unaccompanied child riders

[tob]

all of a sudden,they seem to be everywhere here!
all out and about on the roads!its my biggest horror that i'll hear of an accident!some of these kids have not been riding very long,but have been bought ponies and off they go!
is there any by law in scotland to stop parents allowing this!two girls passed me the other day,slumping on their ponies bareback,along the road,one shouted hello,her pony stopped dead and the pony behind crashed into it.
i see them down the main street which is really busy as well as narrow!
ok,maybe im over protective and cant even concieve of my grandchildren being left in charge of ponies,never mind on a road!
the farm kids only really now,chloe is 13 and been riding since 4yrs old,and done road safety at pony club,go from our field to their homes but i see them off and parents are awaiting them arriving and its a tiny bit of road as they cut through fields!
why would people think kids were responsable enough and in control enough of a strong animal to be unsupervised like this?
surely theres some sort of rule or law?what if theres an accident?how do i go about saying something?i avoid riding on the roads whenever i can and ive been riding for to many years to mention, as even although amber and camrie have had years of traffic work and are good,i cant control the drivers!
lots of youngsters speeding around,older folk who should know better,ive had some near misses where cars on three occasions have hit my stirrup iron!luckily amber didnt flinch!
sorry rant over but any suggestions welcome for putting a stop to this before the inevitable happens

[jen1]

HI jean, HAPPY NEW YEAR BY THE WAY,to you and ALL YOUR FAMILY please pass it on to nikki and the field gang i dont know of any law but maybe you could broach it with the pony club, your roads are pretty fast even if there not as busy as ours out of town, i dont think i would ant to go onto the high street my self in busy time, all you can do for now is advise on hi vis and point out they are not insured by riding bare back, or call out pc plum
didnt you once say he was a bit of a banker so maybe not!lol take care hun jen x

[tob]

hi jen,happy new year to you and all the family!is 2008 the year for a visit?
think i'll ask the pony club commisionar if she could put an article in the wee local paper,re road safety!im sure it cant be right to allow kids of limited experience to ride unsupervised on roads!

[jen1]

i would mention the insurance thing it might just be the thing to jolt the parents, i think it could be this year work permitting,ya never know there jus might be a wedding on mull next year,lol

[atouchwild]

Hi there, and a happy new year to you all!
I am preparing to run for cover now!

I can understand your concerns regarding these kids, however, I have to say that I think riding out on their own is a good way for children to learn about riding and controlling a pony (that is, providing the pony is reasonably quiet) From the moment I was old enough to control my own pony (ie. at walk trot canter) I was hacking out on my own or with my sister on another pony. I guess the roads are worse now but it wasnt all that long ago!
We came across some sticky situations, but we had to learn to deal with them! Several times I have picked myself up off the floor in a field, caught my pony, got back on and carried on! I also learnt why you shouldn't canter in the same place every time!
As I said before I ca understand your concerns and realise that a road is perhaps not the best place to learn, but I feel sure it imrpoves and speeds up horsemanship skills. It teaches thnings that just cannot be done trotting round a school all day, like independance and quick thinking, which I believe are essential for riding anywhere.
However, I do think hi-viz is important, perhaps as you see them going out you could casually ask them if they wanted to borrow some form of hi-viz?

[lindaandrascal]

You see alot of kids around here, some of them you wonder how on earth they stay on, they cant ride! But the adults are as bad, riding along smoking or on the phone, no hat.
I once saw 2 girls on ponies, side by side on the footpath nearly running into anyone else on the path!
My youngest goes out on her own but she is 13 and on as near to bombproof horse as you can get, but she only goes in the fields at the back of the yard, if she goes on the road i (or our friend) walk with her.
We never let our pony Mistys rider go out alone either, i think parents should be responsible for their kids.

[Oranges]

Have to aggree with atouchwild, been hacking out on my own since i was about 10, and was the making of me, to be fair tho roads here are quiet, but still i learnt that when hoss is tryin to deck me, to hold on lol or its a long walk home lol, but no i'v learnt to use my common sense and that if anything kicks off its down bto me to sort it basically riding on my own dosent faze me in the slightest where if i'd been made to ride with other people until i was older it might have done.
Can understand the safety of it tho but then again would rather see a fairly experienced kid out riding and enjoying there neds then a inexperienced adult....i mean adults can be just as stupid as kids when it comes to riding out...sorry if nn of that makes sense lol

[tob]

the problem being atouchwild,is that these kids havent had lessons in a school or ridden for any length of time.seriously im not a killjoy,if i thought these kids had half a clue on how to ride,let them ride on their own by all means,but perhaps in fields and forestry,not on roads ,thats just totally irresponsabe.i pity the poor driver who hits one of them!id be surprised if any of them had actually had a canter on a pony.two of them were at the autumn open pony club show(they are not members)ON LEAD REIN!!!!!!bloomin heck,why do the mothers think if they cant manage to walk round a ring on their own that they are capable of riding on the streets.they dont have the basic skills to be building on,i understand about learning more on your own,like when a learner driver passes their test and go out alone and really starts to learn,but you wouldnt hand car keys to a complete beginner and gaily wave them off to drive round the town!

[tob]

how long were you riding before hacking out alone?

[Donnalex]

When I was 10 and my sister 11 mum bought us a big shetland type 3 year old mare. She had never been broken in and was cautious of anyone coming near her but when you got hold of the headcollar using a bribe she was not too bad.
Our equipment consisted of a new riding hat each, one headcollar, two lead reins and a hoof pick!
Pony lived in the garden and ate veg peelings out of a washing up bowl.
At the end of that summer holidays that pony was great, a real good fun wacky racer with a big sense of humour.
Mums friend held her while we got on first time, then that was it, off we went, scrapping over whose turn it was to ride. After lots of wailing we had alternate days to end the squabbling.
At christmas we got a saddle and bridle from the nearby riding school and mum started buying horse food (bran & pony nuts)
The first riding lesson I ever had was about a year later when I was getting into going to shows so mum thought a few lessons would be good.
Mum never took us out, we went alone for a while till we got some friends with ponies, then we went about together. The pony had insurance from a few weeks after we got her, but apart from that consideration we had no instructions never mind adult company.
Looking back, Im glad we had it that way, dont think I would have stuck with ponies if I was being told what to do all the time.
And I think the pony was good becuase she was ridden into the ground, poor thing.

[lindaandrascal]

If your in the country its different, we are on a very busy main road, and theres lots of traffic. My friends kids go out, but they never see a bike never mind a bus or a lorry. It was alot quieter when i was young and used to go out hacking at the riding school. If we lived in the country mine would be out alone.

[tob]

aye,my lot ride out on the hill behind the field on their own or down the track and round the wee hill,no traffic except my OH!but only oldest grand daughter who is 9 and riding since she could sit on a pony,and the farm kids,13,12,and 10.they have lots of mishaps they deal with,when its just them and ponies fine,but the roads are a different matter,some roads you wouldnt allow a child to cycle on never mind ride,throw a car into the equation driven by a teenager just passed his test,eek!

[geeup]

so you issue is not with every child who hacks alone, because I teach children and the teaching proffession is fed up of the anger problems that come into school becuse children don't get enough adventure time these days, its a huge social problem and is runing schools and education. The entertain me whilst I mess around group of kids who can't work with other children and quiver with fear at any thing physical. Your upset about two particular children because in your opinion they can't ride.

[gypsycob]

I have double standards on this issue - I like my kids to learn, get muddy and have fun (they need to do that IMHO) but I control the danger as much as I can.... that big internal/maternal battle between wanting to wrap them in cotton wool and giving them life experience (my girls are 4 and 8).
But when I was a child my mum wasn't nearly so worried and to be frank I often wonder how I made it through childhood at all - but I have some great memories (that my children won't have ) I wasn't lucky enough to have a pony as a child but if I did I would have hacked on the roads and much worse I dare say.
There was a thread on here not so long back about all the insane things people did on their horses when they were younger and included cantering while sitting backwards, swapping horses with friends while the horsse were moving, riding bareback in a bikini with no hat, untacking horse while cantering.... loads of truely horrificly scary things for anyones child to do - but truely wonderful memories for the people lucky enough to have been afforded the freedom (and a big dollop of LUCK in many cases)

[atouchwild]

tob said:

how long were you riding before hacking out alone?

I was about 7 or 8, and had been riding about 3 years.

If the kids are normally on a leid rein then I can understand your problem with them riding on their own on the road!