Following the tragic appalling incident this week that has shocked the equestrian world, in which a driver of a car allegedly reversed into the 6 year old Race Horse Toblersong, and him having to be destroyed after severing his leg whilst being lead on the road by his trainer Brett Johnson in Epsom, famous for its racing community.
The driver of the vehicle is now according to the media trying to sue the trainer for assault!!!!!!!!
How can we as riders prevent this from happening to us.
Those of us that do drive can understand how infuriating it can be when we do slow down and get no response from the riders that are too engrossed in conversation with each other to move over and let the car go by, never say thank you but glare back at you instead, never move over to single file and take up the whole road.
These riders give the rest of us a bad time and makes drivers not want to show us the courtesy, the others haven't been bothered to demonstrate
As riders we should always be aware of other road users and be polite to them when they do slow down if they don't, then hope they loose a wheel or break down on the next bend, but getting into arguments and rows with them is it worth it? Can anything be solved by it? No because the car driver will always think he owns the road.
And for those of you that have experienced road rage whether on a horse or in a car it can be quite a daunting experience but an ever increasing trend.
We should try to educate more drivers about what to do when meeting horses on the road maybe lobby the DVLA about including a compulsory section in the driving test instead of a few lines in the highway code which a lot of people tend to forget. We have a right to be on the roads just as much as cars but these days most of us are too scared to go out onto them.
What we should do should we ever be faced with the same situation?
Try to avoid confrontation of any kind,
Always say thank you,
Don't shout most of the times they wont hear anyway.
Avoid hitting the car even with your stick it will only enrage the driver in his precious car!
Wear reflective gear so you are easily seen
You can stick an L plate on the back of a plain tabard that generally gets them to slow down and pass very wide.
If you do get a driver stop and get out, diffuse the situation and rise above getting into an argument, calmly state your reasons, its impossible to argue with someone that won't argue back, you can then take the registration number report them to the police, let them deal with it instead.
Condolences go out to the Owners and the Trainer of Toblersong, the whole equestrian community and decent folk are shocked.
