Why not ban big lorries rather than cancel?

[Flashpaddler]

In the last edition of H&H there was an article that said many events had cancelled in the recent monsoon season because organisers could not recover large lorries without risking injury or particularly bad damage to the ground. In many cases they said the course was fine but that they were worried about the lorry park and excessive mud on the public highway.

Just a thought, but is it not possible to "ban" lorries above a certain size when the weather has been bad? Most 4x4 + trailers can happily look after themselves in such conditions and many people with lorries have access to an alternative if given a bit of notice. Obviously a non-starter if you have 7 horses to run but that's quite a small minority at most events.

 

[Honey08]

Sounds a good idea, but would be difficult to police. You'd get people who didn't know/read the lorry regulations turning up and kicking off. Even a 4x4 with two big horses in a trailer would make a mess of wet ground..

 

[TiaPony]

The problem is defining 'large' lorries. A 7.5t will most likely need a hand out of a sodden lorry park and it is the most common lorry size but could be classed as 'large'. And I don't think everybody has access to alternative transport otherwise they'd use it and not get stuck in the first place!

 

[sillygillyhorse]

Really do not see how you can police it, and what about those people who, to keep within the transport laws, perhaps only have 2 or 3 horses but an HGV lorry with no other means of transport?

 

[Flashpaddler]

If implemented, some people would not be able to attend an event. Currently though, no one attends when it's cancelled, so what's better - 6 weeks of no events or some outings for those without HGV lorries? I think it would be easy to administer, get people to put on their entry form their lorry size and if you need a HGV licence (above 7.5T) then, when the wet weather hits say sorry, you're welcome but your lorry isn't. People could also put if they have a smaller alternative. This would allow a waiting list to back-fill those who couldn't attend. Those that only have large lorries could be phoned to ensure they have the info. Not great but surely better than cancelling for everyone.

Perhaps also, some events could also arrange a safe loading/unloading area on a hard surface in wet conditions thus allowing trailers etc to travel as light as possible over the not so hard stuff.

 

[lannerch]

Sounds a very unfair idea to me and with abandonment insurance financially unviable as well, sorry no refund because the event ran but you had a lorry.

 

[noname]

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. At the BE events I'd say 1/3rd to half of the lorry's are hgv and less than a 1/4 of Vehicles are trailers. At solihull we got our non hgv stuck despite parking the way the car park people had said. We took the horse off but no use.
Also the ground got absolutely trashed with only the first day of horses!
When we used to have a trailer it was always getting stuck!! Spent a lot more time unloading horses with that.
I don't think it would be profitable for events to run without the hgv's full of horses to be honest! They are the ones with all the money anyway.
At the end of the day events are cancelled for everyone's safety. Can't have ambulances and vets getting stuck!

 

[kerilli]

it's a tricky one, and it's not exactly a new problem! the HGV lorries with multiple horses on definitely do the most damage ime - i remember at Brigstock back in 1988 or 1989 it was those huge ones being dragged in and out on literally up to their axles that caused the major damage to the park, which was so extensive that they had to use JCBs to level it (at HUGE cost, tens of thousands), since the usual kit wouldn't touch it.
hard standing is the answer of course but not many events can manage that... and the ones that do (Bishop Burton iirc) make you park inches from each other so there's no tying up outside, not ideal for many.
i don't know what the solution is really, other than to have a few venues dotted around the country with hardstanding lorry parks and genuine all-weather surfaces for ALL phases, and reroute comps to them if necessary. this has long been a dream of mine...! (disused runways are ideal for the parking of course but i can only think of 1 venue with a disused runway.)

 

[keysoe]

Not really convinced about this one, personally I would rather tow one 18 ton lorry with 6 on than 3 x 7.5 ton with two horses on each.

Smaller lorries "looking after themselves" are the real problem, a big tractor towing a lorry makes very little mess compared to a lorry flying into a wet field under its own power in first gear, spinning its wheels until it grinds to a halt.

Problem is really gateways, you can pull 20 lorries over the same bit of ground in almost any weather, but when you want to get 200 lorries through the same ruts, it will get very deep. Does not take that much hardcore to make a hard area where you can spread the wheelings

 

[popsdosh]

I think you are taking a very simplistic approach as I truly do not know of any event that has cancelled solely because of horsebox parking as there are so many other factors as mentioned above.It may be part of a bigger picture but not the only.If the ground conditions are that bad then it should not run. I doubt one box with seven horses on will make more mess than 3 7.5 carrying the same number of horses. The actual ground pressure exerted by a larger lorry is exactly the same as a smaller one and often less,but you wont want boring with the reasoning behind that.

 

[Mike007]

I would presume that events have insurance against cancelation due to weather. If so,it is probably better to simply cancel than run at a loss and damage the course and facilities.

 

[smiggy]

we manned the carpark at a ride on easter sunday when it was very wet. The only vehicles that struggled were 3 seperate trailer/white van combos!

 

[Baggybreeches]

Or how about we take the view that 'big lorries' are driven by people who have taken their driving skills to the next level and are driving vehicles which are better equipped to deal with the ground than the vast majority of 'packed to the rafters' 7.5tonners?

 

[ROG]

Is there a way of parking up the trucks fairly close and then using lighter transport to ferry the horses from the trucks to the event?

 

[kerilli]

Is there a way of parking up the trucks fairly close and then using lighter transport to ferry the horses from the trucks to the event?

not really... most horses need at least 1 complete change of tack and riders need to change, plus all the rugs, washing off kit, yadda yadda. using the horsebox as your base makes perfect sense.
(i was speaking to 1 of the top guys at Pedens years ago and he was bemoaning the fact that Eventers have more kit than any other discipline - but that's no surprise really!)

 

[LEC]

What would be easier is to have a safe loading area so the horses could all be taken off and meet the lorry somewhere on hard standing and be loaded up again. 7 horses at 600kgs + each is a lot of weight!

 

[MissSBird]

Assuming that everyone can just switch to a trailer isn't going to work for much longer. The number of people in the horse world who are part of the 'lorry/trailer test' group is going up every year. Pretty soon they will outnumber the lucky group who can drive anything without extra tests. I think there would be outrage if events assumed that we should all be paying another £1000 to sit a trailer test just incase.