF also has an annual tractor rally but they do advertise the route well in advance.
 
We have a steam rally too which I once accidentally met. Unfortunately our road is also on a route popular for rallies. I've met vintage car , tractor ones , normal motorcycle ones and vintage motorcycle ones which were the worst as there was lots of back-firing going on. Glad beast is stoic.
 
And Merry Christmas to you all as well!
i think you”ll find they have as much right to be on the roads as you were hacking....

it’s only the same as the hundreds of riders who dress up as Father Christmas and ride around their local villages...it‘s the Farmers one day off a year getting together....

Merry Chrimbo to all!
 
Embrace it? It was dangerous. It could have been my neck or even my life to have been caught with 60 big tractors between me and home on a novice horse and nowhere in a banked single track road to get out of their way.

All I am asking for is to be notified, like every other bike/ motorbike/ car rally does.

It isn't a one off, these things happen many times a year past my house with various vehicles. I don't have a problem with any of them who let me know with posters on the signposts or a note through the door. I just don't hack those days.

I'm asking for courtesy and some concern for my safety, but that's obviously too big an ask for you, FC.
 
Do you notify everyone that you are going out for a hack?
In your circumstances if you write to every farmer that you are out and about I’m sure they’ll all stay at home...

So sorry to inconvenience you....
Are you the Queen?
 
Farmer Chalk said:
Do you notify everyone that you are going out for a hack?
In your circumstances if you write to every farmer that you are out and about I’m sure they’ll all stay at home...

So sorry to inconvenience you....
Are you the Queen?
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60 tractors in a convoy is hardly comparable to someone going out for a hack?
 
I’m stressed reading this OP.
I got stuck in a gate hole on a narrow lane on a fresh horse for 30 mins once, while dozens of incredibly noisy tractors passed me. I’ve ridden in this area for 30 years and only met these tractor road rallies in the last few years.
It’s not anti-farmer to dislike tractor rallies! My family and my neighbours farm (none of them go to these rallies) I’m pretty “live and let live” but I find dozens of big, very noisy, vehicles choking the roads a bit anti-social.
 
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