mymare
Well-Known Member
Still can't believe what I just saw. I live in a cottage on a quiet country lane. I say quiet as there's not a lot of traffic passing, mainly tractors and farm vehicles, but also a few idiots who drive like loonies past here as it is about half a mile of straight road.
I'm not long back from spending the morning wrestling with fuffing electric fence and was getting logs in (snow on the hills here *eek*) and saw a movement out of the corner of my eye on the road. Then my collie went beserk barking and running up and down the garden, which is the usual if walkers/dogs/cyclists go past. I heard a girl scream and quickly called the dog to me (garden's enclosed by the way), then heard a horse. My dog never barks at horses and I was really shocked until I saw 3 dogs running around on the road, then realised why he'd been making such a noise. I held him by his collar while they passed and he didn't make another sound, but it wasn't until they passed the end of the hedge that I saw them properly. First rider was on a black/very dark bay horse. No hat, dark camouflage jacket, dark blue jeans and trainers. Second rider was on grey pony, hi viz jacket and what looked like a red cycle helmet (are there riding hats that look like that?). There are a lot of trees along the side of the road and the sun is quite low already. As they rode away from me I really couldn't see the first rider very well. One of the men who works here on the estate then tried to pass them in his truck, but they couldn't get their dogs into the side, then both horses started spinning in circles while the girls were yelling at the dogs. It's also very windy here today. It was pretty chaotic to say the least!
After chucking the log basket into the house I decided to go and catch up with them in the car. They had taken the road through the Home Farm behind me so I did a loop and came face to face with them on the farm road. Again the dogs were running about (they were bloody lucky the Game Keeper wasn't about), so I stopped a safe distance from them, got out and said to the girl on the dark horse "I couldn't see you at all then when you were in the shade of the trees, you're on a dark horse and wearing a dark jacket! I clearly saw your friend but you weren't visible at all and the sun was shining towards me making it worse. Please, please wear some hi viz, on you AND your horse, for both of your sakes!" She looked at me very sheepishly and gave an embarrassed smile, her friend said "Thanks", and that was it. I really hope she takes on board what I told her.
I've never gone out of my way to confront someone like that before, but it really shocked and concerned me how dark she was. On Sunday night I was getting my washing in and it was almost dark, when I heard a horse being trotted flat out up the road! I could NOT believe it and asked OH "did they have hi viz on?! OMG wtf are they doing riding on the road in the dark?!"
Hopefully the girl I spoke to today will think twice next time. The probably rode off slagging me off for being a busybody!
I'm not long back from spending the morning wrestling with fuffing electric fence and was getting logs in (snow on the hills here *eek*) and saw a movement out of the corner of my eye on the road. Then my collie went beserk barking and running up and down the garden, which is the usual if walkers/dogs/cyclists go past. I heard a girl scream and quickly called the dog to me (garden's enclosed by the way), then heard a horse. My dog never barks at horses and I was really shocked until I saw 3 dogs running around on the road, then realised why he'd been making such a noise. I held him by his collar while they passed and he didn't make another sound, but it wasn't until they passed the end of the hedge that I saw them properly. First rider was on a black/very dark bay horse. No hat, dark camouflage jacket, dark blue jeans and trainers. Second rider was on grey pony, hi viz jacket and what looked like a red cycle helmet (are there riding hats that look like that?). There are a lot of trees along the side of the road and the sun is quite low already. As they rode away from me I really couldn't see the first rider very well. One of the men who works here on the estate then tried to pass them in his truck, but they couldn't get their dogs into the side, then both horses started spinning in circles while the girls were yelling at the dogs. It's also very windy here today. It was pretty chaotic to say the least!
After chucking the log basket into the house I decided to go and catch up with them in the car. They had taken the road through the Home Farm behind me so I did a loop and came face to face with them on the farm road. Again the dogs were running about (they were bloody lucky the Game Keeper wasn't about), so I stopped a safe distance from them, got out and said to the girl on the dark horse "I couldn't see you at all then when you were in the shade of the trees, you're on a dark horse and wearing a dark jacket! I clearly saw your friend but you weren't visible at all and the sun was shining towards me making it worse. Please, please wear some hi viz, on you AND your horse, for both of your sakes!" She looked at me very sheepishly and gave an embarrassed smile, her friend said "Thanks", and that was it. I really hope she takes on board what I told her.
I've never gone out of my way to confront someone like that before, but it really shocked and concerned me how dark she was. On Sunday night I was getting my washing in and it was almost dark, when I heard a horse being trotted flat out up the road! I could NOT believe it and asked OH "did they have hi viz on?! OMG wtf are they doing riding on the road in the dark?!"
Hopefully the girl I spoke to today will think twice next time. The probably rode off slagging me off for being a busybody!
