Passing horses

[KnittyNorah]

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.

In some ways, they are. In other ways, we are.
I believe it behoves us, superior species that we consider ourselves to be, to appreciate the different abilities and talents of other species, especially those who we have changed by domestication and thus hold captive by means of invisible chains.
We get back from them so much more than we ever put into them - IF we give them the opportunity to do so.

 

[bladesman73]

There's quite a difference between alerting a rider and shouting at a horse!

Not really. Shouting 'cyclist!' at a level needed to alert the rider of your presence is going to startle many horses.

 

[icowden]

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 ...

I think they definitely are cleverer than most think. I remember my sister being persona non grata at Pony club to a degree because other girls were reluctant to partner with her. She could always manage their horses, but they always had great difficulty with hers - it didn't like people who didn't know what they were doing...

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I always call out and ask them if they are okay with me passing them. I also warn them if I have a flashing rear light.

I treat horses as I'd like cars to treat me and go as wide as I can.

 

[lazybloke]

Not really. Shouting 'cyclist!' at a level needed to alert the rider of your presence is going to startle many horses.

I'd define shouting (at someone) to be a deliberate intention to startle. What kind or a***hole does that?

I prefer a quieter approach: humming, murmuring, singing, conversational-level speech, clearing-of-the-throat, or a cough. All good ways to attract attention; build-up to a gentle call if necessary, but never a need to shout.

As a solo night rider, it's wild animals rather than horses that I'm more worried about startling. Think badgers and deer running suddenly breaking cover and running in front.
So when I'm descending at speed past woodland or hedgerows, I make a continual burble of noises to forewarn animals of my approach so they can slink away in good time. Surely I'm not the only person to do this?

 

[CXRAndy]

I miss my old Ned

 

[Alien8]

28 May 2012
I always carry a couple of coconut halves with me.

 

[KnittyNorah]

I think they definitely are cleverer than most think. I remember my sister being persona non grata at Pony club to a degree because other girls were reluctant to partner with her. She could always manage their horses, but they always had great difficulty with hers - it didn't like people who didn't know what they were doing...

Kelly was very careful and patient with people who were genuinely nervous first-timers, with the Down's Syndrome lasses at RDA - some of whom were very capable, but many very much less so - and with the other attendees at RDA, many of whom were seriously, and multiply, handicapped in a range of ways.

I was once on a long leisurely ride and stopped at an ice-cream van in a car-park in the Peak District; a gentleman came up to me and asked if I could possibly take my horse to the end of the car-park as his disabled daughter was in the car and absolutely loved to see a horse so of course I did. The young woman was in a wheelchair in the back of an adapted car/van and was clearly excited at the approach of a horse; I said to the gentleman and his wife that Kelly would be absolutely fine if their daughter wanted to come out of the car, a wheelchair wouldn't bother her in the slightest. So they let the ramp down, wheeled out the young woman and Kelly nuzzled her in a very gentle way, while the young woman giggled in pleasure and excitement. Her parents took photos, they were so touched and said they'd never thought it possible that their daughter would get so close to a 'proper horse'.
My relative's step-daughter thought she could ride; Kelly gave her the benefit of the doubt initially, but when the doubt was erased ... I honestly think that if the step-daughter had just given up and clung on, Kelly would have plodded slowly back home being careful not to unseat her. She certainly used to do an imitation of 'the safest way to carry a Dresden China doll' whenever she had an unfamiliar rider at RDA!
Yet she was a great dramatic actress in the best tradition of Arab horses; tail in the air she would arch her neck, toss her 3ft long mane and dilate her nostrils until they glowed blood-red while snorting ... really quite scary for ramblers who were abusing the two lads who used to come out on their mountain bikes with me ...

 

[Dogtrousers]

Shouting 'cyclist!' at a level needed to alert the rider of your presence is going to startle many horses.

So don't shout.

I generally say "bike behind you", if the rider has not already looked round. Riders hear me, horses are not alarmed (and they have probably cottoned on to my presence first anyway). Everyone happy.

 

[Cycleops]

When I first saw the thread title I thought of something completely different and it put me in mind of that song by Burl Ives ‘I know an old lady who swallowed a fly’.
The last line appropriately enough was, ‘I know an old lady who swallowed a horse, she’s dead, of course’.

 

[DaveReading]

Yes - even if she didn't die when she swallowed it, she's be unlikely to survive when she passed it.

 

[figbat]

Riders hear me, horses are not alarmed (and they have probably cottoned on to my presence first anyway). Everyone happy.

This has been stated a few time upthread - the horse will usually spot you well before the rider and it's the horse you need to alert; the rider may be affronted by being startled but it matters little if the horse is cool with you. Of course in a twist of irony the rider can then upset the horse themselves with their reaction, which they will blame on the cyclist but is their own doing.

 

[Dogtrousers]

This has been stated a few time upthread - the horse will usually spot you well before the rider and it's the horse you need to alert; the rider may be affronted by being startled but it matters little if the horse is cool with you. Of course in a twist of irony the rider can then upset the horse themselves with their reaction, which they will blame on the cyclist but is their own doing.

It's both really. I won't pass until the rider has acknowledged me, and maybe the riders needs to do something first, like single out into a line. Or tell me to hold off as they are turning soon.

I may have mentioned this already but last month I passed a group of three riders. The head rider wanted them to single out before I passed and one of them was a bit slow at doing this. The amount of effing and blinding she got from the head rider for being slow made my ears bleed . And I thought horse people were all genteel.

 

[figbat]

And I thought horse people were all genteel.

Aaaahahahaha!

No, really not. Well, they exist but most are pretty grounded (and not wealthy either).

 

[matticus]

When I first saw the thread title I thought of something completely different and it put me in mind of that song by Burl Ives ‘I know an old lady who swallowed a fly’.
The last line appropriately enough was, ‘I know an old lady who swallowed a horse, she’s dead, of course’.

That was my favourite story book (we had the one with all the cutouts, so each stage revealed another more bizarre image in the affected stomach)

And what a final line! They don't write 'em like that any more ...

EDIT: found it!

https://www.waterstones.com/book/there-was-an-old-lady-who-swallowed-a-fly/pam-adams/9780859537278