I ride my horse on the road about half a mile to a barn that lets me use their ring. When riding horses on the road should you ride with or against traffic? My horse has been so good about traffic but I get a little nervous about cars coming up behind us and giving us enough room (and actually noticing us). Do you glance back every time? Most people are pretty generous with their room and speed when passing but some people can be real jerks about it. I always wear a safety vest and move off the road in the spots where there are open fields on the side…but all it takes is one person not paying attention
I think you’re probably supposed to ride against traffic but I find I ride on whatever side has a better shoulder. My horse is really good about vehicles but he is very big so I go wherever has more room for him.
I have been forced to ride on the forest service roads behind my property as trails still have a lot of snow. My routine when I hear a vehicle coming is to move to side, bend horse’s head a bit so he gets a better look and turn back and wave at driver. Everyone has been really good about slowing down - and I’m sharing the road with trucks, side by sides, quads, dirt bikes and even the odd truck filled with barking hound dogs.
I ride with traffic, but I also tend to stay on less busy roads. I usually move over if I can, stop if I have a young horse. I do wave at traffic to make sure they realize I appreciate them paying attention.
I glance back often in order to make sure someone doesn’t sneak up on me.
I do find bikes cause a bigger issue than cars–because bikes make a very odd noise coming up behind a horse! (Greenie baby needs a little more exposure, apparently).
The laws vary by state. In my state (PA), riders are technically supposed to obey the same rules as cyclists-- that is, ride with traffic. Personally, I ride on whichever side is safer, depending on terrain, room for escape, curves/hills in the road, etc.
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We pass school buses and garbage trucks and all manner of vehicles but today we had to pass a runner and he about lost his marbles! Go figure…bikes will be interesting. Both sides of the road are pretty identical so riding on one side vs the other doesn’t really matter. What do you do when people fly by? I’m considering giving some people the finger because it is just plain common courtesy to slow down and move over for anyone on the road and some people clearly could care less
My gelding has never really cared for anything with a motor–nothing really scares him when it comes to vehicles. (Now, those trash cans, on the other hand…) If someone flies by, I don’t bother to do anything. Sure, common courtesy dictates you should slow down, but I figure that it is my responsibility to make sure I’m doing all I can to cause as little of an issue to the drivers on the road. This means my horse needs to be road safe and responsive.
That being said, I’m also the type of person that wouldn’t flick someone off or honk the horn while driving either. I’m fairly mellow (sometimes to the point of being an over-trusting doormat, but that’s another story. :winkgrin: )
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My worst problem with road riding isn’t from anything with a motor-- we’ve been passed by all sorts of school buses, tractor trailers, etc., no issue. But a bicyclist who flies up from behind makes virtually no noise until they’re right next to you. I had an awful spook and fall from this same scenario-- the cyclist, knowing nothing about horses, thought it would be a good idea to be as quiet as possible so as to not disturb our horses… FAIL.
So now I make a point to kindly educate every cyclist I encounter re: proper horse-passing etiquette. Thankfully, they have all been very receptive.
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On a horse you should try to ride where you have the best (widest) shoulder; otherwise you comply with the pedestrian laws that are “walk against traffic flow” so that drivers see you better…and you see them.
Cyclists (or pretty much just about anything on wheels) have to comply with automotive rules of the road and ride with the flow of traffic.
I ride with the traffic. The last thing I want is for a motorcycle, dump truck pulling a back hoe, semi, etc to come barreling essentially head on at my horse.
My horses that are traffic broke did very well with traffic coming up behind them. I taught them all what “pay attention” means, combined with a pat on the neck. Some are better at dealing with traffic but the ones that are traffic broke did well when I was still riding.
ive had my share of county sheriffs and highway patrol pass me ----- none of them ever pulled me over to say I was riding on the wrong side of the road. Ride the side that keeps your hose the most calm.
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Yes exactly my thoughts. He really isn’t bothered by the cars coming up behind us I’m definitely more worried about the cars than him. There are parts of the road where there really isn’t anywhere to go if they didn’t see us or god forbid where texting and swerved toward us. Thats what makes me nervous.
There aren’t too many cyclists on the road so we’ll see how that goes as the weather gets nicer. My last horse who was rather an idiot but road safe could care less about people on bikes but game over if we saw a deer…
That must have been scary. I find anyone that uses the road is generally pretty nice about proper horse passing etiquette and also drive past us slower. My next door neighbor who we’re close with bikes a lot I’ll ask him to spread the word about how to pass a horse on a bike
You bring up a whole new can of worms that wasn’t prevalent when I was still riding around my ten mile block ----- texting and those sections of road where there is no where to go:(
A segment on one of the evening news was about texting while driving. I don’t know what the time frame was studied, but someone gathered insurance statistics that showed 52% of traffic related accidents involved texting. It could have been a fender bender to a fatality, the number was 52%.
Thats a lot of accidents that wouldn’t happen if people would realize they aren’t as good at driving/multi-tasking as they think they are.
i hope you have a safe and fun riding season, whatever route you take:)
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The whole texting and driving thing is quite scary and I just don’t understand why anyone does it. I’m only 26 so grew up with the emergence of text messages but would never text and drive.
Fortunately the road is totally straight with only a couple hills so a driver can see pretty far ahead. Even so I think I might look at taking the back way once things dry up a bit. Speaking of which what do you do about riding on sections of other peoples property?
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Don’t give them the finger! I don’t dare even wave to ask speeding drivers to slow down, since the last one responded by crossing the center line and forcing my horse and me into the ditch!
I was telling my brother, the personal injury attorney, this story and he said one of his clients, a bicyclist, waved at a woman to slow down. She not only ran him off the road into a field, but pursued him with her car and deliberately hit him! Then this harridan got out and screamed “I guess you won’t tell ME how to drive no more!”
Road rage is one of those things I’ll never understand. :no:
I ride, when possible, on the other side of the roadside ditches (I live in farm country, so all the roads are bordered by fields with drainage ditches). I generally will ask the person in advance if it’s OK if I ride at the edge of their field, but if I can’t I just make sure not to damage anything or leave manure in their yard. 
If you don’t know who owns a piece of property, most counties now have real estate records online and you can look it up.
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In my state, we are supposed to ride facing traffic. I’d not do so now because of the increased traffic on all roads. When I was a small child through my teenage years, we road all over the county and city of over 100,000 and everyone looked out for us. Now people whip right by riders, even on dirt roads. The only “bad guy” we had was one motorcycle rider who always made his bike backfire every time he rode by us. I hope he got road rash often although my horses did not shy when he acted so badly.
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What?! That is crazy! I can’t believe someone would do that! Ok no waving or fingers. Except for those nice people who drive by slowly and wave at me. There are no ditches fortunately but some sections of the road are heavily wooded so there would be no where to go.
Those stretches of road make me nervous. As you say, it only takes one moron texting and driving or just not paying attention.
Most people where I ride are still country enough to know how to drive around horses. But there are some folks - like the lady who drove up slowly beside me and rolled down the back window so her grandson could lean out and try to pet the horse! :eek: Luckily I was on Conjure, the horse in my avatar, who though not the most rock-solid of citizens, does adore children and will put up with a lot of foolishness from one of them. 
Really the idiocy of some people is simply astounding! I’ve never had anyone do that. But if they did my horse would probably just search them for cookies. He’s like a giant dog. All he wants out of life is cuddles and cookies and he doesn’t care who provides them.
I can’t wait until I can build a ring on our property so I’ll only have to walk the road when I want to use the neighbors indoor
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So what is the. Proper way for a cyclist to pass a horse and rider?
We actually passed our first group of cyclists last weekend. They were coming at us so we passed without any problem. Ironically one of them was my dog trainer and we talked about it in class the next day. I told him to treat the horse like a bear and make noise so as not to sneak up on it and startle it. Either calling out or ringing a bike bell. I would then move as far over to the side as I could and stop to let them pass
