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| The Outdoors Advice Blog |
Should a horse rider be fined for using mobile fone while riding?
I saw a horse rider using a mobile fone while riding her horse on the road.Could/should she be fined ,like a car driver, for not being in proper control of her horse?
Of course not - riding a horse is completely different - as others have pointed out - from driving a car.
For a start your horse is not a lethal weapon on the road as a car is!
The horse is made of flesh and bones so is - like humans - easily hurt, it also does not usually travel at more than 5 miles an hour on a road - especially on a road as horses legs can not stand the pounding on a modern road at more than a walk or at most a slow trot - so a horse is unlikely to cause death to pedestrians and other road users as it and its rider is more likely to be hurt by cars than the other way around.
But I could name at least 20 incidences where car drivers have put me and my horse in danger on the road and many more when car drivers who for some reason seemed to be angry or resent me just because I was riding a horse – so have cut us up on and one occasion only just missing the hind legs of my 8 year old daughters pony, many have accelerated past beeping their horn or shouting abuse out the windows even on a dangerous bend or revved up trying to spook the horse, I have lost count of the times drivers have put their fingers up at me for no reason as they went past and on one occasion a driver fired a water pistol at me and my horse..
Actually horses have the right of way in law in the UK- a horse and rider is more likely to be able to prosecute you if you do not go carefully round them when overtaking a horse and rider in a considerate way
I think there is this mistaken belief that those that ride are 'posh' people who are fair game - I am just a working class woman who lives in rural Cornwall and who loved to ride - but have given it up now I am over 50 partly due to how dangerous the roads - even small country lanes - have become due to the behaviour of those in cars - quite honestly it terrifies me now
As to making a phone call, I can control a horse actually as well or better with one hand so making a call would not compromise my control at all as it would if I was driving – I would have to stop when driving to make a call to be fully in control
( in my case as I learned much of my riding one handed as I spent most of my teenage years taking others out on a lead rein so I usually ride one handed)
If you need to use your mobile on a horse it would be more dangerous to pull into the side of the road to make that call as you would with a car - as horses are safer for the rider and everyone else if they are trucking along - horses generally play up if they have to stay still in what they sense is a potentially dangerous situation like on a road - they prefer and are in more control if you keep them moving along when traffic is about - they do have some understanding that traffic can be dangerous.
As a horse has a brain too - on a horse you are not driving an inanimate object but a live being who does its best to keep itself out of danger.
A horse is unlikely to put itself in danger by ploughing into any other object on the road, a pedestrian or anything else while you are talking on the phone.
I do agree that it would not be advisable to have long and complicated conversations on your mobile while riding - but as a rider who rode while I had a family at home it is sometimes necessary to phone them while out riding - yes I know we did not have that option before the mobile but nor did car drivers either.
I have reason to be very glad of having a mobile phone with me while out riding
I had a serious accident - not the horses fault - on a moor in Cornwall where I live and I was able to use my mobile to call the air ambulance to be airlifted to hospital - no other type of ambulance could have got me there and indeed where I was without my phone I may not have been found for hours if not days…
But the short answer is – no a horse rider can not be prosecuted currently just for using a mobile while riding
