Warning to Horse Riders

POPPYOSCAR

Please horse riders wear something reflective in the dark.

We were driving down a country lane earlier this evening and came across horse and rider coming towards us which was difficult to see at first.

We stopped and said through the window that we had difficulty seeing her and she should have something reflective on. She replied we were right and that the dark had suddenly come on her.

Please be sensible at this time of year and no matter what time you go out put something reflective on for all of our sakes.

lincroft1710

Most horse riders should already be well aware of this as it has been well publicised and items advertised for many years.

POPPYOSCAR

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Most horse riders should already be well aware of this as it has been well publicised and items advertised for many years.

You would think so but obviously not!

sheramber

We have a lot of cyclists here: both tourists and locals commuting.

More than half wear all black outfits.

A florescent sash doesn't cost much and would let them be seen before you are actually on them- especially when they don't have lights on their bikeseither.

neilmcl

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

You would think so but obviously not!

I think your experience is the exception rather than the rule. I don't think I've ever seen a horse rider in recent memory that hasn't been fully decked out in hi-viz, and where I live I come across them on a regular basis.

lincroft1710

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

You would think so but obviously not!

I think you met the exception, but hopefully she will be properly kitted out on future rides.

jonnyd281

sheramber wrote: »

We have a lot of cyclists here: both tourists and locals commuting.

More than half wear all black outfits.

A florescent sash doesn't cost much and would let them be seen before you are actually on them- especially when they don't have lights on their bikeseither.

Or only have a light that flashes, they really need to have solid lights as well as flashing. I nearly pulled out in front of one at a round about that was all in black and only had a front light that double flashed once every five seconds.

Fosterdog

sheramber wrote: »

We have a lot of cyclists here: both tourists and locals commuting.

More than half wear all black outfits.

A florescent sash doesn't cost much and would let them be seen before you are actually on them- especially when they don't have lights on their bikeseither.

We get that a lot here too and we have a lot of unlit 60mph roads with it being a rural area.

We once rounded a bend doing 50mph on a 60mph unlit road in the dark, we had a car coming downhill towards us who left their full beam on so we were blinded by the light. OH had luckily already slowed down to just under 30mph because of the light when I just saw a flicker in the corner of my eye and screamed for him to stop. Meer feet in front of us was a cyclist in blackout gear with no lights at all, the flicker I saw was one of the reflectors on his rear wheel as he swerved in front of us. He seemed oblivious to the fact that he almost just died. Maybe if we hadn’t been blinded by the other driver we would have seen him sooner or maybe we wouldn’t have dropped our speed so rapidly and still wouldn’t have seen him and it would have been a different outcome. Either way he had no regard for his own safety on the road.

To make it worse, that stretch of road runs mostly parallel to a national walking and cycling trail with the bit that he was opposite being a stretch of 500 yards where cyclists are actually allowed to ride on the pavement, before it veers off so he had a dedicated safe area where he should have been riding which is there just to prevent such (almost) accidents.
Even in the day I don’t get why any cyclist would use this particular road when there is a safer option right next to it which joins back with the road when it hits the next village and there are street lights again.

POPPYOSCAR

neilmcl wrote: »

I think your experience is the exception rather than the rule. I don't think I've ever seen a horse rider in recent memory that hasn't been fully decked out in hi-viz, and where I live I come across them on a regular basis.

We live around the corner to a riding school and stables.

It never ceases to amaze us at the thoughtless and frankly stupid behaviour of some of the horse riders around here.

firefox1956

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

We live around the corner to a riding school and stables.

It never ceases to amaze us at the thoughtless and frankly stupid behaviour of some of the horse riders around here.

Contact the riding school & stables with your concerns ??
Would be a more constructive use of your time than sounding off on here would it not ??
:p

bairn7

firefox1956 wrote: »

Contact the riding school & stables with your concerns ??
Would be a more constructive use of your time than sounding off on here would it not ??
:p

I think you'll find that sounding off is one of the purposes of the forum