So who rides horses too?

[bigtwinthing]

mine haven't ever been on a road! perhaps i am lucky.

[gl_s_r]

Road work is horrible for a few reasons..

What a good few people don't understand but hinted at earlier is that they are prey animals and as such the first response to anything out the ordinary is the flight response... and the little b8stard can go sideways faster than they can forwards! You will also be surprised at what scares them and as said before it could be almost anything especially if it is in a familiar route and wasn't there yesterday. To them everything wanted to eat them.

You also get lead horses (these are the brave ones) and you also get the others that need other horses with them. They don't like been alone and will want to follow others.. this is sometimes why you get two as some horses will not hack out alone full stop. As a rider I notice that if you ride in single file and try to be nice in that fashion car drivers will have a good go at trying to squeeze between you and the car coming the other way... and horses don't like that either. Two abreast stops that to a good degree, keeps the horses a little calmer as they have another beside them. I also notice cars go a little slower past you as well if two abreast.. which is nice as a car whizzing by gives the potential for a spook, a sideways lurch and then an accident... and some people do go whizzing by at some crazy speeds.

As someone said earlier... land to ride on is getting harder and harder to find and all around us is now being built on and we have to do road work now to get to some tracks where before we could get onto straight out the stables.

I also pay yearly insurance to ride on the roads... like I do the car and motorbike.

I know it is a pain sometimes but it truly is the better and safest way when you go two abreast.

[bigtwinthing]

Road work is horrible for a few reasons..

What a good few people don't understand but hinted at earlier is that they are prey animals and as such the first response to anything out the ordinary is the flight response... and the little b8stard can go sideways faster than they can forwards! You will also be surprised at what scares them and as said before it could be almost anything especially if it is in a familiar route and wasn't there yesterday. To them everything wanted to eat them.

You also get lead horses (these are the brave ones) and you also get the others that need other horses with them. They don't like been alone and will want to follow others.. this is sometimes why you get two as some horses will not hack out alone full stop. As a rider I notice that if you ride in single file and try to be nice in that fashion car drivers will have a good go at trying to squeeze between you and the car coming the other way... and horses don't like that either. Two abreast stops that to a good degree, keeps the horses a little calmer as they have another beside them. I also notice cars go a little slower past you as well if two abreast.. which is nice as a car whizzing by gives the potential for a spook, a sideways lurch and then an accident... and some people do go whizzing by at some crazy speeds.

As someone said earlier... land to ride on is getting harder and harder to find and all around us is now being built on and we have to do road work now to get to some tracks where before we could get onto straight out the stables.

I also pay yearly insurance to ride on the roads... like I do the car and motorbike.

I know it is a pain sometimes but it truly is the better and safest way when you go two abreast.

You are spot on with that. Flynn came form the IOW. He was amazed the first time we went to the top of a hill and he could see for miles. His eyes were almost bulging out of his head.
First major ride out with about 70 horses in the forest over small jumps he was amazing, hounds running about too and he was fine. On the way back on our own he totally shat himself when he saw a crisp bag in a bush. Funny now but at the time it wasn't. They are weirs creatures, were lucky, ya whistle and he comes over, he can smell an apple from about 1/2 mile, and loves water, likes the rain, and hates dark haired women!!! Whats that all about then. Their ears are the secret to knowing what their thinking. Not as fast and they don't lean much but still an exciting ride.

[freeridenick]

The more I get into it the more I think the unpredictability is a huge part of the appeal. There's an almost symbiotic relationship that grows with familiarity and it's very rewarding.

The two abreast issues comes up time and time again with cyclist too. As a solo cyclists, for the most part, riding 6000+ miles a year I've lost count of the number of times I've been overtaken by a car squeezing through. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. As a driver I much prefer overtaking bikes and horses two abreast as it's quicker and easier. Yes I have to wait slightly longer for the right gap but you're past in half the time.

I've twice had a horse spook at an engine starting, how many times have they heard that? And the last ride I was on one of the horses thought the yellow zig-zag lines outside a school was the weirdest and scariest things in the world. It must have seen the exact same ones hundreds of times. Best to give them a wide birth.

[MacV2]

I have no issue whatso ever with coming to a stop to let horses coming toward me come through...I'll even turn the bike off & wait...

As for overtaking give them a very wide berth & slow down...

I'd rather not get kicked in the face thank you very much...

I'd also rather not have to ride throuh their poo but if you see it early enough it's not really a problem is it...

I do believe that horses, cyclist & mobility scooters sould all have to pay road tax & be insured if they want to be on the road... I have to bloody pay it why shouldn't they...

[freeridenick]

I do believe that horses, cyclist & mobility scooters sould all have to pay road tax & be insured if they want to be on the road... I have to bloody pay it why shouldn't they...

It's a common misnomer Mac. We do.

Something like 95%+ of cyclists also ride bikes and/or drive cars, so pay vehicle excise duty. I'd imagine it's a similar situation for horse riders. I've no clue about mobility scooters. Also, most of the cyclists and riders will work, buy good and otherwise contribute to tax revenue which is all lumped together and divided up. So there's no correlation between tax collected from vehicle owners and money sent on roads.

And, to fan the flames for you, if we all cycled or rode horses instead of driving then the roads could be maintained without the need for a special tax that gets spent elsewhere.

[VTRDark]

have no issue whatso ever with coming to a stop to let horses coming toward me come through...I'll even turn the bike off & wait...

Me too and I always switch the engine off with the noise coming out the cans. Mind you that's in the country and in the city it's a bit diffrent. The only horses here are plod so they are more trained to cope. Lets face it if they can face a bunch of football hooligans they can face my cans. Screw it, they can eat my cans Now where does a horse earn it's money to pay tax and can they use the Internet to do their tax at the end of year. I believe once they have converted everone to cycles they will stick number plates on them and start charging tax, insurance etc. Right now they are in the transition of making as difficult as possible for the motorised road user so once they have everyone converted they will still need to make their money so the day will come.

[MacV2]

I do believe that horses, cyclist & mobility scooters sould all have to pay road tax & be insured if they want to be on the road... I have to bloody pay it why shouldn't they...

It's a common misnomer Mac. We do.

Something like 95%+ of cyclists also ride bikes and/or drive cars, so pay vehicle excise duty. I'd imagine it's a similar situation for horse riders. I've no clue about mobility scooters. Also, most of the cyclists and riders will work, buy good and otherwise contribute to tax revenue which is all lumped together and divided up. So there's no correlation between tax collected from vehicle owners and money sent on roads.

And, to fan the flames for you, if we all cycled or rode horses instead of driving then the roads could be maintained without the need for a special tax that gets spent elsewhere.

I dont care if you pay tax on any other vehical or that '' Something like 95%+ of cyclists also ride bikes and/or drive cars, so pay vehicle excise duty.''

I have to pay tax seperatly for every vehical I use on the road...Not just one tax payment sorts me out for all the vehicals I own...They are road uses they /you should pay to use that road...

Trust me if ...'' if we all cycled or rode horses instead of driving then the roads could be maintained without the need for a special tax that gets spent elsewhere.'' then the fekers would find something else to tax us on to make up for the lost revenue...

Come to think of it when I'm in power I'll introduce a Pavement tax...If you want to walk on the pavement you'll have to pay a tax on it...I'll make special hats with a tax disc holder on it...No hat...No tax...There wont be fines for no tax but offenders will have to work, picking litter, scopping dog crap, fixing potholes... Repeate offenders will be shot...

El Presidente

[lumpyv]

On the subject of horse poo im sure I read somewhere that when cars came into common-ish usage in New York about 1900, the city were dead chuffed as there was so many horses about the horse sh1t was so bad people could hardly walk the streets.

I always stop for horses in the countyside as well.

"That's simple to answer as we don't have as many bridleways or roads designed for horses because we are not in Robin hood times and the roads are now designed for motorised vehicles that travel at higher speeds. What we should be doing is abandoning the motorised vehicles and all getting back in the saddle or walk. Swap the garages attached to houses to a stable."

come to Suffolk Mr dark .. plenty of space here

[oldburnthippy]

Come and live near me. The locals complain about clean tarmac and hurl poo, food and mud at it as fast as poss.

And they drive in the middle of the road.

And they're frightened of getting lost so they live in your exhaust pipe.

And they're French.

[Kev L]

Not really relevant to this thread, apart from they were on a road. The car driver needs shooting -

Car crashes into two horses and riders in Witcham http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-39171871

[bigtwinthing]

bloody hell, that drivers needs his fecking arms breaking.

[VTRDark]

They will be n the shelves in Tesco's next week or is that the human meat. I hear they do good sausages

[freeridenick]

Let me know if you do book it and I'll try and be your escort as I ride for them sometimes.

Done. Sent you a pm mate.

[fabiostar]

Iv been with a few aul ponies in my time.does that count?