Getting Seen
It's hard to imagine that a driver might miss seeing a 1,000-pound animal with a rider, but the reality is that most drivers don't expect to see horses on the road. If a driver is distracted, such as talking with kids in the car or on a cell phone, he's even less likely to see a horse.
The easier you are to see, the more time a driver has to stop or avoid you. Wearing bright or reflective clothing, even in daylight, makes a huge difference in how visible you are. Safety yellow or orange shirts or vests are readily available at discount stores and bicycle shops.
Reflective clothing or tack, such as reflective leg bands on the horse, is helpful in alerting drivers that something is there, but they still may have a hard time recognizing that it's a horse, particularly in low light.
Saddlelights owner Dwayne Russell recommends a personal safety flasher that you can clip on the back of your belt or put in your horse's tail. The flasher can be seen even in daylight, and it won't interfere with your horse's vision the way carrying a flashlight or wearing flashing lights on the front of a jacket or helmet would.
Hitting the Road
Before your ride, scout out the roadway you intend to travel on horseback. Ideally, walk along the shoulder, or ride a bike, so you can easily stop to check out the footing. Keep an eye out for broken bottles along the side of the road, culvert pipes hidden by tall grass, or areas where the shoulder is unsafe for horses.
Other common things to watch for are:
• Blind curves, where a driver could come up on you quickly.
• Scary things by the road, such as earth-moving equipment, flags, a dog that chases cars, or a yard with animals, such as llamas or pigs or even other horses, that might frighten or excite your horse.
• Loose gravel or mud that might cause a car to skid if it had to brake quickly.
In driver's ed class, we're taught to drive defensively. That is, we're taught to think ahead, anticipating possible dangerous situations, and to leave ourselves an exit space. We have to do the same when we're riding.
What if you only ride on back roads? Perhaps you don't really think you have to worry about vehicles going 60 miles per hour. That's great. But there's danger all the same. Experts say that it generally takes a driver a second from the time he sees an emergency situation to the moment he puts on the brakes. A second can be a long time in terms of distance. If a vehicle is going 30 mph and you allow one second of thinking/reacting time, that vehicle will cover 44 feet-half the length of a tractor-trailer truck-before the driver applies the brake. He'll cover yet another 45 feet (almost 90 feet total) before the vehicle comes to a stop. And that's assuming dry pavement and the intention to stop now! This in itself might frighten your horse. (At double that speed, the braking distance becomes four times as far.)
More Safety Tips
Along with scouting your route for possible hazards, you can take additional steps to help ensure a safer ride.
• Wear your helmet. Statistics are overwhelming in terms of reduced injury rates and reduced severity of injuries of people wearing helmets versus no helmets.
• Choose your day and time. We don't have to tell you to avoid the garbage truck, but it's worth mentioning that other vehicles, such as the school bus or even the UPS truck have relatively regular schedules. If possible, choose a time to ride when you're least likely to encounter big vehicles, lots of traffic, or people in a hurry. Avoid riding in low-light situations, such as at dusk or when it's foggy, which greatly increases the difficulty of being seen.
• Take a riding buddy, and choose one with a safe, sensible mount and good horsemanship skills.
• Stay as far off the road as you safely can, both to avoid traffic and because horseshoes do not have good traction on pavement. Most experts advise riding single file when you're alongside the road. Put the most visible person closest to approaching traffic-in front, if you're facing traffic or at the end of the line, if traffic is coming up behind you.
• When a vehicle approaches, your most important task is controlling your horse. But if you can safely do so, make eye contact with the driver. Use hand signals to ask him to slow down, to let him know when it's okay to pass, and to say "thank you" for his courtesy.
Educate Drivers
One of the best things you can do to improve the safety of riders is to educate vehicle drivers. You can do this in a friendly way. Often, people will cooperate with you when they know the score.
We've all heard stories of drivers honking the horn to greet a friend who is riding, only to see the friend dumped and the horse running loose. Or the car might go slowly as it approaches a horse and rider, then accelerate once it comes alongside, spraying gravel on the horse's legs. Even commercial drivers don't know that horses are afraid of big trucks and landscape trailers with rattling tools.
Ironically, horse owners are often the worst culprits behind the wheel. Because they are around horses, they sometimes take them for granted, or assume that everyone's horse is as unflappable about traffic as their own are. They forget that although a horse might be fine with a vehicle 50 feet away, he might be startled when the car gets closer, the driver rolls down the window and waves, or a dog barks and jumps around in the back seat.
Keeping Your Cool
To help ensure the safest riding experience on the road, you should train your horse, follow the recommendations outlined here, and do what you can to educate the driving public. But despite your best efforts, you may still find yourself in a scary situation. Often, the difference between a safe outcome or an injury is the rider's ability to keep his cool. In the end, the only aspect of all of this that you can control is yourself.
