Quote Originally Posted by ibcycling View Post
It's a huge pet peeve of mine when people take their horses somewhere they cannot safely handle them. A horse on the road should be able to handle all sorts of strange things.

Lora
Lora, I agree with you that a person who takes a horse on a road should have a horse that handles strange things - and that is the best case scenario, but since I used to train horses, you have to realize that some horses need to be trained to handle strange things and the only way to do that is to take them into those situations so they get used to them. So, if I were out training a young horse to be a good road horse, there is going to be a time when they will not act like they should! Of course, it is your responsibility as the rider to be 1 a good rider so you don't get ditched at the slightest problem, 2. have your ears and eyes out for unforeseen problems.

It would still be nice if people were courteous and gave a little warning. If you can just get your horse to look at what is coming at them, they often time will react quite differently than if something spooks them from behind. They are fear and flight animals, so if something frightens them, they run. If you can get someone to give you a holler and slow for just a second, you can turn your animal and let them see what is coming.

Even the best trained horse can spook some if something startles them so have a little courtesy and we expect cars to have a little courtesy for us and all will be well.

spoke