Horses & Road Safety Awareness

Boss man has allowed me to share my safety campaign.

Basically the name says it all, its about horses and roads. More and more people are suffering on the roads from bad drivers/bad riders and general lack of education surrounding countryside driving. So i aim to educate.

We are only in our first few months of a big boom, so the website is still pretty raw and some of it is under construction (and the forum is non-exsistant, so don't bother yet really lol) but hopefully there will be some info you didn't know.

http://www.hrsa.org.uk/

Looks good, Hayley!

nice website hayley i like it a lot you need to move the contact us pop up thing

Steve wrote:nice website hayley i like it a lot you need to move the contact us pop up thing

Thanks Means a lot. You know you helped me a hell of a lot!!

I know i do, i just can't be arsed atm ahahaha

Looks great Hayley, if it can help educate one person then it has been a success. Well done.

Change the homepage a bit. Brains fried from information hunting now i'm just procrastinating.

www.hrsa.org.uk

Well done Hayley - it's looking good. I'll look at in depth when I have more time.

I had my horses in the '60s when the roads were a lot quieter, we just don't see horses on the road in this area any more, it's far too hectic these days.

Lynda wrote:Well done Hayley - it's looking good. I'll look at in depth when I have more time.

I had my horses in the '60s when the roads were a lot quieter, we just don't see horses on the road in this area any more, it's far too hectic these days.

Yeah i know what you mean. I can't ride on my own road anymore, and i used to hack every single day. So thats the change that has happened in just 10 years.

going to have a look through it now, but well done on this, i use to have horses and once had a pretty bad accident on the road due to a numpty driver which has now resulted in bad back and knees. Think car drivers and riders should be aware.

rebeccaleanne wrote:going to have a look through it now, but well done on this, i use to have horses and once had a pretty bad accident on the road due to a numpty driver which has now resulted in bad back and knees. Think car drivers and riders should be aware.

Id love to have your story featured on the site

Hayley wrote:

rebeccaleanne wrote:going to have a look through it now, but well done on this, i use to have horses and once had a pretty bad accident on the road due to a numpty driver which has now resulted in bad back and knees. Think car drivers and riders should be aware.

Id love to have your story featured on the site

haha really? were would you like it? me and roads just generally do not mix...........

I've looked a bit more at your site Hayley and it's coming on a treat isn't it. It would be good if Rebecca feels up to relating her story.

The ONE thing I'm wondering is - how will you get your message across to your average Joe car driver, to whom horses are things they only see racing on the telly and don't expect to suddenly come across one using the road? They are not going to be actively looking for a horse-related website, IMHO.

People who live in and drive in a rural area should be more aware that horses, cows and even sheep will probably be encountered along the roads, and there are often road-signs warning of the possibility in those places, which is good. You'll know better than me Hayley, but I would hazard a guess that it is the urban dweller who is used to fast roads who is most likely to be surprised to encounter animals on a rural road and is not accustomed to deal with the situation, especially if the animals are "slowing up the traffic" ie them, and might delay their journey from A to B for a few precious seconds. It's how to reach these drivers?

Personally speaking, as I said before, I rode my horses around my relatively small Hampshire town in the 1960s. If I had a horse now, I wouldn't dream of it - what was once a two-lane road is now a 6-lane highway, absolutely no chance of crossing these roads without being splattered over all 6 lanes. No wonder that any remaining horse-riders in this area actually take their horses by trailer or horsebox to the commons for a hack.

I can only hope that people will share the site and ask drivers to read it. I have had a few good feedbacks from non-horse riders about it and how it is informative. I know what you're saying, but a driver won't go looking for anything like this anyway, if they want to know about horses on the road then my site will hopefully come up. So i need to focus on the riders and get them to change the way drivers see us.

rebecca you can just post it here and a photo if possible and i will put it on

That's probably the only way to go Hayley - educate the horse riders.

If I was riding now, if my horse was bomb-proof in traffic I would look back at the car driver behind and wave him or her on , with a smile (which goes a million miles), and might, just might, encourage them to approach the next horse rider with consideration.

If my horse were not bomb-proof in traffic, I would pull him calmly to the side of the road to a standstill, and with a friendly smile and acknowledgement to the driver coming up behind, wave them on again but with a calming downwards inflection to the arm.

In both cases, don't forget to raise your arm in recognition of the car driver's consideration once they've passed -be sure they WILL be looking in their rear mirror! I know it may be difficult if you've got a spooked horse, but if you don't - Average Joe will think at best "if the horse can't be trusted on the road, he shouldn't be on it" and at worst "snooty horse rider".

I have seen the occasional rider with a high-viz jacket emblazoned with "Young Horse", which might be helpful although I wouldn't count on it. Your average Joe won't care how young or old your horse is, he just wants to get past it and on his way. But every little helps.

I don't want to preach Hayley, you'll know more about riding in modern conditions than I do, I'm just coming at it from the point of view of an old-time horse-rider, and a modern-day urban driver, for what it's worth.


Good luck with your venture Hayley.

Lynda wrote:

If I was riding now, if my horse was bomb-proof in traffic I would look back at the car driver behind and wave him or her on , with a smile (which goes a million miles), and might, just might, encourage them to approach the next horse rider with consideration.
.

Thats totally our ethos


The site is still at the building stages. I am taking my time on it, as there is a lot of info out there, but eventually when it is somewhat more finished i would like to post it to some driver sites. The only thing is they are SERIOUSLY abusive of horse riders on the driving forums. Some of the things they say are just hideous. So i would have to probably just anon post them and then keep my "ban" button in full action on the fb pages lol

v2 of the website has been uploaded. Looks a bit cleaner and stuff!

Well done hayley

It's coming on a treat Hayley, well done!

That is looking great Hayley, well done. We can see that you have put a lot of work into it.

HRSA has exploded tonight! Nearly 200 more members.

Once again, it is down to Ruby the horse, who was sadly killed on the road. Her story is very important to HRSA and is the heart of our campaign. Without her, HRSA would still be a small FB group with abuot 100 people.

Now we have a website, page, group, twitter, clothing, keyrings, stickers and have been featured in newspapers and magazines and on websites.

Its all thanks to her:

for ruby rip

Looks great hayley

RIP ruby

Our last petition got only over 2000 signatures. This year we need 100,000!

Please help us:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/52370

I've signed the petition Hayley.

OMG poor Ruby - Rest In Peace, may your death not be in vain.  

Thanks lynda. Need a hell of a lot more sigs before it is even considered.