Riding on the Road

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Just wondering how people are finding riding on the roads these days? Do you find you are meeting much more traffic on the roads these days? And how does riding on the road midweek compare to the weekends?

For me, I hate riding on the roads at the weekends, especially on a Sunday, as even though we live on quiet country roads there's still lots of Sunday drivers on the road who, despite being asked to slow down, etc. still insist on driving past at 50mph! And it's not only sunday drivers, it's actually people with horseboxes, too (with horses in the box!!). Weekdays are actually great and the roads are much quieter, with drivers who are more considerate.

And I actually find young girls are way worse than young male drivers. They really seem to have no idea that horses are animals, not machines, and may actually spook at something... The number of people who leave very little room when overtaking is also unbelievable!

I always ride out a little from the side of the road, especially when meeting a car, so that I am clearly visible, and then move in when the car comes closer to avoid any possible problems. Luckily my young horse is bombproof, literally, so speeding traffic, etc. isn't a problem, but I am becoming more and more apalled at drivers' attitudes on the road.

Is this just me or have other people the same experiences?

Jen Pigs Fly

I like to take my mare out on hacks, usually I will go for two half hour - an hour hacks during the weekdays, half hour ones after she has been exercised and then at the weekends if it is nice, we got for a 2 and a half hour hack around a bog! (She's an arabian bred for endurance, it's no bother for her!) So I do it quite a lot.

People are very ignorant on the roads, luckily Hasna is quiet on the roads, otherwise I wouldn't go out. Big massive trucks go raging pact and everything. Oh and I have to second what you said, people towing horseboxes with horses in the box are the worst, do not stop, and the rattling of the box is the only thing Hasna hates. Old women and auld ones never slow down either, speeding past at like 60km/h. it's rediculous.

Hasna has scared a few people before, she likes to kick out at things ... cars included, this one woman was speeding along music blaring. I did the hand signal to try to slow her down, didn't do anything. Suddenly Hasna spooked at her going through the water and flung her back end out towards the middle of the road and the woman had to break suddenly, scaring Hasna even more, making her kick out. She rolls down the window and asks 'are you ok?' I glare and her and go 'what part of slow down do you now understand? Do you want to kill me or my horse?' She just kind of goes 'Well you only had one hand on him (yes him) I thought he wasn't going to do anything.' I was trying to hold back my anger at this point, I managed to say 'SHE is an animal, I had one hand trying to slow you down because you were well over the speed limit, she is not some bike that will do nothing, she is a living beathing animal who will get scared at loud noises and will react as she does.' She goes 'Oh I'm sorry, but maybe you should train her more.' I just walked Hasna on after that, there was no talking to her.

That incident really showed me how some drivers are just so ignorant.

Drivers have no common sense, especially when it comes to large animals, and especially when it comes to large animals that could easily dent their precious car.

I blame SAT navs, know one ever watches the road anymore.

It's disgraceful.

Well I hope you found my story interesting, I think we had the same kind of experiances.

byhookorbycrook

My previous horse was a great boy to sort out those who wouldn't slow. With a slight twitch on the reins he would do a little dance which usually sorted out the ignorant gits in the big cars who wouldn't slow down .As he was half Clyde he made an imposing figure!

Borderfox

The Farrier I use had an experience on a road near his place where an Evo 7-8 went past him on the road at approx 80mph plus followed closely by a Range Rover blowing the horn!! Really quiet mare he was on and she didnt do anything, thank God.

Where the yard I am in is is quite busy for the short walk to a much quieter road and when my girlfriend went for a hack with some friends I would drive behind them for the 200yards or so with the hazards lights on just for a bit of protection, only takes about 3-4 minutes to ride but can be very dodgy..

doctor evil

xxxJennyxxx wrote: »

Hasna has scared a few people before, she likes to kick out at things ... cars included, this one woman was speeding along music blaring. I did the hand signal to try to slow her down, didn't do anything. Suddenly Hasna spooked at her going through the water and flung her back end out towards the middle of the road and the woman had to break suddenly, scaring Hasna even more, making her kick out. She rolls down the window and asks 'are you ok?' I glare and her and go 'what part of slow down do you now understand? Do you want to kill me or my horse?' She just kind of goes 'Well you only had one hand on him (yes him) I thought he wasn't going to do anything.' I was trying to hold back my anger at this point, I managed to say 'SHE is an animal, I had one hand trying to slow you down because you were well over the speed limit, she is not some bike that will do nothing, she is a living beathing animal who will get scared at loud noises and will react as she does.' She goes 'Oh I'm sorry, but maybe you should train her more.' I just walked Hasna on after that, there was no talking to her.

Nightmare, I hate when things like that happen and you can't think of anything smart to say to them. Not like swearing your head or anything but something like 'there is no preparing for your brand of stupidity'.

Some people just don't know about horses while others are thick.

doctor evil

I enjoy hacking with the mare but one thing I am very keen on is road safety and relations with other road users.

I acknowledge other road users with eye contact/nod/hello. I used to take a hand off the reins to wave but now only use this for hand signals to prevent confusion. If other ru are nice to me they get a big smile!

When I hack out I wear a reflective/hi viz hat band and have r/hv boots on the mare and a breast plate. I find the hat band great as people can see it up from up high and the boots are good as it tends to be the moving legs of a horse that other road users notice first. I also take a long schooling whip with me, I'm currently keeping an eye out for something hv/r to stick onto it.

At times I also wear a r/hv tabard. IMO the most basic of tabard is not enough as it only covers front and back so if the animal puts it's head up it can block and a riders pony tail can block it behind.

I firmly believe that hv/r should be worn. By law cars have to have lights on by a certain time. Also, cars tend to be more of a metalic colour while other road users tend to be more of an earth tone (esp horse and rider) and will blend into the background.

MDFM

Doesnt matter on my road, you could be covered in flashing traffic lights and it still wouldnt matter to the ignorant drivers that seem to think they own the road and will drive thro u for a shortcut! I never wear the high viz stuff, always wear a hat and boots and pay attention to whats going on really. i live on a long straight stretch of road, bout 3 miles long, visibilty is good, which tends to encourage drivers to drive faster. I dont do that much road work though, its too dangerous. 5 years ago my neighbour's horse was killed on the road when a truck ran into the back of the horse, he didnt give him any room to pull in, it was awful. So unfortunately, we tend to limit our use of the road!:(

Censorsh!t

Hmm...I sometimes take my pony out on the roads. Thankfully they're pretty quiet where I keep her and most of the time cars will slow right down.

I have had one bad experience, when passing a field with two miniature horses, my pony and my friend's horse went mental, and paid no attention to traffic. We were pretty scared after that one!

Theponylady

I ride and drive my ponies on the roads quite a lot. It's amazing to me how many people just blow on by at 50 and 60mph, often only inches from us. I've had a number of times where people, always younger guys, have intentionally tried to spook my horses by blaring the horn or yelling as they went by, looking back and laughing. I'm lucky my horses aren't bothered by that. Logging and dump trucks are particular problems. They seem to think they own the roads, and that everyone should just get out of their way and that they should not ever have to slow down.

When I moved to Ireland, I was shocked to discover that there are no riding trails whatsoever in a country that is so horse oriented. There is nowhere to ride except roads and arenas(and there are no public arenas at all). I see why hunting is so very popular. It has nothing to do with people actually wanting to hunt, it has to do with hunting being the only time people can get off the roads and go cross country without dealing with traffic.

Alibear

I always wear a hi-viz vest or jacket, and in colder weather or I'm riding out when it's dark, then I'll also have a hi-viz exercise sheet for my horse.

greenkittie

I don't ride on the roads as they are far too busy and there is enough parkland beside the stables I am at the entertain for hours. However the other day I was riding past an old guy with a dog and he seemed to think it was hillarious to squeek his dog toy repeatedly at the horse and see it go mad. Usually such a quiet horse until this guy was a total dick.

Jemmy

Its very quiet where I live and it's only about a 10min walk up to the wood, I'd just wear a hi-viz vest or jacket when I'm going out.

Thankfully I've only had one bad experience on the road and he got my crop as hard as I could throw it at his back window! :D

Censorsh!t

Theponylady wrote: »

I've had a number of times where people, always younger guys, have intentionally tried to spook my horses by blaring the horn or yelling as they went by, looking back and laughing. I'm lucky my horses aren't bothered by that. .

I can't believe people would do that! Do they have any sense at all how dangerous what they're doing is! That really makes me angry.

Kamili

I took my guy out on the road at the weekend and I was totally appalled at the dangerous driving by one particular g1t in a subaru, which is quite loud anyway. He was driving at least twice the speed limit and when I screamed repeatedly and made the signal frantically to get him to slow down, he sped up, revved his engine loudly, nearly clipped me on my horse and then proceeded to wave and beep his horn at me. The engine in that car is very loud and with the extra mods the fool had on it it really frightened the life out of my usually bombproof horse, he'd normally not bat an eyelid at this.

I think the engine revving, the close call and the beeping really took the biscuit. Not only did this guy do it once, he did it again as apparently it was hilarious to him.

Now my horse is tense going on these particular roads, I'm raging. These people should not have a license!!!! :mad::mad::mad::mad: (oh and he looked too young to be driving too) I should have reported him

doctor evil

Report him Kamili! Put special emphasses (sp?) on lack of safety. What kind of road was it, is it near a school or houses with young kids. Ask around and see if anyone knows of the muppet.

Kamili

doctor evil wrote: »

Report him Kamili! Put special emphasses (sp?) on lack of safety. What kind of road was it, is it near a school or houses with young kids. Ask around and see if anyone knows of the muppet.

Its a road along which is a very well known equestrian centre in wicklow. Its a wide enough country road, but rather twisty with lots of bends. Can be very busy at times.
I got the dude's reg number but not sure what to do, i doubt the guards would be bothered at this stage.

Theponylady

I agree. When these eejits drive past, see if you can get a license plate number and car make. I really think it's time for a real crackdown on idiots who try to cause accidents. I drive my pony to the store regularly, and these days I'm not the only one doing that. It's a nice way to exercise the pony, and save a bit of fuel by doing an errand I'd otherwise have to drive the car to do. I don't need someone trying to cause an accident. I wish judges would really throw the book at people doing this stuff.

Kamili

Theponylady wrote: »

I agree. When these eejits drive past, see if you can get a license plate number and car make. I really think it's time for a real crackdown on idiots who try to cause accidents. I drive my pony to the store regularly, and these days I'm not the only one doing that. It's a nice way to exercise the pony, and save a bit of fuel by doing an errand I'd otherwise have to drive the car to do. I don't need someone trying to cause an accident. I wish judges would really throw the book at people doing this stuff.

I did get the reg number and thought i'd throw it onto mywheels.ie, it doesn't exist!!!

Theponylady

If you give it to the gardes, and it doesn't exist, they'll know they are probably dealing with a stolen car as well.

hannah-banana

yeah people on the roads are silly when it comes to horses, older people were never taught how to approach horses when doing their driving tests, it was never in the theory test, at least now the theory test is a bit more educational about horses... but still not enough. people are never told what to expect from a horse, if theyve never been around horses..

wolfpawnat

I used to hack my on-loan pony the whole time, but she was a bit flighty so because of boy racers and ignorant drivers I decided she and I were safer in the stables! She used to love the road. A car came around a corner too fast one day and she reared and nearly fell into a drainage bank! The car driver had the nerve to blame me! We were on the correct side of the road and were abiding by the rules of the road, I can't help it Malibu Barbie in her husbands Range Rover was going 55mph in a 30mph back road!

Jen Pigs Fly

Have another road story from the weekend, decided to bring my horse out just for the craic, seeing as we had done enough flatwork to last us a lifetime.

So I bring her out, it was around 4 or so on a sunday evening, but i have myself and her decked out in the hi-fiz.

So off we go on our normal route, a small bridle path almost that goes around a bog, it usually takes an hour and a half.

So we're walking along just me and her just having fun when this almighty monster of a jeep comes roaring along towards us. The pure noise of it was horrible and Hasna, who despite how bombproof she is, is still a flighty arab when she wants to be, decided she did not like this car. So I do the hand signal to slow the driver down, he doesn'y slow down. Remember we are on a small country land, it would only fit one car's width. There was no where for me and Hasna to go, and if he would have just slowed down I could have trotted her up into a house driveway.

But no, this person decides to start beeping the horn to get us to move. At this point I'm shouting 'stop!' as Hasna is going crazy.

He keeps driving now, slowed down a little bit but continues to blow the horn, Hasna at this point is going mental, rearing. So I had no choice but to hop down off her, in order to try control her and to possibly make the driver stop unless he wanted to run me over. Of course he didn't stop beeping the horn, so I had absolutly no choice but to pratically drag Hasna into a ditch to get out of his way (only a very shallow one), now this mare hates water HATES water, so when I manage to get her at least some way out of his way doesn't she panic? She hops further back into the ditch and has a scitzo attack almost, thought she was going to have a heart attact.

This man anyway storms past us, engine revving loudly and shouts quite a bad cruse word at me and speeds of.

So now here am I stuck with a horse who is panicking in a ditch to get out of some eejit's way. Luckilly, once the car was gone and I started to talk to her she calmed down, so I walked out of the ditch, and taking care not to get in her way, let her get herself out of the ditch.

Now I have never seen the mare so frightened as I did then. She was shivering, with a heavy sweat, her nostrils were flared she was breathing so heard and I could feel her heart from her sides. She also got a fair few cuts from her struggle in the ditch.

So I called the yard to get them to pick up up. Was not going to try being her home, wasn't fair on her, so I took the saddle and bridle off and walked her a bit in a very makeshift headcollar (her cavesson noseband and a lead rope, I always carry a lead rope with me). She was in bits.

It really goes to show the ignorance of this person, obviously he had somewhere so important to be that he had to force a horse and rider into a ditch. Havn't ridden Hasna since, her confidence has gone completly.

doctor evil

That's nasty Jenny report the dangerous driver with any detail you can remember. Is there any way to know if the moron is local?

Jen Pigs Fly

doctor evil wrote: »

That's nasty Jenny report the dangerous driver with any detail you can remember. Is there any way to know if the moron is local?

I could ask around to see if anyone knew the car, it was one of those massive ford pick up trucks. See I keep my mare in meath, while I'm in kildare, so I'm not from the immediate area. I have already asked around, but no one seems to know of it.

It was a silver pick up with a 06-D something reg, which is all I can really remember! I will find out who this is, if I can however!