andy_s:
I guess it’s something to factor in when you’re driving. Saying that, I do find at times, these horsey sorts just expect you as a driver to take all precautions and they take none… I reckon they should train their horses to get less spooked before they take them on the road. Maybe blow up balloons behind the horse and pop it with a pin now and again.
Andy please don’t tar us all with the same brush. I ride head to toe, me and the horse, in hi viz, and wear an air jacket that explodes like a gunshot to inflate if I fall off. My horses are bullet proof, but they are also 600 kilos of live animal who can be startled by a pheasant flying up under their nose from a hedgerow.
Unfortunately for you and us, we have little option but to be on the roads, and until it’s illegal for us to do that I’m afraid you need to drive accordingly on blind bands on rural roads.
andy_s:
I guess it’s something to factor in when you’re driving. Saying that, I do find at times, these horsey sorts just expect you as a driver to take all precautions and they take none… I reckon they should train their horses to get less spooked before they take them on the road. Maybe blow up balloons behind the horse and pop it with a pin now and again.
+1
■■■■ things are skittery and prone to chucking the rider off at the first opportunity.
Drivers have to reach a standard before a licence is issued, cyclists must obey the highway rules but, horses? They can just expect the whole world to stop whilst they wander around the roadway.
Whilst I slow down for them and give them room, I don’t think they should be on the road in the first place if they’re likely to flip out at the first big nasty vehicle they see.
Returning to yard , at or near end of shift , i.e. Close to home time
Hairpin , a tight bend you are more than likely not able to see around
Giving it the gas , foot on accelerator using power .
It reads as if you may well have less than prepared for encountering a hazard , or an unexpected event , which was the case
Giving it gas heading up a hill which was on a left handed bend, how else do you get power to go up a hill? Do you put your 2 feet out the window to get up or am I missing some thing? I rounded it off to 20mph it was more 17mph if anything maybe 16mph.
As for end of shift, I was on hire,so end of shift for people that hired me, not exactly end of shift had I off been doing my normal work
I can understand the dilemma in this type of scenario if others can’t.You can’t really remove all the scary possibilities ( for a horse ) in the case of approaching a blind bend up or down a steep hill with a truck under power to climb or engine braking to descend.At least without stopping at every such point and parking up in silence just in case.
Luckily there’s not many horse riders in Swiss the mountains.
By the sound if it the OP couldn’t see round the bend,(if you could you would have spotted said horsey lady and slowed).
Friday or not as I suspect couldn’t see clearly what was round the bend so slowing down till you can clearly see is in order,could have been anything round the bend(hazard perception anyone??).
You get good horse riders and bad ones just like vehicular drivers .
But even the good ones leave the horse muck on the road !!
If I lost a load on the road I’d be in deep ■■■■ !
To the OP tell your boss you did slow down, but did it by coming off the gas to avoid using the brakes or changing down and risk startling the horse with the noise and this is probably why the rider thought you hadn’t attempted to slow down.
Daytrunker:
By the sound if it the OP couldn’t see round the bend,(if you could you would have spotted said horsey lady and slowed).
Friday or not as I suspect couldn’t see clearly what was round the bend so slowing down till you can clearly see is in order,could have been anything round the bend(hazard perception anyone??).
So travelling round a bend at say 16mph is excessive? Next time I come to a bend I’m gonna stop, park up, put hazards on, get out, walk round see if it’s clear and if clear to do so I’m gonna push the thing around it
Lloydie:
You get good horse riders and bad ones just like vehicular drivers .
But even the good ones leave the horse muck on the road !!
If I lost a load on the road I’d be in deep [zb] !
It’s only chewed up grass Lloydie. What do you expect me to do, get off on a road with cars whizzing past, remount and carry it back home in a rucksack? Can’t it just wait for a bit of rain?
There are bad riders. The ones with no hi viz and the ones that never say thanks drive me bats!
From what’s been described it sounds like he couldn’t see the nag and the horse until he was basically at them, in which case there’s not much could be done. We can’t drive around every corner at a crawl just in case there’s a gluebag trotting along. Wrong place, wrong time.
If he could see them, well that’s just naughty driving.
Superhampton1980:
Next time I come to a bend I’m gonna stop, park up, put hazards on, get out, walk round see if it’s clear and if clear to do so I’m gonna push the thing around it
To be fair you’ll only need to push the truck if there’s actually a horse there and you want to save the guvnor’s time in not just putting it on break and waiting until the horse is well out of audible range. If it was me I’d just show the guvnor and horse rider that Swiss Post Bus vid.
Lloydie:
You get good horse riders and bad ones just like vehicular drivers .
But even the good ones leave the horse muck on the road !!
If I lost a load on the road I’d be in deep [zb] !
It’s only chewed up grass Lloydie. What do you expect me to do, get off on a road with cars whizzing past, remount and carry it back home in a rucksack? Can’t it just wait for a bit of rain?
There are bad riders. The ones with no hi viz and the ones that never say thanks drive me bats!
might only be that but you hit it on a motorbike and the result ain’t very nice !!
I have to pick up my dogs mess so why don’t the horse rider do the same ?
Don’t get me wrong I do like horses and always show them and there riders respect on the road .
Wearing a hi-viz makes you immune from being run over.
Wake up! Painting something yellow doesn’t make it safe and resistant to harm.
I’ve seen drivers with hi-viz being flattened by bright yellow fork-lifts with flashing lights and a reversing bleeper in a bright yellow painted area. It doesn’t matter what colour you paint an idiot, they’re still an idiot.
Wearing a hi-viz makes you immune from being run over.
Wake up! Painting something yellow doesn’t make it safe and resistant to harm.
I’ve seen drivers with hi-viz being flattened by bright yellow fork-lifts with flashing lights and a reversing bleeper in a bright yellow painted area. It doesn’t matter what colour you paint an idiot, they’re still an idiot.
Lloydie:
I have to pick up my dogs mess so why don’t the horse rider do the same ?
I used to deliver a lot of stone to menage builds, and I asked a stable owner why they are allowed to foul roads and paths. I asked it out of interest, not in a confrontational way, and was told it’s because dogs are carnivores and the various bugs and viruses from dog ■■■■ is significantly more harmful than horse manure (as said it’s just grass).
I’ve also learned that horse owners tend to prefer meeting trucks than cars as there’s a much better chance of the driver being more understanding.
I find horse owners on the whole very grateful, now that hunting has been banned. The most ignorant of all were the hunts who thought they owned all roads, fields and verges.
The only mildly annoying horse riders now are those in those “Polite” hi viz vests. I assume they’re out to report anything.
Superhampton1980:
I was going no faster than the vehicles in front and gets a load of abuse from the said rider for not slowing down! 20mph I was doing when I looked and thought it wasn’t excessive.
A horse is more likely to be spooked by a truck going 20mph than a car doing the same by it’s sheer size.
Maybe if she saw, or heard, you coming off the gas a bit, she wouldn’t have bubbled you, at leastvyou would have demonstrated an attempt, but I don’t know mate, I wasn’t there on the day.
Personally I go past them at walking pace with a wide berth.
After saying that, I’ve always thought a field would be more suitable than a main road for excercising a horse.
Lloydie:
You get good horse riders and bad ones just like vehicular drivers .
But even the good ones leave the horse muck on the road !!
If I lost a load on the road I’d be in deep [zb] !
It’s only chewed up grass Lloydie. What do you expect me to do, get off on a road with cars whizzing past, remount and carry it back home in a rucksack? Can’t it just wait for a bit of rain?
There are bad riders. The ones with no hi viz and the ones that never say thanks drive me bats!
There’s a sign in one of the villages near me of a horse pooing and a comment about taking it home with you - how on earth they expect me to do that I have no idea
After a lifetime of riding the ferrari version of horse I can tell you that staying off the roads would have made my life a lot easier as I would have had less broken bones.
We can’t have a ‘gentle’ anything around a field as they tend to contain other horses and it can cause mayhem. Sorry but you’re stuck with us if you venture into the countryside
I stopped and told a young rider off the other day for not saying thank you. Her horse may be bomb proof but the rest of us don’t have that security
If it was me I’d just show the guvnor and horse rider that Swiss Post Bus vid.
