Passing horses

[PK99]

Riding around Epsom and into Surrey, passing horses - both racing and domestic - is a regular occurrence.

I cannot remember the last time I had a problem on the road (narrow bridleways are another issue). My approach is a single ping on my bell when a long way back. As I approach, But still some way back I say quietly "Good morning rider. Cyclist behind OK if I pass?" That way, the horse knows it is a human coming from behind, and the rider knows it is a considerate cyclist. Most often the rider waves me through, but sometimes might say they are turning off in, say, 50 yards and I wait behind. Occasionally, a rider has warned that the horse is particularly skittish and I make an even wider pass.

Approaching a horse head-on, I slow, make eye contact with the rider, and pull in tight to the left.

 

[Low Gear Guy]

I was once approaching a horse from the front on a bridleway and the animal started to look a bit nervous. The rider explained that this was down to my bright cycling top.

Has anyone else found this?

 

[KnittyNorah]

I was once approaching a horse from the front on a bridleway and the animal started to look a bit nervous. The rider explained that this was down to my bright cycling top.

Has anyone else found this?

That's plain daft.
I've no doubt it may surprise some horses who have been treated as 'snowflaykes' - and a few might have unpleasant associations with it - but the BHS (British Horse Society) has long encouraged riders to use and wear bright, hi vis and reflective garments and accessories for both themselves and the horse; as well as hi-vis vests and riding helmet covers and riding boots with reflective strips, you can buy hi-vis and reflective leg wraps, rain covers, nosebands and the like to put on the horse itself, whether they being ridden on or off road.
And by law they - the horse and/or rider - must carry lights during lighting-up time so it's not as if lights and reflective gear are in any way 'new' to the equine world. I had a 'stirrup light' over 50 years ago - like a cylindrical hand-held torch but used vertically, with a front-facing white glass/plastic disc and a rear facing red one; it had straps and buckles and you fastened it around your own leg so that you showed a white light in front and a red one from behind when you were on your horse. It ATE C-cell batteries as did most torches in those days ...

 

[PK99]

That's plain daft. I've no doubt it may surprise some horses who have been treated as 'snowflaykes' - and a few might have unpleasant associations with it - but the BHS (British Horse Society) encourages riders to use and wear bright, hi vis and reflective garments and accessories for both themselves and the horse; you can buy hi-vis and reflective leg wraps, rain covers, nosebands and the like to put on the horse itself, whether they are riding on or off road.

Not quite so daft:


https://horseracingsense.com/horses-colors-fear-hate-see-best/

 

[GuyBoden]

I once saw an escaped horse running wild down country lanes, blocking traffic and scaring drivers. Obviously, the animal was very distressed in an unfamiliar environment with its new found freedom.

 

[KnittyNorah]

IF a horse is 'afraid' - I would rather say reactive, it's rarely fear as such (after all there are no fluorescent hi-viz reflective predators ...) - of hi viz, then that speaks more to the owner/rider treating it as a 'snowflayke' than anything else, unless it has had a bad experience with such items and has thus learnt to fear them. However, the article you posted is from the US, where people shooting wear hi viz, or so I am led to believe. Perhaps horses there more commonly have a learnt association of hi viz with loud sudden bangs and are cautious of it for that reason?

Here's the BHS advice on equestrian hi-viz - the BHS are very cautious and conservative (with a small c), some would say overly-so - and note there is no mention of even needing to accustom one's horse to hi-viz ...

 

[MontyVeda]

Not quite so daft:


https://horseracingsense.com/horses-colors-fear-hate-see-best/

i reckon that article is mostly horsesh!t

 

[Fat Lars]

I was out training with some mates back in the day and as we were passing two horses who were coming in the opposite direction I blew out a loud puncture. It skittled the horses and the lady rider said out loud. "You did that on purpose". Heh Heh. Quite amusing at the time.

 

[KnittyNorah]

I was out training with some mates back in the day and as we were passing two horses who were coming in the opposite direction I blew out a loud puncture. It skittled the horses and the lady rider said out loud. "You did that on purpose". Heh Heh. Quite amusing at the time.

Yep, sudden bangs startle them just as they startle us.

We have some advantage of logic - knowing that it's the first day of the shooting season, or seeing the bird scarers placed in position ... they don't.
It's perfectly possible to accustom most horses to gunfire - even to guns being fired from their backs - but it's really not considered a 'necessary piece of training' for horses being used in normal 'domestic' environments here in the UK, for fairly obvious reasons. I think if I lived in rural US I'd be wanting to train specifically for it though, depending on which state I lived in. People I know in the US will have their horses wear high viz even in their home paddocks during 'hunting season' as some 'hunters' will shoot at anything that appears in their sights ...

If you live in an area where there are a lot of bird scarers, shooting parties or similar, they'll usually get accustomed to shots eventually, although unexpected ones, the first of a volley or the first ones of the season will be enough to startle even the most placid of animals, just as it startles us. Some years ago I went on a competitive ride in Lincolnshire and several people's horses 'vetted out' due to high heart rates at a checkpoint which had had a bird scarer set up unexpectedly , and unacceptably, close to it. Horses didn't outwardly appear particularly stressed - it was a high-level ride which needed specific qualifications to enter - merely mildly startled, but their heart-rates simply did not decrease in the timeframe required. The scores at that ride were later declared invalid, and apologies expressed. I was fortunate in that the scarer went off as I was leaving the checkpoint so had already passed the vet check.

 

[icowden]

I think for the most part, riders usually know their horses and will let you know if the animal is particularly young or skittish. But like any animal it helps if you don't do the equivalent of running up behind them and saying "boo". Some horse riders (a bit like some motorists and some cyclists) are just a**holes and will blame everything else to make up for their own lack of competence.

I went on a balloon flight once with my wife and we passed over an area where a Surrey Mansion Mum was out with her daughters and she shouted and screamed at the balloon pilot who just shrugged - not much he could do. On the other hand my sister is a senior veterinary nurse and very competent horse rider - she has a very low opinion of the competence of some of the other riders in her area - usually the wealthy ones who only go out occasionally and have immaculate riding gear. She has a long history of competing at Pony club events on a horse that doesn't look polished and with battered kit that she can afford, but doing better than the Poppies of this world

If you get the type of rider like my sister, bicycles won't bother them as they will control the horse and let you know if there are any problems. It's the baffled ones where the horse is taking them for a ride that you have to be careful of.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Out today, came up behind two horses. Steep narrow downhill lane. Said hello to the riders. There was a little ford (just a trickle) at the bottom of the hill where the roadway widened out. The horse riders were moving to the side the road and I was preparing to head past when two cyclists behind me zoom through the middle of everything. Horses didn't seem to mind, so no harm done. I think the horse riders were a bit pissed off, I got a "roll eyes" from one of them.

 

[PK99]

Yep, sudden bangs startle them just as they startle us.

Was on a bridleway once and we were passing a couple of horses quite happily until a pebble squirted noisily out from under an MtB tire...

 

[KnittyNorah]

I think for the most part, riders usually know their horses and will let you know if the animal is particularly young or skittish. But like any animal it helps if you don't do the equivalent of running up behind them and saying "boo". Some horse riders (a bit like some motorists and some cyclists) are just a**holes and will blame everything else to make up for their own lack of competence.

I went on a balloon flight once with my wife and we passed over an area where a Surrey Mansion Mum was out with her daughters and she shouted and screamed at the balloon pilot who just shrugged - not much he could do. On the other hand my sister is a senior veterinary nurse and very competent horse rider - she has a very low opinion of the competence of some of the other riders in her area - usually the wealthy ones who only go out occasionally and have immaculate riding gear. She has a long history of competing at Pony club events on a horse that doesn't look polished and with battered kit that she can afford, but doing better than the Poppies of this world

If you get the type of rider like my sister, bicycles won't bother them as they will control the horse and let you know if there are any problems. It's the baffled ones where the horse is taking them for a ride that you have to be careful of.

You speak the truth there!
My first pony, as a child, was a 'discard' which had been palmed off on my farrier uncle as he had no problem handling her. Neither did I. She had her quirks and fads and fancies, but we developed a very strong bond over time. I have no idea how I did it, but I taught her to step over several types of stile (one leg at a time, and I would often physically guide her hind legs for her, so as to avoid wire), cross cattle grids and climb up stone steps (usually so we could access blocked bridleways, most of which have long since been made properly and safely accessible). I also taught her to buck on a signal as there was a horrid child in the village who used to cry and scream if she wasn't 'given a ride'. The brat stopped demanding to ride Pet after she'd been unseated a couple of times, and called her 'that horrible horse' instead. Neither my parents nor the brat's could understand why Pet never bucked when I was riding her, or when anyone else was riding her (and I had a disabled cousin the same age as me who used to flop about and often make strange noises, who loved riding Pet - we had many happy afternoons in the school holidays, just me and Julie and Pet). I think my uncle probably knew what I'd done ... but he was non-committal when asked for his opinion, and just said that horses know things that we don't.

 

[KnittyNorah]

It's the baffled ones where the horse is taking them for a ride that you have to be careful of.

That reminded me of the super Arab mare I had from a 2yo, and a relative's horse-mad, know-it-all step-daughter, who - the relative assured me - was a 'really good rider'. Yeah, right. Six lessons at some scummy riding school.

Kelly did indeed take said teenager for a ride and then - with great care, choosing her place wisely so that no-one was physically hurt or in any sort of danger, and they were almost home - dumped her by dropping a shoulder at a brisk trot so the girl came off both unavoidably and painlessly into a boggy bit of pasture, and Kelly carried straight on home at said brisk trot ... I often wondered just how planned and deliberate this really was on Kelly's behalf. Witnesses saw it happen ...

Kelly used to do Riding For The Disabled out of competition season and was adored by several horse-mad lasses with Down's Syndrome, all of whom had their photos taken while riding this pure Arab mare; she was a very flamboyant horse in appearance but had a nature as gentle as a sleepy kitten; the photos always looked wonderful so they could show off to their also-horse-mad but non-Downs Syndrome classmates in mainstream schools.

 

[DaveReading]

That reminded me of the super Arab mare I had from a 2yo, and a relative's horse-mad, know-it-all step-daughter, who - the relative assured me - was a 'really good rider'. Yeah, right. Six lessons at some scummy riding school.

Kelly did indeed take said teenager for a ride and then - with great care, choosing her place wisely so that no-one was physically hurt or in any sort of danger, and they were almost home - dumped her by dropping a shoulder at a brisk trot so the girl came off both unavoidably and painlessly into a boggy bit of pasture, and Kelly carried straight on home at said brisk trot ... I often wondered just how planned and deliberate this really was on Kelly's behalf. Witnesses saw it happen ...

That's a heart-warming anecdote, and a welcome contrast to the many posts in this thread suggesting that horses are, well, a bit dim.