What about horses

[Bluebell72]

When approaching a horse from behind, I give a single 'ding' on my bell (not the rrrin-rrring kind) and cough, to make sure the rider is aware. Then I pull out and ride past, leaving the horse plenty of space, but speak to the rider, 'morning, how are you doing?' type greeting. Never had a problem so far.

I would be nervous on a narrow path and dismount.

A few months ago, I was cycling past a riding school, on a quiet country road, when a group of teenagers on horses were being led out onto the road, there were three 'leaders' with them too. Everyone was hard-hatted and high-vizzed. One of the leaders horses though, had a little dance about at the road side, and jumped into the ditch - maybe 200 yards before I got there, and when I passed, was being coaxed out. It didn't look good.
Ten or so minutes later, as I was up on my pedals, and climbing a hill, I could hear horse shoes meeting tarmac at a good rate, coming up behind me. They sounded erratic, and I'm embarrassed to say I was afeared and didn't look

Well, the horse (ditch jumper) shot past, on the wrong side of the road, the rider looking very cross, and then ran into a field, where it did a bit of hopping about. I was bricking it, as at the point, I had the option of a drainage ditch to fall into on one side (deep and steep) and the hill by now was to steep to stop without having a clip-moment.
The hapless rider eventually calmed her horse down and dismounted, but I was shaking, stopped at the top, while they walked off nonchalantly.

 

[Parrot of Doom]

I would have told her to try not to keep her horse in an environment where it becomes stressed, because stressed animals do not produce good quality steaks.

Horse meat is delicious.

 

[byegad]

They are dangerous. To you, your bike and their rider.
If you want a really scared horse try a recumbent trike! They really are very frightened of them.

So if meeting head on, I stop as soon as the animal looks at all nervous, (watch its ears) sit up, and talk to the rider. It doesn't matter what you say it's about making the horse aware you are a human being, not a predator.

In more than 6 years of riding recumbents I've come across snooty riders two or three times, and I often meet horses as there are riding schools and liveries scattered around my area.

I react to them according to their attitude.

When ordered to 'Go back' in the tones od Lord Muck speaking to a smelly dirty peasant found trespassing on the front lawn. This after I stopped as His Lordship was about to be unshipped, we met on a curve with high hedges.
I responded with a firm no you go back there's a farm track right behind you. Lord Muck gave me a look living up to his name and tried the line again!... He went into the farm track.

A young 'lady', again met at a blind corner told me I wasn't allowed on 'her' road, along wth some unladylike language. My reply was less than gentlemantly as I waited for her to get past me.

A new local riding school lady was somewhat 'short' with me as I met her in the village and 'ordered' me to stop, when I had already had stopped. I mentioned I:-
a) Always stopped for horses.
b) Lived in the village so would be seeing her regularly as I ride most days.
and
c) If she didn't adjust her attitude, I'd make an exception for her and carry on riding next time I saw her.

More words were exchanged but the upshot is I now get a genuine sounding 'Thank you!' when we meet. And I do stop for her and her pupils.

Approaching from behind is more difficult. I tend to hang back until the road will allow me to pass at speed and on the extreme right of the outside lane, then shout (I'm that far back.) 'Is it OK to come through?'. Most riders are pretty good at letting you pass, they'd rather not have the horse, which has near 360 degree vision catching sight of you following them. Some will even take a nervous horse into a field or side road.

I mention the problems I've met but the vast majority of horse riders are good and with the cyclist showing consideration will reciprocate with as much goodwill as is shown them. As in all walks of life, including cyclists, the majority of people are good and considerate. Shame about the others.

 

[ian turner]

There's a horse rider on one of my routes who has a woman cycling behind. Probably to ring for an ambulance when the rider gets knocked unconcious.
PAssed them on Sunday on the far side of the road hoping no one came hairing round the bend in a car as the horse was shying at the hedges being blown by the wind.
You may say that cycles are fairly quiet but cars don't make that much noise above that of the wheels unless they have jumbo exhaust pipes fitted in which case the horse will have bolted well before the car appears.
It's an oddity that if you go on the road in a car with dodgy brakes you may be fined and the like but folks go on the road on a horse with an engine management system usually associated with uncontrolled dashes down motorways by renaults

 

[julesdavis1965]

the only way i like a horse is if its got a jockey on top , my money on it and its first past the post

 

[Jimmy Doug]

I mention the problems I've met but the vast majority of horse riders are good and with the cyclist showing consideration will reciprocate with as much goodwill as is shown them. As in all walks of life, including cyclists, the majority of people are good and considerate. Shame about the others.

Absolutely. There is no reason why riders and cyclists shouldn't get along. Both are environmentally friendly activities and we share a common enemy: the car. We should band together and respect each other, not argue with each other or take the piss out of each other (ref, the horse steak comment earlier on). Some riders are rude to cyclists, some are rude to everyone; but some cyclists are rude too. Besides, a lot of riders are also cyclists so there's no reason why they should consider themselves superior.
I'd like to add something else. A lot of people have mentioned approaching horses from behind, but you mustn't forget that horses have very poor forward vision. They see better from the side than from the front.

 

[ian turner]

You're ignoring the horse in that equation. Aside from which you can't really talk about respecting one road user while calling another the enemy without allowing the possibility of others having an alternative definition of who is to be respected and who vilified. That's a Daily Mail mindset. Plus if car drivers are the enemy then odds on the majority of posters on this forum are therefore their own worst enemy.

 

[Becs]

There's a horse rider on one of my routes who has a woman cycling behind. Probably to ring for an ambulance when the rider gets knocked unconcious.

I used to do that. When I was a kid Dad would come out on a mountain bike. After I was about 15 the task fell to the boyfriend. Incidently my pony was fine with slow bikes but freaked out by faster people on road bikes - I think they make a high pitched noise that we can't hear because the pony would tense up before I could see the bike behind us (bendy roads).

I wouldn't recommend ringing a bell. Just slow down, speak to the rider and follow their advice. Unfortunately you will encounter a few novice horses on the roads, but youngsters never get good in traffic if you don't take them in traffic.

 

[Globalti]

I was out with my MTB club a few years ago and we all came flying off the fells down a track that passed a paddock containing several very racy horses with long skinny legs. I called out to everyone to slow down but a couple of riders went on very fast and the stupid horses raised their tails and started charging around like nutters. The wifey came out of the farm house and started berating us, shouting that the horses where very valuable and if once of them broke a leg we'd be to blame. We do have club insurance but only for a million quid or so....

We get quite a lot of horses here in the Ribble valley as it's very horsey. My usual procedure is to call out when a few yards behind and establish contact with the rider, most of whom seem to be young, fit and female. (Almost never male - why?)

Got mixed up with a bunch of women touring with big saddlebags on horses a year or two ago on part of the Mary Towneley Loop, which is a loop off the Pennine Bridleway created for horses and cyclists. I was with a bunch of cyclists so there was a certain amount of eyeing-up going on on both sides and a bit of banter, verging on flirtation. One cyclist offered a swap and when the rider replied "No thanks, I'll stick with the horse" the cyclist retorted: "I wasn't talking to you; I was talking to your horse....!"

 

[Jimmy Doug]

You're ignoring the horse in that equation. Aside from which you can't really talk about respecting one road user while calling another the enemy without allowing the possibility of others having an alternative definition of who is to be respected and who vilified. That's a Daily Mail mindset. Plus if car drivers are the enemy then odds on the majority of posters on this forum are therefore their own worst enemy.

No, I didn't express myself well. I have in the past got shirty with people who make generalizations, and there I go making a comment that looks like I've generalized myself! What I meant is, that when you're on a horse, just like when you're on a bike, your biggest potential danger comes from cars. That doesn't mean all car drivers are arse-holes, and apologies if I made it sound like that. But it only takes a casual glance at this forum to see that there are some drivers who either by ignorance or aggression pose a treat to the safety of cyclists - and the same goes to horse riders.

 

[ianrauk]

What about horses?
They pooh everywhere..and the riders don't pick it up like dog owners pick up doggy doo doo...
There should be a new law... I effin hate horse shoot getting on my bike.

 

[4F]

You should overtake at speed getting as close as possible whilst shouting get off the bloody road and get on the path. :troll: (courtesy of daily mail)

We have some stables near here and I am getting rightly peed off with such comments as "my horse is young and easily spooked" If it is that bad stay on the bridleway and off the F****** road

 

[ColinJ]

I was out with my MTB club a few years ago and we all came flying off the fells down a track that passed a paddock containing several very racy horses with long skinny legs. I called out to everyone to slow down but a couple of riders went on very fast and the stupid horses raised their tails and started charging around like nutters.

I had the same thing happen on the Rossendale Mountain Bike Challenge a few years ago. I could see what was going to happen and slowed down, but the other riders just carried on and spooked the horses.

We get quite a lot of horses here in the Ribble valley as it's very horsey. My usual procedure is to call out when a few yards behind and establish contact with the rider, most of whom seem to be young, fit and female. (Almost never male - why?)

Men seem to prefer to be out on bikes?

I've noticed it myself. I've asked various women why more women don't ride bikes and many of the reasons they gave would also apply to horse riding (too busy looking after home and family etc.) so that can't explain the difference.

Obviously, a lot of men do enjoy riding horses and a lot of women do enjoy riding bikes but any time spent in areas popular with cyclists and horse riders soon shows the gender divide. At least it does here oop north - it might not apply in other parts of the country.

 

[siadwell]

John Harvey-Jones, who used to be the boss at ICI, was once asked why he had a collection of donkeys and he replied "You can ride a horse off a cliff....you can't ride a donkey off one...."

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a country show and watched a chap expounding the virtues of mules. They have hard hooves so farrier bills are virtually zero, similarly the vet doesn't get called very often due to their robustness, they make much more efficient use of feed, are far more intelligent and easy to work with, once you've gained their trust. And they can jump a five bar gate from standing!

 

[Alien8]

If you ride on one of these you'll find you have no problems.