Texting on a horse!

[theclaud]

Some would say that it's a context thing.

[Edited again for pointlessness]

 

[slowmotion]

I can't really see how a girl on a horse texting is a major safety threat to other road users. I have another yardstick for it....the idiot who swerved into the southbound middle lane of the M5 near Bristol, at 85 mph, in heavy rain, at night, in very heavy Easter bank holiday traffic and missed us by a couple of yards. His face was pointing at his lap, and guess what? He was texting.

Give me girls on horses anyday.

 

[Moderators]

Some posts have been edited for improper language.

Keep it nice and on topic, please

 

[brokenflipflop]

"4x4" is bad language? I thought it was rather good. Does that mean I'm in retrospective shoot over Linf's Mitsubishi Thundercar?

Listen, I'm all for people saying what they want, how they want, using any language they want but I recently substituted your "W" word for the "M" word and was subsequently banned for a few days. I've not factored in the Guardian readers/Moderators best mates club into the equation but I think if we don't use language like that then I wont get banned and the moderators couldn't then be accused of double standards.

 

[brokenflipflop]

Training and insurance? You really did buy into the Audi philosophy wholesale, didn't you. However, shall we try a few examples...

etc

Norm, I do get your point but my point is that where horses are concerned there are two unpredictable factors to consider plus the size/weight of the horse.

Firstly there is the rider, which in your argument could be the cyclist.
Secondly there is the horse, which has a mind of it's own - a bike doesn't.
Thirdly, if a car hits a bike, bad as that is, I'd suggest a similar disaster with a horse would be a lot lot worse.

 

[brokenflipflop]

Can we not just ban teenagers?

+ 1

 

[Norm]

Secondly there is the horse, which has a mind of it's own - a bike doesn't.
Thirdly, if a car hits a bike, bad as that is, I'd suggest a similar disaster with a horse would be a lot lot worse.

My bike seems to have a mind of its own, sometimes it feels as fleet-footed as a thoroughbred, sometimes it's as ponderous as a carthorse. There may be some relationship to cake consumption, though.

In response to your second point above, I was trying (and obviously failing) to point out that a cyclist at 20mph is as unpredictable as a horse at 3mph because of potholes, gravel, drain covers etc.

In response to the third, 7kg of carbon will not be as damaging as a tonne of horse, obviously, but that doesn't mean they don't have the same mental impact on drivers. Plenty of people get very nervous, agitated or angry when faced with overtaking a single cyclist, let alone a small group.

I completely understand what you are saying, though. In a less hostile environment, I'd confess to having had similar feelings myself in the past.

However, now that I'm into cycling, I realise that horses, pedestrians, runners and cyclists all deserve their space on the roads, and that the burden of responsibility is always on the car driver (a car will nearly always weigh more than a horse and will nearly always be travelling considerably faster) to take the greatest care.

If we try to ostracise horse riders and drive them off the tarmac, then that is, I believe, a long step towards the ability of others to do exactly the same to cyclists.

 

[Mugshot]

Thanks for that. FYI when I'm waiting I normally use the time to think that I can't believe the authorities allow that huge unpredictable beast with that kid on its back onto the road. I often wonder if there has been any formal training/taxes etc and what would happen if the horse went berserk.

I'd use the time to get some texting done.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Give me girls on horses anyday.

I'm not bothered if they're actually on a horse or not, as long as they're wearing the jodpurs and are handy with the whip.

 

[coffeejo]

I'm not bothered if they're actually on a horse or not, as long as they're wearing the jodpurs and are handy with the whip.

I find that a little bit creepy, though I concede that it was probably meant to lighten the mood.

 

[brokenflipflop]

What would be worse?

Again Adrian, you may have anticipated my answer but I'll say it anyway - If I dropped a bicycle on your head from say 3 feet, I dare say it would hurt. If I dropped a horse on your head, it would most likely kill you. So if a car hits a horse or a horse goes berserk and falls onto a cyclist or pedestrian or vehicle, the sheer size and weight of the animal would be worse than any damage any pushbike could achieve.

Adrian, you're very clever, why did I have to explain that to you? I'm most surprised.

 

[brokenflipflop]

I'd use the time to get some texting done.

Mugshot. You know the law. I can't be in full control of a motor vehicle if I'm texting, even if I'm stationery behind horses.

 

[brokenflipflop]

I'm not bothered if they're actually on a horse or not, as long as they're wearing the jodpurs and are handy with the whip.

Dave. That's exactly the way I used to think until I started reading the Guardian. Now I'm all high brow and clever and all I know now that birds don't like it when you say things like that.

 

[Mugshot]

I can't be in full control of a motor vehicle if I'm texting, even if I'm stationery behind horses.

Ah I see, I didn't realise sorry, best you leave it to the more dexterous amongst us then

 

[ColinJ]

I'm sure that most horse riders, like mountain bike riders, would be entirely happy to stick to bridleways if they could only find a suitable contiguous network to ride on! Even if they could, they still have to get to it.

We have a fantastic bridleway up here called the Mary Towneley Loop. It is 47 miles long but even that has a couple of road sections in it. It is a legal and/or physical impossibility to join every stretch of bridleway to other ones.

The thread isn't about people riding horses on roads, it is about a rider blocking a road while texting from a horse (which I think is a bit daft).