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Alerting horse riders
Travelling the last half a mile to my house yesterday, after a couple of hours on an old railway line, I approached a woman on a horse, on a country lane. As I always do, I rang my bell to alert the rider of my approach. This is almost exactly the tool in question;
https://www.dhgate.com/product/ea14-...400134415.html On hearing my bell, the woman responded with a haughty "Errr...perhaps ringing the bell isn't a good idea? Just say 'hello' when you approach!" The animal had briefly responded by skewing sideways upon hearing the bell. I rang at about 20 yards behind her and slowed to about 5mph. I replied by saying that other horse riders appreciated my ringing the bell as a courtesy to them. She didn't seem to believe me. Of course, in the minute or two it took to get home, I reflected on how I *should* have responded. My considered response would have been "If your animal is so highly strung, that the rather innocuous sound of a small bell causes you to lose control of it, then perhaps you shouldn't be taking it where it can potentially harm others?". The many other horse riders I have met along this route have been the model of civility. What's the consensus? To ring, or call out? No matter what you can always challenge them to a race. They'll both look the other way. They both know a horse won't last very long against a cyclist. |
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#12
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Alerting horse riders
On 29/04/2019 16:13, True Blue wrote: I replied by saying that other
horse riders appreciated my ringing the bell as a courtesy to them. She didn't seem to believe me. My rule of thumb for the ringing of bicycle bells is that a third of the time they'll be appreciated, a third of the time they'll be misinterpreted as car-horn-style bullying, and a third of the time they simply won't be heard. I tend to only use them in environments where the odds are stacked in my favour by signs instructing cyclists to use bells, or on blind corners like canal bridges where the intention is less ambiguous. Otherwise, my bell's mostly there to get bashed so the expensive shifter doesn't (or, on the Brompton, to make a satisfying 'PING!' as I finish folding the bike), and for ringing cheerfully at gawping children. What's the consensus? To ring, or call out? I often ride recumbents, which about 50% of horses are unfazed by, and the rest are varying degrees of terrified. My usual approach is to speak to the horse to try and convince it that I'm a human on a funny looking bicycle and not a scary horse-eating monster. As a prey animal they have pretty sensitive hearing, and will often hear you from further away than a human would. The horse will generally take care of letting the rider know that you're there. I unclip from one pedal early (because the click can startle the horse if you have to do it close up in a hurry), and follow the horse's lead, trying to freewheel if possible (the pedalling motion at the front of a recumbent seems to consistently upset them). If the horse isn't happy, it will make this clear with ear twitching, head shaking, side-stepping and the like. If it's obviously not happy I'll stop and dismount. Usually this will cause it to realise I'm a human with a bicycle, and it'll pass without a fuss. If it's really not happy, I'll negotiate with the rider the best way to get past. Very occasionally some idiot motorist will spot the generous gap between the nervous horse and the cyclist riding slowly on the funny bike, and decide to go for it. Now you have two problems... Kim. -- |
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