Horses on the road - please slow down as you pass

How can horse riders pay road tax anyway? First of all motorists don't pay it either, it does not exist...end of. Motorists pay a fee that is solely dependent on the amount of crap your car emits, that little circular badge is not a membership card allowing the uninformed/ignorant to claim right of way or priority on the road.

Churchill was a very wise man and he knew that if such a system of entitlement were in existence there would be some who would use it to bully and intimidate those without it...it was therefore dispensed with and given the number of motorists who still believe they are 'more entitled' than others Churchill was proved completely right.

Here's a thought. How about we actually divide the cost of road maintenance in the UK by the number of cars and let them pay for the roads in the way they think they do? Rest assured there would be many who couldn't afford the cost for 'road tax', which would run into the thousands per year and we'll hopefully let richer and more intelligent motorists use roads. Offensive? Inaccurate? Not P.C?

Of course, like many of the reckless and frankly dangerous attitudes that we have to read on sites like this. It really is simple. We all have equal right to the roads. If you drive in a manner that you wouldn't have done during your driving test then it's you, not other people, that has issues to resolve.

We're all just getting from A to B, stop claiming superiority, have some self respect and concern for others and we can stop burying loved ones and leaving bunches of flowers at the roadside.

Pretty sad reading some of these. Take the post by the self proclaimed 'angrydriver'. What their gripe is essentially about is that someone with equal right to use the highway did not get out of their way. Quite simply why should they get out of your way? Would this angry driver get out of the way for a car following his or her own car?

I suspect not and why?...quite simply this driver like many other of the impatient and bad tempered motorists who for some reason believe they are more entitled than others has developed such an ingrained and potentially dangerous attitude to driving that the thought of getting out of the way for another slightly more angry driver behind is incomprehensible to them.

Fact - road tax does not exist, roads are paid for by general taxation meaning we all pay for the roads and are all equally entitled to use the highway.

Fact - 1.2 million people around the world are killed in a motoring accident of some kind, the 'great car experiment' really is a monstrous failure.

Fact - The horse riders concerned are well within their rights to ride side by side, the fact this inconveniences another individual is irrelevent and the reason they ride like this is to increase their presence on the road to help prevent moronic and impatient motorists from 'accidentally' driving into the back of them at 70mph when they 'came out of nowhere' or whatever similar excuse the motorist vomits out in excuse of shoddy driving.

Fact - if you are incapable of using the road with the huge responsibility that goes with a licence then do the world a favour and surrender your licence as the incompetent and small minded cretin you might have become. We all own the road, if you can't play nicely and display a touch of human decency and intelligence then that really is pathetic.

As for angry driver it seems you chose to overtake in a poorly thought out fashion and quite rightly when you made a cock up of it you were made aware of that. Ask yourself a question. If this was about a car being 'in your way' , which to be honest is the actual crux of that particular post, this wouldn't even be raised as an issue would it now?

Fact is anything other than another car would become the focus of your own bitterness and all because you were delayed by a couple of minutes and the rider, who factually has their life put in danger for no other reason than an incompetent and badly executed overtaking attempt expresses their anger at you?

A car is a bit of metal, how would you feel being run over by yet another impatient motorist?

Whilst I dislike selfish horse riders almost as I much as I loathe cyclists, you should remember that for the rider of horse to ' go into single file' is not as simple as the same manoeuvre on a wheeled vehicle. A horse has a mind of its own and not a great deal of road sense, soemthing often shared by the riders. Of course the sort of behaviour you mentioned is unacceptable but unfortunately common.

I think horse owners who ask for respect from car drivers should show the same consideration back. I am very angry as driving along in 5pm rush hour traffic (and only in second gear doing less than 20mph at the time) I approached two girls on horses double file in the middle of the road. On hearing my car, and several other cars behind me, one of the girls looked around. I thought she would then go into single file to let the traffic by, as there was traffic coming the other way and I could not get past. Instead she stuck her nose in the air and carried on in double file. When I saw a gap in the traffic coming the other way I started to overtake but was a bit too close to her horse for both of our likings. As a result she hit my car on the roof with her whip which made my blood boil as she has no right to touch my property and if she showed the courtesy of getting into single file none of this would have happened. I would have thought for her own safety she would have moved in.

"the rider's are there by choice...the horses are not" - Most riders are not on the roads by choice, we really dont enjoy taking our life in our hands, but due to the lack of bridleways we really dont have any choice but to ride on the roads.

It seems I fell foul to the weekly gripes posting rules there, hence alpha, bravo and 'silly nilly' apparently I was using sms or swearing in my post!

Ah Grim reaper actually horses aren't allowed on many areas now due to the same pressures you detail in your post - and yes I'd pay road tax for my horse as long as it was in line with the amount I use the road, you see I use it for the same reason that most road users do, to get from alpha to bravo. Alpha being the stables, Bravo being the bridleway disjointed by said road. I don't do it to annoy road users - on the contrary I'd rather not be on the roads at all but have no choice but to use the lane to get to the bridleway. And yes, I do think horses on a main road are a bad idea but unfortunately I can't ride silly nilly over fields and footpaths as many think that I can. Horses are considered by transport law to still be a mode of transport therefore on the roads, so instead of complaining at riders who like the situation less that you do why not try and do something about it?

Horses should be banned from any main roads as they area menace, irrespective of what the highway code says and make them pay road tax like the rest of us..... not to mention the lethal deposits they leave behind for bikers and cyclists.. eat them like French I say...

I am not allowed to drive green lanes any more due to pressure applied from countryside groups etc, so horses should be banned from the road..... not to mention the lethal deposits they leave behind for bikers and cyclists..

Indeed there are. Despite being paralysed, the motorcyclist who ki11ed my horse and near-on put me in a wheelchair was being prosecuted by the police. It was only the CPS who saved his bacon, because they felt he had been punished enough.

IT IS ILLEGAL to drive too fast/too close/ passed horses. THEY HAVE RIGHT OF WAY ON THE ROAD, end of. However anachronistic this may sound, if you don't like it, then do something about it, contact your MP, lobby your local council, get off your backsides and do something about it instead of just moaning.

The law is the law, and until it becomes illegal to ride horses on the road, then horses will be ridden on the road.

As for the ludicrous suggestion that horses should wear nappies !!

I would suggest that people find out about a subject before making "helpful" suggestions. If they knew anything at all about horses, they would realise the ludicrousness of such a suggestion.

Well said pedders, and Carrot!

anti-troll: I agree entirely with what you have said, I really shouldn't rise to the bait, should I, so I won't!

As for my spelling, well, it's pretty perfect as far as I am concerned. Point out my spelling mistake and I will apologise.

And to answer the pathetic little person who thinks they will wind me up - yes, horse meat is delicious, so is donkey, so is goat.

I neither like nor dislike horses as I have never had anything to do with them but couldn't we have a little tolerance for each other? A bit of patience?

Perhaps people could leave home a little earlier and not be in so much of a rush.

Yes actually - there are penalties for driving past a horse without due care and attention - should you cause an accident as there would be if someone caused an accident without a horse involved whilst driving without due care and attention. Look, whether you agree or not horses ARE allowed on the roads, and if you do drive dangerously past a horse to prove a point, and cause an accident for which you are held responsible you will be prosecuted. It would be far more dangerous to have a riderless horse held by one hand at the side of the road while the rider clears it up. What would you rather hit? A pile of horse poo or half a ton of horse? There are literally hundreds of hazards on the roads - dead animals, mud, diesel and oil spills, rubbish dumped at the side of the road, rubbish thrown from car windows..... the list is not exhaustive, so why all the venom for horses??? With a little consideration from everyone, everyone can use the roads - yes horse poo can be annoying and if a scheme were set up to pay for it's removal regularly then as a horse owner that NEEDS to use the roads I would pay. As for your comment about horses not paying road tax, no they don't. However they are not required to as many other road users are not required to, and again I would pay a contribution should it be required. My horse and I are insured which is not mandatory when using the roads - which personally I think it should be, accidents happen to everyone and anyone after all.
I am open minded and reasonable when it comes to horses being on the roads - they should be on minor roads mainly where traffic flow is less, should be insured and both horse and rider trained before they are on the roads. But yet still all some people can see is that fact I ride a horse therefore must be stuck up and snobbish, posh and rich. I am none of those - I happen to be a normal person who loves horses and everything about them. That's all.

Or maybe it's Nikki posing as various people just to keep her name at the top of the tree and her beloved horsey rants, has nobody realised that !

"common sense"

common is the right word for you. I don't agree that there is no place in the modern world for horses but there is definitely no place for using the word "retard".

Nikki, for heaven's sake it is just the same troll starting this "discussion" up every few weeks just to wind you up. Don't feed trolls!