North Yorkshire Police Support Horse Safety Campaign

Horse-riders who choose to ride on the road should certainly consider high visibility clothing to ensure their safety, however, a long-running campaign is piling pressure onto motorists to make the roads safe for riders and their horses. 

The British Horse Society’s Dead Slow campaign is celebrating its fifth birthday this year, and North Yorkshire Police took up the mantle of supporting it at last week’s Great Yorkshire Show. The event, which saw nearly record attendance figures, saw police talk to visitors about how they should approach horses on Yorkshire’s rural roads. 

According to the North Yorkshire Police website, there have been 2,000 reports of road instances involving horses in the last five years, with 36 human casualties and 181 horses dying from their injuries or being put to sleep. 

PC Hannah McPeake from the force’s Rural Taskforce, said that fear of riding on the roads is a big problem for horse-owners: “This need to stop – horses and riders should be able to ride on North Yorkshire’s roads and feel safe. We are looking forward to working with the British Horse Society to help promote road safety and educate road users on how to pass horses safely.”

The BHS also recommend that all horse riders wear high visibility clothing when riding on the roads, no matter the time of day. They say that wearing high visibility can give drivers an extra three seconds of reaction time, which, when a car is travelling at 30mph, is the equivalent of a whole dressage arena in stopping distance!