Please drive past horses sensibly (warning: pic)

I know this is a dog forum but i need to share this story. A ladys horse was killed today purely because someone was too impatient to wait for a good place to pull past it and they ended up pulling out and over taking at a stupid spot and too close and they totally wiped the horse out. The poor thing had to be shot on the road with her injured owner watching. I'm adding the picture because i believe it will put it into your heads more. Horse owners pay tax too and they were on the roads 100s of years before so i don't see why they shouldn't be given at least just a little respect, they are living breathing animals. When you pass a horse PLEASE i beg you pass it widely and slowly and be patient.

Waiting for a few seconds won't kill you, but trying to keep those few seconds will kill a horse.

poor horse

I know, its so sad. And could have been SO easily avoided.

That's so sad.

So sad and yes so easily could have been avoided, people are always in too much of a rush these days...

Crazy people should be prosecuted. We get horses in the road but really it is not a big deal slowing and going around them. Same goes for bikers. Unfortunatly some of those have been killed too in my area in the past year. So sad...

Very sad I don't know why everyone is so impatient nowadays.

How awfully sad! People are just too impatient these days!

How terrible for the owner to have to witness. Poor, poor horse.

poor horse

We had a scary experience with a horse on the way home from school yesterday. A gorgeous horse was trotting along the road with the rider and a tractor with a huge trailor was coming in the opposite direction, the rider was waving her arm for the slow down signal but the tractor paid no attention and roared past us all at 40 mph + (its a 30mph area anyway!) OMG the poor horse was all over the place how the rider held on i dont no, we were right next to the horse and didnt no where to go or what to do as we all have young kids, we ended up climbing up onto someones front garden to get out of its way. It was really upsetting to see the horse so upset. It took about 15mins to calm the horse down enough so it could carry on its walk with cars qued up either sides all beacuse of one idiot farmer!

It really doesn't take much - you only need to slow down for a few yards before & after passing - what's the hurry? Do they think it's funny to see an animal so distressed?

Farmers hate horses, they think they are a total waste of space. They forget that only 100 years ago they had no livelyhood without them and wouldn't be where they are today without them!

My horse is really good in traffic but a tractor flying past like that would send him crazy too. Its just stupid, i hope the farmer slips in some poo.

that is so devastating...that poor lady....and like you say so avoidable..I hope the moron who hit the horse is haunted by this!!

when I had my horse and had to ride on the roads I remember it was xmas time and a car flew past me with a whopping great pine tree tied on the roof of the car...it scared the hell out of Carnaby... how I didn't fall off I will never know! Like you say people are in such a hurry..does it really hurt to back off for a minute or so??!!

Some people just dont allow a few extra minutes on a car journey for the possible hold up.

We dont see many horses on our roads but when out in the country lanes I do allow extra time and space for the unexpected, and always give horses plenty of space I am a horse lover and all too aware of their power.

I used to have horse for over 20 years and I lost count of the number of very near misses. I've had to dive me and horse up hedges and driveways to get away. One time the car who was driving up and narrow single track road that only goes to a horse yard and a farm. He was that close by the time he managed to stop my horse head and neck were over his bonnet.

We also were crossing the road to turn right, when we were in the middle of the road when a high speed police chase passed us and missed us by inches.

I've also been hit by a car when I was riding someone elses horse. It just lost it's footing slightly and didn't move across that far. But the car was that close we both ended up hitting the deck.

Luckly we were both only bruised and sore after.

Good grief Maggie that was a close one. Well done for keeping your cool.

wow I reckon...
you really take your life ( and your horse's ) in your hands when you venture onto the roads. I feel sorry for people with no where to ride but along roads... horses and traffic are a bad combination... but if people just slowed down when passing horses it would make the world of difference.

I dont no whats wrong with people.Everyones in a rush all the time ,no one likes to be stuck behind anyone else.Rather then being patient they would rather cause accidents and ruin lives for the sake of just slowing down for a minute

vanessa wrote:

wow I reckon...
you really take your life ( and your horse's ) in your hands when you venture onto the roads. I feel sorry for people with no where to ride but along roads... horses and traffic are a bad combination... but if people just slowed down when passing horses it would make the world of difference.

I've been lucky to always have off road hacking where ever I've kept them. Unfortunately I've had to go on the roads to get there.

I've aways worn a flourescent tabard when I hack out, which on the country road I'm sure have saved me a few times. When you can hear the car screaching down the road from beind you and you just have to hope as they come round the bend and spot you and the tabard in time. Luckily they aways managed to break hard enough or swerve out the way in time!!!

Its just ridiculous, my other horse Jago was hit by a car once but my friend was riding. The driver came past far to close and Jago (who was only 4 at the time) spooked and slipped on the road and ended up sitting on her bonnet. The crazy lady then pulled her car in to let another car past and called the police. Then when they got there she went on to say how she was passing wide and slow and pointed to her car and said "look how far away i was, i was actually driving in the hedge!" and me and my friend were standing like WTF thats a lie! THANKFULLY by some miracle the other car decided to phone in just to report it and give their statement as they saw the whole thing and they blamed the driver not my friends "out of control rearing and bucking horse"