Give Horses a Wide Berth

rce

rce

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Had a brill ride into North Yorkshire yesterday, this horse didn't like the F650GS at all. Unusually my video camera hadn't run out of card space and was on when something interesting happens.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oSOcoexUIlo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Lucky the horse didn't side step into you at the start .

Good on you for doing the sensible thing though:thumb2
 
Good to see you demonstrated so much patience Alan.

That horse looked to be a liabilty on the road, more so than normal.
 
I've always failed to understand why someone would want to take a horse out onto a road in Britain - traffic is heavy and noisy and must scare the life of the poor animal.
I'm sure I'll be shot down but it must be an ego thing for a rider rather than any benefit for the horse.

And as for all the crap they dump as they ride along.....
 
Good job you had more control over your bike than he/she did over the horse. If a motorcyclist behaved like that on the road they'd be prosecuted.
 
The same around here we are surrounded by fields but they insist on riding two abreast on the little lanes.
 
Monsieur said:
I've always failed to understand why someone would want to take a horse out onto a road in Britain - traffic is heavy and noisy and must scare the life of the poor animal.
Click to expand...

For the same reason we ride on the road between byways. The network of bridle ways is equally disappearing. Stables aren't always linked up to open land where horses can be properly exercised.

Personally I would have backed away and pulled closer to the verge and definitely killed the engine a lot sooner. The horse was panicking and taking a submissive stance would have taken you out of the equation.

When you did get going again you kept a good distance :thumb2
 
Good job you had more control over your bike than he/she did over the horse. If a motorcyclist behaved like that on the road they'd be prosecuted.

There is a slight difference however in having control over a motorcycle and a horse which has a mind of its own. In all honesty if it decides to do what it wants then nobody has absolute control over it.
 
Nice riding ( of the bike ). Completely considerate of the horse rider throughout, had it been another type of rider that could have gone awfully wrong for them.

Bet you were glad when it finally exited stage left.
Was there a queue of traffic behind you and did the rider give you a massive thank you wave ?

Beth wondered whether the horse just wanted a look at your bike - quite reasonable assuming its a GS - it calmed down considerably once it went back in front.
 
jolyon_russ said:
Stables aren't always linked up to open land where horses can be properly exercised.
Click to expand...

Then why own a horse :nenau
I've got a couple of Westies but wouldn't buy a big labrador as I haven't the room to keep them properly exercised.
Snobbery value :rolleyes:

The French have the right idea :thumb2
 
Why don't horse riders have to pick up the poo as dog owners have to?

You showed excellent judgement with the horse. :thumb2
 
My cousin was thrown from a spooked horse two years ago onto concrete, shattering her ankle.

Last week a local woman was killed near Fareham where I live due to an incident where a horse bolted from a bridleway into a public highway(the Horse survived).

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/tr...man_killed_in_horse_riding_accident_1_2393387

I cannot understand how motorcycles are banned from many RUPPs and BOATS yet the horse riders are free to use the public highways when there are one too many brains in charge of events for public safety. Before I get flamed, I do slow down or stop my engine for Horses (although I have crested a hill on-road to be confronted with a Horse and an angry rider, requiring a real hand full of brakes).
 
jolyon_russ said:
Personally I would have backed away and pulled closer to the verge and definitely killed the engine a lot sooner. The horse was panicking and taking a submissive stance would have taken you out of the equation.
Click to expand...

That is the sort of feedback that I hoped for. I hope I did the right thing and have tried to work through scenarios in my head to work out if I could have done anything different.

The positioning (at least initially) was about keeping myself (and the rider) as safe as possible, it was a national speed limit road and on S bends. The position I stopped allowed me to be seen from further away. No traffic behind me at first, mirror view was a bit limited (could see a van had pulled slightly off road at start of corners). Could have stopped the engine sooner, but again it was a snap decision to shut it off (which then reduced my chances of moving out of harms way).

The rider did say she was sorry as the horse backed pass me, sitting still seems to have helped calm the horse once it had admired the GS :)

The knob in the Renault didn't help the situation coming in so close to the horse, and I didn't really need him to stop to talk at me.
 
Well done RCE, I think you did very well in dealing with a hard situation:)
Its very easy to sit and watch a video and point out where you could have done better but at the end of the day you stopped the sitation from getting worse.

I unfortunately miss read a situation when I was in yorkshire and paniced a horse and rightly got a firm talking to by the rider. I thought the rider was moving out the way to give me more room to pass when in fact the house was beginning to take flight. I continued round and made the situation worse. But At least I know for next time.

So you did better than I :clap
 
The horse spooked at something else, was nothing to do with your riding. They often see dragons in hedgerows!

You acted perfectly, both in your interests and that of the horse / rider. Half a ton of horse in a panic will not be stopped by anything short of a tank, and even then it'll try to jump it!
 
rce said:
That is the sort of feedback that I hoped for. I hope I did the right thing and have tried to work through scenarios in my head to work out if I could have done anything different.

The positioning (at least initially) was about keeping myself (and the rider) as safe as possible, it was a national speed limit road and on S bends. The position I stopped allowed me to be seen from further away. No traffic behind me at first, mirror view was a bit limited (could see a van had pulled slightly off road at start of corners). Could have stopped the engine sooner, but again it was a snap decision to shut it off (which then reduced my chances of moving out of harms way).

The rider did say she was sorry as the horse backed pass me, sitting still seems to have helped calm the horse once it had admired the GS :)

The knob in the Renault didn't help the situation coming in so close to the horse, and I didn't really need him to stop to talk at me.
Click to expand...

Yeah the S bend and blind crest made it a very difficult situation. I suspect the renault driver might not have seen until it was too late:nenau

I'm not 100% sure your visibility to other road users in that situation is paramount. If a person coming up behind you can't see the socking great big horse in the middle of the road then everyones fooked :eek:
 
The Mrs rode horses for a living (well she called it a living, I thought it was charity work as the "pay" barely covered fuel to and from the yards) anyway, she reckons the Horse rider should have let the horse see the bike as it may have calmed down once it knew the thing behind was not about to take it down.

The biggest problem is normally the riders, many of whom have no idea, and although we (I) complain about driving standards at least there is a test and 5 year olds cannot just go out on the road like they can with horses.

The road is no place for an easily spooked horse, or an inexperienced rider, and when it all goes wrong so often the innocent get hurt (and that includes the Horse as it has it has little understanding of roads and road laws, although maybe a bit more than some elderly motorists)

I would rather they kept to the fields, but I dare say there are less places to ride them, but that ain't our (the "road users") fault and there are places to go with them and horse boxes to take them there.

But if they are gonna be on the road I think the riders should need to pass some sort of test, and the horses be insured, some years ago a mate had a horse spook and smash up the front end of his car, quite a bit of damage was done and he never got a penny out of the girl on the horse, and the law couldn't do sod all about it either.
 
share the road

Dave Ett said:
The horse spooked at something else, was nothing to do with your riding. They often see dragons in hedgerows!

You acted perfectly, both in your interests and that of the horse / rider. Half a ton of horse in a panic will not be stopped by anything short of a tank, and even then it'll try to jump it!
Click to expand...

I suggest the horse was spooked by the motorcycle engine noise and turned to see what was creeping up on it. If the motorcycle rider kept further back and\or cut the engine earlier earlier it would probably have helped calm the animal.

I'm very happy to share the road with horses - and cycles, even when two abreast. I'd really like it if they'd happily share the lanes and byways with trail bikes.
 
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