Tragic accident - too close to home

How utterly tragic, my thoughts go out to friends and family.
I have a lot of bridleways near me, but there is some roadwork involved, quieter country lanes, I would say the majority of drivers are ok, some are excellent and then there are some absolute idiots. This is a very scary reality check...
 
A horrible tragic accident and much of the problem sadly lies in just people speeding generally I believe, regardless of road conditions and..regardless of whether there are horses on the road or not. We have a road we ride along, unclassified, no 7.5 ton lorries allowed, 30mph speed limit clearly indicated all along it and at either end with signs for walkers/riders/cyclists as it's what they call a "quiet lane" so if you had a brain you couldn't not realise it's a country lane. Couldn't be further removed from that ...I drive it every morning and evening on way to/from the yard and in peak work times it's become the most hideous cut through, a stream of continual speeding cars..I've been overtaken regularly in my car even when barely enough room to do that. At the end of the day it's peoples' utterly selfish attitude to where they have to be and when that precludes them giving any consideration to another human being on the planet and obeying speed limits or being a sensible driver. They never stop to think it could be their husband/wife/child/ etc that could be killed by another person doing just what they are doing. Wish they would really drum it home to new learner drivers and scare the pants off them by showing them the aftermath of both horse and car accidents in the vain hope that something might sink in. Accidents will always happen but so many of them are totally avoidable.
 
It is really sad, and my heart goes out to their family, I fell on the Rd friday my horse slipped when she spooked, thank god we are both fine! There was barely any traffic else the situation would have been much worse! It has really made me think about hacking on the rd as we have miles of off rd hacking, but the muddy ground drove me on to the rd!!
 
I am very sorry for the riders, their families and friends and the horses involved in this recent fatal accident.

Unfortunately accidents do occur but we just can not completly stop riding on the roads because of them. I have hacked out on roads for over 40 years and a good 20 years where spent hacking in London. I still hack on the roads although I am always aware of the dangers.

There is no doubt that one needs to ride defensively and I as you all know am very much in favour of wearing Hi-Viz especially long sleeved hi-viz jackets because hand signals become very much clearer to other road users.

However I have also spent an equal amount of time doing bridleway work in the local areas I have lived in and we have achieved the creation of a lot of new routes. As horse riders you really do need to do more to support the work done to create new off road riding routes and one way you can do this is by joining the BHS. The more members they have the greater their income and the greater number of horse riders they can be seen to represent.

Horse riding is about fun and this includes hacking out.
 
iestynlad said:
Prosefullstop: Where are you located? I may consider moving there - seriously we have been looking for ages for the perfect place.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid I moved to America. I live in NYC but ride an hour's drive away, in the North Salem area. Over the last forty years, the town has made a huge effort to preserve open space and develop bridle trails, most of which cut through private land.

http://www.nsbta.org/NSBTA_Site/Welcome.html

Martha Stewart recently rode in the area, and wrote about it on her blog:

http://www.themarthablog.com/2010/12/a-brisk-horseback-ride-in-north-salem-ny.html
 
Have just moved to a new livery yard where YO was hit by a car just before xmas his horse was killed and he is stiff trying to recover having suffered various broken bones, anyway the yard is on a stretch of road that rises up a hill (can get blinded if sun is at a certain height) and the traffic going past has increased dramatically over the years, so for the past 2 days i have been riding on some rough ground next to the field fence that makes a bend and finishes at the highest point of the road by at least you havent had to ride on the road, today i was told by YO that we are not allowed to ride there as the bulbs will get destroyed and the horses feet will make marks on the ground which will be difficult for dog walkers, just for one wish the safety of horses and their riders would be taken in to account instead of them being thrown to the back of the queue all the time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top