^ It’s a good idea to do lot of things all the time so you don’t run the risk of doing them when conditions don’t allow, but that’s not reality.
How does someone miss a horse running around? Doesn’t sound like something people should take casually to me. I would get a lot of joy in watching a bicycle run into a horse and the biker falls over. Please upload if this happens.
A generalization that trivializes the potential consequences of a car driving into a pedestrian, dog, or horse.
Got me.
I’ve also seen instances where people have deliberately tried to scare a horse; it’s happened to me on a trail alongside a street, and it happened once at a USC / Kansas State football game (the KSU band thought that it would be fun to scare Traveler as he trotted by; he jumped sideways and almost landed on one of the KSU cheerleaders). People can act really, really stupidly sometimes.
I agree.
Khaleel’s an Arabian: only about 900 – 1,000 lbs.
I do know of an incident where a motorcyclist ran into a Percheron named “Nick”; Nick’s about 2,000 lbs. The biker got the worst of it, by far.
I grew up owning horses, among other animals. I have to say, who rides their horse on a road with all these lights? Or at a major football game? That’s just a bad idea, and you should feel bad. Ride your horse on a trail like everybody else. Urban cowboy is not cool. If your horse spooks you are putting yourself, your horse and bystanders in danger in that environment.
Or in a parade?
Perhaps you should phone the Tournament of Roses.
Look not sure if you’re being intentionally obtuse. Parades are zoned so that things like traffic and cyclists do not interfere. You think the world’s the jerk. You’re the jerk, jerk.
So are horses considered traffic, and must therefore follow the same rules as motor vehicles? Bicycles, for instance, have to follow road signs. Or are horses considered pederstrians?
I don’t think that at all.
The horse is a red herring in this discussion; don’t fixate on the horse. The problem exists primarily for pedestrians.
Pedestrians.
Equestrian pedestrians.
Or cyclist. I’ve actually been hit while cycling by someone rolling through a stop sign (technically speaking I hit him because he accelerated into my path, leaving me with nowhere to go, but I still consider it as him hitting me). Fortunately I was not seriously hurt and my bike was rideable after a few well placed kicks to the front rim, but I learned the very important lesson that you should never expect other vehicles to obey the law. Sure, it would be great if I could ride knowing that everyone else is doing what they’re supposed to do, but that’s not reality.
I kinda thought this thread was turning against you, until I read this post.
Excellent point: I should have included cyclists on that list.
(Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of cyclists on the other side of that equation: they’re the ones who run stop signs or red lights. Also the mountain bikers who don’t yield to pedestrians or horses on multi-use trails. Once a mountain biker rode up behind my wife and me as we were riding: never made a sound. She’s lucky that our horses don’t kick when they’re startled; she could have been seriously hurt.)
The title of this thread reminds me of the Hall and Oates song “She is a maniac… maniac… on the floor” (http://www.metrolyrics.com/shes-a-maniac-lyrics-hall-oates.html)
I’m ashamed of many of my fellow cyclists. For some reason, many have decided that they own whatever road they are on and believe everyone needs to accomodate them no matter what. The worst are the riding clubs who believe it’s perfectly acceptable to ride 3 or 4 abreast, blocking an entire lane of traffic. I ride pretty rural roads most of the time and admit that I don’t stop at every stop sign, but I’m also able to see for 1/2 a mile in every direction when I approach a stop sign, so I know well in advance if I need to stop or not. When I’m in more heavily trafficked areas, like where I was hit, I do stop at every stop sign and red light. I also try to survey the cross street as much as I can as I approach to make sure I know if someone might pull out or not. One thing I can’t fault other riders for though is not riding in the shoulder all the time. For those drivers who don’t ride, please know that the shoulder is often full of rocks, glass, sewer grates, and the crap you throw out your window. The contact patch on my road bike is less than 1/2 and inch wide, so I can’t be weaving in and out of debris going 20 - 25 mph. I also can’t be staring at the road surface 2 feet in front of me all the time. I’ll ride deep into the should when I can, but if I’m right on the edge of the traffic lane it’s because the shoulder isn’t safe. Trust me, I don’t want to be any closer to your car than I absolutely have to be.
A couple of the places I mountain bike are also open to horses. I’m smart enough to know that if there is a collision, I’m going to lose, so I make sure the rider knows I’m coming up on them well in advance and let them know which side I intend to pass on. If I can’t make the pass with at least 2-3 feet to spare on the side, I wait until there is or just turn off on another path if available.
I used to ride a road bike fast. Then, someone I knew from childhood died while biking when somebody pulled out in front of him and he cracked his trachea and spine on a parking meter. Now I stick to mountain biking, and only ride on the road to get places in the city occasionally.
I agree wholeheartedly, and applaud you for your conscienciousness. I especially agree about the biking clubs; they’re the worst.
To be sure, there are a lot of of good mountain bikers out there; many will pull over and stop when they see horses approaching. As I say, ours are fine as long as they know that the bilers are there, so we’ll wave them past. A good rule of thumb is this: if you talk as you approach a horse, it can tell that you’re a person.
We have a bike trail along a river near my home, and many bikers will come up behind pedestrians and blast past them without ever letting them know that they’re approaching; they’re awful. (Note: on all of these trails it is clearly posted that bikers are to yield to horses and pedestrians, and pedestrians are to yield to horses.)
I am very sorry to hear about the loss of your friend; my sincerest condolences.
I almost never ride my bike on the streets; I agree: it’s just too dangerous. I stick to the bike paths, and when I come up behind someone (pedestrian or biker), I let them know well ahead of time that I’m passing on the left. (Of course, then there are the pedestrians wearing headphones who can’t hear a thing . . . .)
Another thing that annoys me when I’m riding is fellow bikers and pedestrians who ride/jog against traffic and move to their left so I have to move closer to traffic when we pass each other. Guess what asshole? I don’t have eyes in the back of my head so I can’t see if a car is coming up behind me. Your stupid ass is on the wrong side of the road, not mine, so you move into the traffic lane not me. Ok, rant over.
For the record, I do ride (and run with) my horse on a trail like everybody else. This is not an urban area. It is suburban/semirural. At every entrance to the neighborhood where I board my horse there are large (2’ × 3’ or more) wrought iron signs proclaiming it an “Equestrian Community, est. 1929”. There are trails throughout the neighborhood, signs along all of the major streets telling motorists of horses, buttons for walk signals situated high enough that riders can reach them, and so on. There are three regional parks nearby with equestrian trails, all clearly marked with signs explicitly detailing the obligation of cyclists and pedestrians to yield to horses (and of cyclists to yield to pedestrians).
You’re making a lot of unfounded assumptions.