Horse Road Safety.

[PotterYouRotter]

Very irritated with my state about this. In the past year two horses, and now one rider have been hit and killed by cars and so far no one is being charged except the horse owners. Just found out this 30+ old rider and his horse got hit by a 16 yr old driver and she isn't being charged. And the horse and rider were in plain site and the horse was killed on impact and the rider is in critical condition. Seriously?

[Annie]

Urg! That's truly sickening to hear.
It's really scary! I wish I didn't have to go near roads. I read that there's 90,000 miles of footpath around the UK...and only 21,000 miles of bridleway...how is that fair?

[PotterYouRotter]

exactly. people in horse areas where i live constantly complain about us taking horses near cars, but we dont have any sufficient trails or safe pathways to trails.

[SnowyCheetah]

My uncle has three horses and never rides them in the road for that reason. When he wants to ride, he finds a safe place to do so, or travels to one. He didn't purchase a horse until he could do so. While it's frustrating to have only roads to ride on, it's not always practical or even safe to attempt it for the reasons mentioned above by Annie.

[PotterYouRotter]

Right now, there are problems at my trainers barn because there are people that dont care to watch for horses even though there are clear Watch For Horses signs along the road and it's all horse accessible and SUPPOSED to be used for the horses but no one pays attention.

[SnowyCheetah]

While it seems the horseback riders are mostly in the right, I think if everyone would calm down a bit, and focus less on raging about it, a sensible and effective solution may be more within reach. Perhaps an organized petition to the government to enforce the laws more heavily, or something of that sort.

[PotterYouRotter]

i agree. the only problem is that where i live, equestrians and horse people in general are the minority. most of the people around me dont even expect to see a horse within their area and thats when they get mad if something goes wrong. whether they made the problem or not.

[SnowyCheetah]

Well there's your problem, then. Since they don't expect it, that's why they have a tendency to disregard the possibility of a rider on the road. It's like "watch for deer" signs in the US. They're not all that common running across the road in most areas, so people don't really pay much attention to the signs. For this reason, the riders need to do everything they can to be as safe as possible. This includes wearing bright reflective clothing, and doing their best to keep to areas with minimal blind corners where motorists fly through. While that is not always possible, maybe that then makes it necessary to travel to another area with the use of a horse trailer.

[PotterYouRotter]

I already knew that was the problem. But in that current area, people really should be expecting them. It's a horse community and there are several signs saying Watch For Horses and Horse Riders within a small distance. I can't stop them from blowing past the signs and not paying attention, they really should just pay attention to the signs. It's their fault in that case when they ignore the caution signs. We do everything we can to make sure they can see us.

The whole thing about this Forum is a few of us equestrians trying to say that We do everything we can to be visible and follow safety rules, and people still ignore us, blame us, and kill us.


"Since they don't expect it, that's why they have a tendency to disregard the possibility of a rider on the road. It's like "watch for deer" signs in the US."
Specifically where i live, Utah, these signs are all over the place in the areas that horses are kept. Deer signs are everywhere as well but even more so. So people have no right to say they just dont expect it. If they see a sign, they should be aware and TAKE CAUTION

"keep to areas with minimal blind corners where motorists fly through. While that is not always possible, maybe that then makes it necessary to travel to another area with the use of a horse trailer."
I understand that we cant make blind corners go away, thats not under our control, and we do everything we can to work with that and people still try to run us over.
And i really really disagree with the necessary traveling with another trailer. Where these horses are, are IN their own horse area with a horse trail right next door. It's not the horses that are in a public place meant for people. There are drivers in a place MEANT for horses and we still get hurt.
A horse never gets hurt in busy places like downtown, because horses arent taken down there except for the carriage horses. Everytime someone gets hurt here, its because there are dumb drivers in a horse environment. Its not because we take them out of there, its because someone else comes in and ignores it.

[SnowyCheetah]

[quote="PotterYouRotter"]The whole thing about this Forum is a few of us equestrians trying to say that We do everything we can to be visible and follow safety rules...[/quote]

Can't say that I agree with that, considering the subject matter of this site, but I do agree on all other counts.

Being a cyclist myself, I get my fair share of close calls on the road even in areas where there is a specified bike lane. Hell, even when I'm in a car people can't stand driving the speed limit and I end up the butt of other drivers' frustration.