Recently on a few horse riding forums and facebook pages theres been a lot written about bikes and horses and what happens when the 2 meet. Unfortunately a lot of the comments are very negative about cyclist.
Firstly like with every walk of life there are nice friendly happy go lucky people, then there are the knobs they tend to be rude arrogant and ignorant and nothing anyones says or does will change that. The problem is the knobs tend to be the ones we remember, all be it the rude car driver who cuts you up, the person jumping a que at the supermarket. What's wrong, is to taint every one with the same brush. When either a horse rider or cyclist mentions about a bad car driver then we all recall our 'bad car driver moments' and collectively rant about how inconsiderate car drivers are. We forget about the ones that pass appropriately for the circumstance, probably because you tend to remember the idiots that put your life a risk.
So, now we've established the world has knobs, lets talk about the non knobs who just don't know better. Cyclist readers please remember I'm writing this blog for horse riders to read, if you wish to add comments below.
Like with horse riding, cycling is divided into different disciplines, for each discipline there are specific bike designs. Bikes can be very expensive, in the thousands, and are made of a variety of materials. Serious cyclist take a lot of pride in their bikes and like horse riders go without luxuries to put money into their sport. Like horse riders they have to train if they want to make the most of their hobby, and to keep fit enough to partake in it. Cycling crosses all types of people, from all backgrounds, all ethnicities and sexual orientation.
So, the main complaints about cyclist on the horse forums has been about interactions between horses and cyclist on the roads.
There are generally 3 types of road cyclist (all with different subgroups but I'm not going that indepth);
- There are those that use their bike as a mode of transport simply for getting from A-B
- Those that use if for fitness (football players, MotoX riders and horse riders)
- Those for who cycling is a sport
Most of the comments on horse forum relate the last of the group, the sports cyclist. On the road I think I kind of come into this category as well as the fitness one. Now horse riders generally hate riding on the roads, I know I do. But the sports road cyclist doesn't, to him the road is an endless race track, it's all about getting the miles done and improving on times, an app called STRAVA hasn't helped this. The cyclist doesn't have to be in a race to be focused and working towards a personal best. Your sports roadie (roadies are the cycling term for this type of rider) could of been all day at their office job waiting for 5pm when they can thrash the hell out on the bike and beat their personal best by a couple of seconds. When they go out on their bike they are doing it for a purpose. Now, as great as the imagination makes an endless track seem the reality is so different. Firstly there is the common enemy, the cars, vans and lorries. Some are great they pass nice and wide and don't cut in nearly knocking you off your bike, at junctions they wait till you have passed before pulling out and some can even judge your speed. But there are the knobs, they purposely cut in at you, I've had stuff thrown out of car windows at me, horn blasted (basically everything that happens on a horse, but I dread to say it worse!). Other road users aren't the only problem, potholes can damage a bike or bring one down, depending on size. Then there are dogs, cats, rabbits (stray sheep where I live) which if hit on a road bike will send the rider sliding across tarmac. Cyclist have to cope with flying bugs, broken glass, dogmess, litter (crisp packets can be surprisingly slippy in the wet on skinny tyres). Then there is the position you ride in on a road bike and the speed, road bikes are designed to put the rider in a aerodynamic position which isn't the best for taking in the view and I personally tend to look out of the tops of my eyes, because of the speed the riders need to keep their heads down not only to maintain aerodynamics but also as with your head up the wind created can make breathing difficult. Oh, and unless you have good glasses the wind can really make eyes run. Roadies have to observe and deal with all of the above at speed, the fastest I've clocked on my road bike is 47MPH and I'm pretty slow. Now road bikes are designed to go fast, the brakes on road bikes are to lower speeds for cornering, they aren't really designed to stop a bike quickly.
Being on a road bike is totally different to being on a horse, as a horse riders I'm constantly looking in the hedge for ANYTHING that might spook my horse and I look as far ahead as possible to see what traffic is coming, however on the horse I'm in a great position to see all this and I'm only moving at 4-5MPH.
Given everything a roadie cyclist out training has to deal with it's easy to understand why they might not notice a horse on the other side of the road coming towards them, but what about the horse on their side of the road, this is simpler to understand as a cyclist. As a horse riders I'm forever looking out for traffic as my horse might spook and if its something she's not good with I need to take action. On the bike most of the dangers are either vehicles coming up behind or at junctions or on the tarmac so on a bike you tend not to look up to high. Now possibly because I'm a horse rider I do still look more that pure cyclist, as I've finished a ride with friend and mentioned seeing something that my companions haven't. But on the bike my vision is locked onto the shortest area I have time to react to, so say about 10-15 meters in front of my bike, not the 200+ meters I look over on the horse. I briefly glance up every few seconds or minutes to check but nothing more than to enable me to judge my speed round a bend, or that I'm on the right road or to check out a junction (and to keep my eyes out for horses).
Now as I've said before, lots of different people from different walks of life cycle, and there are some people out there that have never seen a horse in their life let alone encountered one on the road. These cyclist may not have a clue what to do, because there is no compulsory training to ride a bicycle on the roads. But I can assure horse riders, cyclist do not want to get kicked, nor do they want their possibly £10k Carbon Road Bike with Zipp wheels kicked. Cyclist also do not want to go onto the other side of the road, as it's putting a already vulnerable road user in an even more vulnerable position. So wrongly the cyclist puts 2+2 together and gets it wrong. They pass fast to avoid the risk of being kicked and because they never saw the horse in the first place to give time to slow down, and they tend to pass on the white line not over it.
My horse is scared of anything on 2 wheels, she was chased by kids on motorbikes as a yearling and has never got over it. Unfortunately she views all 2 wheeled objects the same, so when bike passes me you can imagine the problems I have. So here's what I do:
1. I put reflective Brushing boots on my horse, Hi Viz tabards on a rider on top of a horse is over 5' high, how many car drivers direct line of sight is at 5'! (I'm not knocking Hi Viz tops they are great but not to be relied solely upon). Reflective boots also move so attract better and cyclist see them (Well I know I do on the bike)
2. I always keep my eye out for anything 2 wheeled coming from in front and I periodically glance behind when riding on the roads and I listen, if I see a bike I hail the rider to warn them of my presence and of my horses great dislike of bikes.
3. Observe my horse, horses have miles better hearing than us and they are always listening around them, I always know when a bike is approaching from behind as Sherry hears it before me, her ears lock on the noise.
4. As my horse tends to have a hissy fit at cyclist, I normally nip into a drive way or gate if I see one, and ask the rider to slow right down. I have never had one refuse my request, but then my mare is normally trying to go sideways so most cyclist are happy to oblige, not wanting to get near either of us. But even on a placid horse, if there's an opening you can easily slip into why not be nice and give the cyclist some room, the wrong side of the road is really a scary place on a bike.
As my husband rides bikes, we have gone out together me on Sherry and Darrel on his bike, now Sherry isn't frightened of Darrel on a bike but doesn't always equate this to all bikes.
If you have a problem with cyclist in your area call into your local bike shop, print the BHS leaflet and drop that off. Your local bike shop can also tell you of the local cycling clubs to contact, and most local bike shops will know what races are on in your area. Also race organisers for events on the road inform police of the routes so suggest that they also inform local pony/riding clubs and advertise at Tack Shops and Feed Merchant so riders know when/where to avoid.
And lastly, why not give cycling a go, it's great for fitness you'll meet loads of lovely people and can educate them from within. You could also arrange some joint bridleway clearing days with mountain bikers and talk to them about the issues horse riders face with bikes.
Educate and communicate.
