Horses in the road - Pass wide & slow!

Horse Riders

As we head towards summer and the weather gets warmer, we expect to see more people getting back to riding their horses more regularly in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The British Horse Society (BHS) have a web page with dedicated advice to drivers around this topic. Some of the key points to remember when you come across a horse in the road are:

• Slow down to a maximum of 10mph
• Be patient – don’t sound your horn or rev your engine
• Pass the horse wide and slow – at least two metres
• Drive slowly away

You can read the full guidance from the BHS here: https://www.bhs.org.uk/go-riding/riding-out-hacking/riding-on-roads/advice-for-motorists/ 

The BHS have also published an interactive map online which shows the areas across the UK, including Hampshire, where equine safety issues have been reported.

You can view the map here, and filter down to ‘motorised vehicle’ to see the areas specifically affected by incidents between cars and horses in the road: https://www.bhs.org.uk/go-riding/record-an-incident/incident-report-form/

It’s important to recognise that anyone can have an impact on the safety of a horse, whether you are a driver, a cyclist, a pedestrian/runner or someone operating a drone, for example.

If horse riders need to report an incident to police and have Go-Pro footage, you can report this within 7 days of the incident occurring via ‘Hants Snap’: https://www.hampshire.police.uk/police-forces/hampshire-constabulary/areas/hants-snap/hantsnap/hants-snap---report-an-incident/

Dial 999 in the event of an emergency.

Free-roaming animals

Feral or semi-feral ponies found in areas such as the New Forest require the same consideration as ridden horses when approaching or passing.

In the event of a collision with a free-roaming animal in the road, it’s important to stop your vehicle, check on the animal if safe to do so, identify your location and call the police. It is worth downloading the What3Words app on your phone to help you identify exactly where you are – this information can then be passed to a police call handler to help track you down.

Failing to report a collision with an animal is an offence under Section 170(8) of the Road Traffic Act 1988. The animals captured within this piece of legislation are horse, cattle, ass, mule, sheep, pig, goat and dog.