The-ramblings-of-a-horsewoman: Horse riders on the road

Driving at peak time at 5.30pm, to go to the yard, I came across a rider on a nice big bay horse, wearing no hat or any hi-viz wear. You may think "so what, mind your own business busy body". Quite honestly, I am a 'so what, don't care type'. But this incidence made me think "oh my god, what a totally irresponsible horse rider". I was really aggravated for all horse riders, seeing this rider. That sort lets the responsible horse riders down.

The road in question is a notorious country side road, that has a very fast national speed limit.It is fast all day long, busy and bad at peak times.

I just can't believe a horse rider would CHOOSE to take their horse out on a busy fast road like that, at 5.30pm peak time. Even more shocking was she wasn't wearing a hat! I personally wouldn't dream of taking my horses out at that time, in fact, I often weigh up if I will be back plenty of time ahead of work traffic to hack out at all. Not only do I not want to be a hindrance to the road users, I don't want an unpredictable accident to happen. After all, your super duper bomb proof horse, can have an off day.

I am also one of them that thinks no horse rider should be on the road without taking lessons in riding and road safety and/or, taking the riding and road safety certificate. It always baffles me that any age or any experienced rider, can take a big sturdy animal like the horse, on to roads, let alone busy ones. If it's compulsory for young motorbike riders to take a CBT course before they're allowed on the road on a scooter, then why aren't horse riders having a compulsory test before they take a horse on the road? A horse in general will undergo similar moves to that of a scooter when it comes to road manners and use of the highway code?

I have edited my certificate, to protect copyright

I'm one that is quite against that typical horse persons argument, "we were here first" "horses were here before cars" and so on. I, like many, should have moved with the times by now. There is a time and place for horses and it's not on busy fast roads, at busy peak times. As riders, we should learn to share the roads and do it responsibly.The world has moved on in many ways, we can not justify having horses on roads like we do, since the motorcar has taken over massively since post second world war.

Yes, I know, some riders don't have a choice but to ride on the roads if they have lack of facilities, however, they do have a choice on WHEN to take that horse out.
I love hacking. It's super for the horse, for their fitness,bonding time with it's rider and for their psychological state. It's also nice for the rider to relax, bond, enjoy your surroundings, thinking time away from the 'real world'. We have hacked for hours and hacked for miles but we always choose the right sort of horse friendly time to do so. As well as pick an area to do it, if you are lucky enough.

So please, wear a hat, wear some hi-viz no matter what time of day it is, just so cars can see you in advance and please, choose your time to hack out, to suit the other road users too.

On the horsey front, i've been excited these past couple of days. I've finally found a Equitrek Trailer and have done a sort of deal for it. We go to look at it tomorrow, like usual, because I am a spoilt brat if all goes well, we will be having it. I've waited long enough for one under £4000. It's the model we are after the Sport with living, witwoo, can't wait, but as always, will be going with a business money head and not a fluffy can't wait head. We will know tomorrow if we will own this one or not. This is it:

We have other good news, I'm not going to say too much because I don't want to jinx it. But i'm looking at a place to put the horses,if all goes well, I intend to rent it as a whole on contract. We visit the place at the weekend. I'm not getting too excited, I have learnt not to when it comes to plots, houses and yards. However, my hubby gave me fabulous news, that we can, in a year or so, consider buying another plot of land.We all know though, anything can happen. I'm going to take each day at a time.

The Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre is having an open day, see below;

https://www.facebook.com/events/441612422595733/