As is the case most Saturday or Sunday mornings, I was out on my horse this morning.
As it was sunny, so were a lot of other folk.
I was riding up the long hill that leads out of the village when I spotted a road bike coming down the hill. I was concentrating so much on what turned out to be a chap in his 70's on a nicely weathered Olmo that I was not aware of the three lads coming up behind me until they called out "is it OK to pass?", I said yes fine and past they came in a neat line on their Specialized and Giant carbon exotica.
Later in the same ride, I came across a group of about 20 mtb'ers on the road. They were all struggling towards me up a pretty decent hill on full sussers and wearing helmets and body armour. We exchanged a few jokey comments and off they went.
Later on the same ride, I was now starting to climb a steep rocky bridleway. I had just got to the first blind left hand corner and.... yup, the mtb'ers were coming down. The first couple had a bit of a shock, but I positioned my horse off the path so that they could ride past, and assured them that he would not be bothered. One of the guides stayed at the edge of the track and called to approaching mtb'ers to slow down and keep riding.
And all was well, they finished their ride, my horse did not turn a hair and managed an naughty nibble of some cow parsley (which he loves), we thanked one another and off we all went.
Finally, about a mile up the track I saw another lone mtb'er coming down hill fast. I pulled off the track and shouted to him not to worry about slowing down, he came rattling past and thanked me.
I know some bike riders are nobs, I know a lot of horse riders get pissy with anyone else on 'their' path (in my opinion this is because they are in fear for their life due to their inability to handle their horse, but that's another subject), or give the impression of being a long way up their own, usually rather large, bottoms, but in reality, it ain't so hard to get along.
I was going to post this thread on Singletrack, but.. well, you know. :roll:
Note: In order to train a horse to be calm when they encounter bikes, they need to encounter bikes and have their rider keep calm, so don't blame the horse, blame the rider.
As it was sunny, so were a lot of other folk.
I was riding up the long hill that leads out of the village when I spotted a road bike coming down the hill. I was concentrating so much on what turned out to be a chap in his 70's on a nicely weathered Olmo that I was not aware of the three lads coming up behind me until they called out "is it OK to pass?", I said yes fine and past they came in a neat line on their Specialized and Giant carbon exotica.
Later in the same ride, I came across a group of about 20 mtb'ers on the road. They were all struggling towards me up a pretty decent hill on full sussers and wearing helmets and body armour. We exchanged a few jokey comments and off they went.
Later on the same ride, I was now starting to climb a steep rocky bridleway. I had just got to the first blind left hand corner and.... yup, the mtb'ers were coming down. The first couple had a bit of a shock, but I positioned my horse off the path so that they could ride past, and assured them that he would not be bothered. One of the guides stayed at the edge of the track and called to approaching mtb'ers to slow down and keep riding.
And all was well, they finished their ride, my horse did not turn a hair and managed an naughty nibble of some cow parsley (which he loves), we thanked one another and off we all went.
Finally, about a mile up the track I saw another lone mtb'er coming down hill fast. I pulled off the track and shouted to him not to worry about slowing down, he came rattling past and thanked me.
I know some bike riders are nobs, I know a lot of horse riders get pissy with anyone else on 'their' path (in my opinion this is because they are in fear for their life due to their inability to handle their horse, but that's another subject), or give the impression of being a long way up their own, usually rather large, bottoms, but in reality, it ain't so hard to get along.
I was going to post this thread on Singletrack, but.. well, you know. :roll:
Note: In order to train a horse to be calm when they encounter bikes, they need to encounter bikes and have their rider keep calm, so don't blame the horse, blame the rider.