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 Post subject: Horses?
PostPosted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 5:16 pm 
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Location: Aston clinton
I know the TRFs advice on meeting horses is to stop, turn off the engine, remove your helmet say hello and have a little chat if they are friendly, which is all good advice because horses are almost always terrified of motorbike noise.
But what do you do when you come up behind a horse, this has happend to me twice recently on one occasion we turned round and went back (near the end anyway and a good excuse to ride again in the other direction) and the other time the rider took? the horse into the farmers field, on both ocaisions the horses were spooked by the noise before we had even seen them, is there a guideline on this? I cannot think of a good way without terrifying horse and rider even when approaching at very low revs.


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 Post subject: Re: Horses?
PostPosted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 6:29 pm 
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Location: Melton Mowbray
Rightly or wrongly I always let the horse rider tell me what to do. Most pull over and let you slowly pass them. If the horse is properly spooked you can only really stop and wait or turn around.

Luckily I'm so slow I only have to give the horse a 30 second start to never see them again ;)

Or you could get up to about 80, just before you get to the horse, hit the kill switch and coast by ;)

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 Post subject: Re: Horses?
PostPosted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 8:55 am 
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In my experience the rider will try and find a wide area (gateway etc) and turn the horse to face you so it can see you.

A freind who rides says that this reduces the fight or flight response in the horse as when you are behind it it can't see you properly.

It's a weird thing with bikes and horses but they seem to spook sometimes around motorcycles even when they are not even running (the bike I mean). I wonder if it some sort of inherited fear such as our fear of snakes and spiders - maybe there was a survival advantage in running away from similar shaped/sized animals in the past (sabre tooth tigers/ wolves/ whatever).

On the plus side we marshall at horse events with 100 plus horses and 6 Trail bikes sharing the same bit of countryside and I've never seen one of the horses spooked (not even the ones with red ribbon tied in their tail which apparently means "don't get behind this one or it might kick you in the plums").


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 Post subject: Re: Horses?
PostPosted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:23 am 
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Location: Blackpool
Adam H wrote:
....not even the ones with red ribbon tied in their tail which apparently means "don't get behind this one or it might kick you in the plums".....


Every day's a schoolday :D

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 Post subject: Re: Horses?
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:12 pm 
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In many of these cases, it's not so much the horse as the rider.

Horses don't like what they can hear but can't see.

If a horse hears a strange sound, it will try to identify it. So, when it hears a bike, it will try to turn around. Sadly the rider also hears the bike, and tries to maintain control of the horse, by stopping it from turning around.

This makes the horse panic.

All you can do when riding a heavily 'horsed' lane (the surface damage and piles of poo are a good clue) is to ride very steadily, and look out for a helmeted head bobbing above the hedgerow.

Hopefull the horse rider will let the horse turn its head so it can watch your slow approach, and the rider will wave you past when it's safe to do so.

It helps to extinguish your headlamp (if you can) when approaching the horse.


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 Post subject: Re: Horses?
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2009 10:28 pm 
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Lots of good advice there.
I think the answer depends on the horse, some are well trained some are not so slowing right down and waiting for the rider to give a sign of what they want you to do is the way to go.
After re-reading my post I think its worth noteing that horses will also get spooked by dogs, mtbs, shotguns, loud children, cars, wind ect as motorbikes and this is really the horse riders problem not ours (unless you are illegally on a bridleway).


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 Post subject: Re: Horses?
PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 1:58 pm 
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as a horse rider as well as trail rider i agree with the post about a lot of the time the problem being the rider !! I have a horse i can block a main road with to slow traffic down if necessary ,and ignore cars hooting horns , but would shy at a bicycle in his younger days even when he saw it coming ! see a lot of problems with nervous horse riders , a lot of the time if the horse is not happy , carrying on past slowly and getting away is the safest option. where i live most people are pretty good at slowing down and creeping past but i will wave them on past if i'm on a horse thats not bothered .


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 Post subject: Re: Horses?
PostPosted: Sun May 10, 2009 8:02 pm 
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Location: North-West Kent
As a long standing run leader I find that a bit of a talk before we go out so as to advise the riders in my group is very worthwhile. I say to my group what I will do when we happen across a horse or a group of horses, what to expect & how to help me to help both the people in my group & the horse rider/riders.
I am also the horse events co-ordinator & whenever there is an event that a newbie comes along to help out at I always take them out & explain how we behave around so many horses & what the event organisers expect from us. These events have become very popular with the membership of the Kent group.

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