Yet another PR@ on the road!

[LittleRooketRider]

What is wrong with people!

Due to the instructor being unwell my lesson was cancelled today, so i decided to go on a hack. First proper hack on my own, on my new girlie. Roo is not the most confident of road-users but with encouragement (pats and polos) and sensible drivers she happily goes along...any way back to today...

was feeling really pleased with her by the half way point she had waited patietly in large gateways for a milk tanker and a tractor to go by (which they did very considerately ie slowly..thanks to them) and walked past a tractor which pulled over of his own accord to let us buy (thank to you too) and didn't bat an eyelid when a smallish sainsbury delivery lorry went by steadily (and thanks to you).

This is great progress for her...cue the pr@t in the tractor with the cattle trailer on the back. OI know this road well there are no completely safe pullins for a riders along this stretch if the horse is a bit flighty because the gateways are not very deep and are framed by quite deep ditches that rrun parallel to the road. So I asked him to stop, in the appropriate highway code/riding road safety manner because I knew it would be safer/better for me to quietly walk past him whilst stationary, por worst case scenario get off and lead her past.

But no he just keep s coming, I repeat my signals then pull in to one of these gateways and continue asking him to stop (feeling Roo getting more worried byt the minute). He keeps coming, cattle trailer rattling...Roo freaks a little and goes up , before skittering out into the road and trying to charge back the way we came. Whilst getting her under control and in the prancing on the spot mode I quickly check what he is doing..has he stopped? NOPE!

So whilst I'm desperately trying to calm down Roo who is now boggling her eyes and going sideways up the road he is still moving forwards towards me...genius

I signal for him to stop again and he gestures behind him..if he was meaning the carsd behind him were waiting, yes they were, they had seen me and had stopped.

Deciding he was a lost cause I turned and trotted back 400m up the road to a house with a large open driveway to stop and let him go past...did he wait or hold back a little ? NOPE! just kept coming up my backside. I didn't thank him when he went past, he didn't even acknowledge me. I thanked the three cars, the last of which stopped to check I was alright
I then hacked home without any problems. Sorry its long but I am pretty p;ss3d off.

 

[Suechoccy]

Well done for coping very well, very patiently and very politely with the situation. Your new horse sounds a star and you managed her very well. She will have no bad memories of today and you will be able to hack out again very easily.

 

[quirky]

Thing is, sometimes drivers can't do right for wrong.

My horse gets very worried when vehicles stop for her, it's as if they turn from cars/vans/tractors into fire breathing monsters. If they keep coming slowly, she is fine.

Admittedly, if you'd asked him to stop, it would have been courteous to do so. Sometimes it pays to ride aggressively in those circumstances and claim the road as your own, in effect, forcing him to stop. If somebody is not slowing to the up and down hand signal, give them the definite stop signal, then there is no ambiguity.

Another thought, if your horse is not yet traffic proof, is there a route you can take where you can get out of danger most of the time?
I have a 'safe' route that I take if I know horse may be on their toes as I can get onto wide verges or into driveways most of the way round.

 

[lhotse]

There is always one ******** tractor driver. Pretty much everyone round here is great, except for one local farmer's son, who is a prat whether he is driving the cattle lorry, tractor or landrover and trailer. His family all have horses too. I know it's hard, but you have to put it behind you and think of the positives, you finished the rest of your hack without any problems. Hopefully, the next tractor you meet will stop and you can let her have a good sniff and a carrot. I find this has really helped with my mare, who now associates tractors with something nice and will stand stock still even with no gateway for them to pass. Even if you reported him, I doubt it would change his attitude.

 

[Redders]

A similar thing happened to me on one of my first hacks on mine, there were a lot of scary things, firstly fast motor bike as we're going past scary tele handler thing fixing phone lines, spook at the bike but behaving well, then tractor just as you describe tries to inch past, realises no room so decided to hang off our tails and then speeds past before I had chance to get into gateway- poor mare was terrified but actually kept it together really well, but I was fuming! All of this in the same few minutes on same bit of road. What goes through drivers minds sometimes?!! Mine was okay after our experience, didn't really affect her but has made me much more forceful with my hand signals when I need someone to stop! Also made me much more thankful to drivers who are considerate!

 

[Shady]

firstly i am really glad that you are both ok and secondly well done to you for staying cool and not freaking out at the d***head tractor driver, there is always one who thinks they own the road, i had an interesting conversation once with a tractor driver when i was living for a bit in Kent , he never gave any regard, space or time for other road users especially horse riders and cyclists and when i asked why he said he had a job to do same as everyone else and couldn't keep stopping all the time and if somebody had the time to ride a horse lucky them but stay off the roads and if they couldn't control their horse tough s***.
we had an even longer conversation after that and needless to say we did not become drinking buddies!

 

[Illusion100]

I'm glad you are both ok.

I can't wrap my head around the fact that some people can't take a few seconds out of their lives to ensure another road users safety. Sorry state of affairs really.

If it makes you feel any better, the other day a helpful person thought it would be a good idea to drive a tractor up my horses backside.......knowing the horse can be tricky and was being led in bridle and chain over ice! Sat there watching us skid about, saw the horse was upset but didn't think to stop/kill the engine for 20 seconds! However, horse walked back down from field that aft past another tractor and was foot perfect, so don't let this knock your confidence!

Well done for staying calm and happy hacking!

 

[oldie48]

Glad you coped OK! when my neighbour is making silage the contractor uses a single track lane behind my house as a one way system for the tractors and trailers. I do understand that they are keen to do everything as quickly as they can but their speed is terrifying. If I know they are working I stay off the road whether walking, riding or driving but this year they started after I'd gone out for a hack and I met them on the way home. I managed to find a bit of a passing place when I heard them coming towards me but they passed at speed with less than a foot between horse and tractor, thank goodness my horse is pretty rock solid but even he was a bit shaken. However, recently I met a cycling event (not a race, as such), again on a very narrow lane. I'm pleased to say they responded to my request to stop, let me turn round and stayed behind me until I could turn away from them. I was very grateful to them as horse was struggling to cope with a vision of cyclists in hi viz lycra for as far as the eye could see!

 

[LittleRooketRider]

I am a farmer myself so understand that there are things to be done etc...

Unfortunately altenative routes are either bottomless pits of mud, or past a meat factory where very large HGVs are forever coming and going and cane be rarely @rsed to stop even on the narrowest of lanes.

I always takethe line either I stop in a safe place or they stop because as they go past any horse at the wrong moment may spook (perhas not even at the tractor but a bird flying out of thehedge) and it is not always easy for the drivers of the tractor to see what we are doing from that angle, esecially after doing a lot of tractor work for my Dad I find vision behind is limited.