Horses

 

Horses

                                            Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

A colleague of Barry’s wanted to leave work early one Friday afternoon, because he was expecting delivery of a pile of horse manure and intended to spend the weekend working it into his garden soil. On the following Monday, Barry enquired how the work had gone. His colleague looked a little sheepish and said, ‘Well, it wasn’t there when I got home and when I ‘phoned the supplier (presumably the local stables) to ask where it was, he said it had definitely been delivered. We decided not to pursue the matter. I just hope the lucky recipient was pleased with his unexpected gift.’

There are a number of horse riders in our area and sometimes they have to access public roads, which always seems incredibly dangerous to me. Most car drivers know that they should pass wide and slowly. Sometimes it is impossible, without resorting to a horse box, to reach ground where horse and rider can exercise, without travelling on roads, even for a short distance.

From time to time there are spats on the local community Facebook page.

Today’s made me laugh. It concerned a complaint from a local resident that a horse had dropped dung outside her house. She had suggested that it would be courteous for the rider to knock on the door to alert the householder about the pile. She had posted a photograph of the offending article(s).

The initial sharp reaction was as follows: If you’re happy to stand by the path ready to hold a horse for a rider whilst they dismount so they can kick the poo to the side then I’m sure they’ll take you up on that offer. You’ll also need to give them a leg up to get back on the horse of course (or have a mounting block on standby). The law doesn't require equestrians to collect poo, partly because there's no practical way for them to do it, but also because it is just grass and water. It's just not realistic to expect a rider to dismount mid ride to clear it up, unless there is somewhere safe for them to tie their horse up and to mount again from.

 This was followed by someone commenting, ‘Hey! Get off your high horse!😊'

 The next person said, ‘Surely an inspiration for a local firm to start selling horse nappies?😉'

 The final reaction was, ‘Bloody horse riders don’t pay no road tax, slow us down when we’re trying to get somewhere and shit all over our roads.’😂😂😂'

There is always the voice of reason in these instances and sure enough someone posted a screenshot of the section of the Highway Code that refers to equestrians. Specifically, horses are not allowed on footpaths.   

I looked again at the householder’s photograph and lo and behold, the no longer steaming pile of dung was on the path outside her house. The thing is that I didn’t see the suggestion or complaint until after I’d seen the responses to it – a quirk of Facebook, perhaps - and initially I had thought the complaint was about dung on the road.

Years ago, on my way home from work, I regularly passed an elderly chap who lived in a ramshackle house near the road. I saw him many times with his bucket and shovel ‘clearing’ the road. Very good for roses, I believe.