Who is liable for damages when a car overtakes a horse rider and the horse is spooked?

As my mum, grandmother and sister are all horse people, I would say the driver. Always pass slow and wide around horses.

My dad went past a horse on his motorbike. My mum is a horse person so he went very slow and wide. Horse spooked right across the road and sent him flying, he broke a few ribs and lost the feeling in his foot from nerve damage.

The case is still ongoing, think it is a bit of a grey area, not helped by the horse rider lying through her teeth!

Will let you know of any developments :)

my opinion would be the horse rider but thats my personal opinion....not being funny, they dont pay road tax so stick to the bridle ways etc and get off the roads potentially causing accidents!!!! only use of a horse is in a glue factory anyways!!!

pretty sure it says in the highway code that you should pass slowly so its probably the car drivers fault =(

its the horses fault...

My dad went past a horse on his motorbike. My mum is a horse person so he went very slow and wide. Horse spooked right across the road and sent him flying, he broke a few ribs and lost the feeling in his foot from nerve damage.

The case is still ongoing, think it is a bit of a grey area, not helped by the horse rider lying through her teeth!

Will let you know of any developments :)

Well in that case nobody can be put to blame really. Your dad passed slow and wide as he should, the rider couldn't do anything; The horse just freaked out. I know someone who goes into a complete panic attack when she see's a frog, nobody can explain it and she can't help it. It's basically the same thing.

Also, Sean, lets not turn this into a one sided, stupid & pointless horse/rider bashing thread, yeah?

Edited 3 July, 201115 yr by MattLoaf

Also, Sean, lets not turn this into a one sided, stupid & pointless horse/rider bashing thread, yeah?

pretty sure my argument isnt one sided, stupid or pointless.....I'm sure the police would actually blame the driver not the rider if there was an accident as thats the way it goes and I've put both sides up....its just my own personal opinion which is against horses, and as someone who has a hell of a lot of friends that own and ride horses, I'm entitled to it

i think i would be arguing that if a horse is that easilly spooked, then it shouldnt be used on the road. they should have to pass a road-worthyness test imo! Get a lot of horse riders out my way and whilst most cause not probs at all, theres always a couple of them who don't have any control over their animal.

Sadly though I think the motorised road user will get the blame, they usually do.

Surely it's the horse's fault - if it's spooked by cars, don't take it places where there are cars... common sense really...

pretty sure my argument isnt one sided, stupid or pointless.....I'm sure the police would actually blame the driver not the rider if there was an accident as thats the way it goes and I've put both sides up....its just my own personal opinion which is against horses, and as someone who has a hell of a lot of friends that own and ride horses, I'm entitled to it

I didn't say your points were one sided, stupid or pointless, I mean that the last thread about horses just ended up with people whining about how it made their car dirty.

i think i would be arguing that if a horse is that easilly spooked, then it shouldnt be used on the road. they should have to pass a road-worthyness test imo!

The thing is that horses can get spooked by strange things. One of my mums horses gets spooked by a flag that waves outside an ATV dealer near here but it's totally fine with cars passing it.

Surely it's the horse's fault - if it's spooked by cars, don't take it places where there are cars... common sense really...

Read the rest of the thread, it was a bike that spooked the horse so it was probably the louder noise.

Not all road incidents can be blamed on one party, accidents do happen and I think this incident is simply an accident.

Surely it's the horse's fault - if it's spooked by cars, don't take it places where there are cars... common sense really...

Read the rest of the thread, it was a bike that spooked the horse so it was probably the louder noise.

Not all road incidents can be blamed on one party, accidents do happen and I think this incident is simply an accident.

I think not...

Who is liable for damages when a car overtakes a horse rider and the horse is spooked?

I was replying directly to the OP...

Edited 4 July, 201115 yr by Duey

Surely it's the horse's fault - if it's spooked by cars, don't take it places where there are cars... common sense really...

Read the rest of the thread, it was a bike that spooked the horse so it was probably the louder noise.

Not all road incidents can be blamed on one party, accidents do happen and I think this incident is simply an accident.

I think not...

Who is liable for damages when a car overtakes a horse rider and the horse is spooked?

I was replying directly to the OP...

Oh woops, because how Dan explained his dads incident I just assumed it was the OP explaining what happened. My mistake.

Depends how you were driving if you got witnesses to say you took the necassary precautions to avoid spooking the horse then you should have a leg to stand on in court, the horse rider will lie cos you frightened her fragile tone of meat.

Horses are pussies shouldnt be on the road full stop, there usually on b roads where people on the other side of the road are driving like twats anyway makin it hard to take over especially when you got a sports cat on the back cant go over 2000rpm without making noise

I'm sick of all the V-signs I get. Don't get me wrong, I met some nice people that ride horses. I just find it a bit strange that they ride horses on the roads when they shouldn't own a horse if they don't have the space for it to run around. Even if I take precautions, and go past at like 5mph they get on their high horse (excuse the pun).

So the main reason I start this thread is when I finally flip and race past one in the same way that I overtake a car and it goes and fucks someone's property up, that I'm not liable. Anyway, the argument that the it's not the rider's fault because the rider can't do anything about it is like saying "not my fault that i ran into the back of someone because my brakes failed". Or even if my dog bit someone, I am still liable for damages.

I mainly feel like doing it when I'm in a queue of traffic and the cars ahead are going slow as crap past them and they still get flipped off, and you can see the rider getting red in the face from cursing at the drivers.

Horses are terrible people.

Also - http://theoatmeal.com/story/eat_horses

Edited 6 July, 201115 yr by Polio

I dont like horses.

they're just far too big.

Horses have massive wangs. Just saying.

My dad went past a horse on his motorbike. My mum is a horse person so he went very slow and wide. Horse spooked right across the road and sent him flying, he broke a few ribs and lost the feeling in his foot from nerve damage.

The case is still ongoing, think it is a bit of a grey area, not helped by the horse rider lying through her teeth!

Will let you know of any developments :)

Well in that case nobody can be put to blame really. Your dad passed slow and wide as he should, the rider couldn't do anything; The horse just freaked out. I know someone who goes into a complete panic attack when she see's a frog, nobody can explain it and she can't help it. It's basically the same thing.

Also, Sean, lets not turn this into a one sided, stupid & pointless horse/rider bashing thread, yeah?

Which is why horses shouldn't be allowed on the road.

Taking away personal opinion for a second and looking at a often over looked fact in these types of threads, horses are frightened by loud noises which can often lead to them freaking out, damaging themselves, the rider, cars and pedestrians.

Now back to opinion, keeping the above in mind why do the riders then take these animals on to busy and noisy roads? You wouldn't take your friend who goes into a panic at the site of a frog to a frog farm would you, so why take a horse to a place that its gonna be surrounded by things that its scared of?

Horse riders are selfish bastards (i only use the b word because the site won't let me use the c word) who put their enjoyment over the safety of others, including the horse. What do you think the horse would rather be doing, trotting around a open field where it can run and get some proper exercise, or walking along busy roads with constant noise, pollution and fear?

I live on an estate that has fields and green ways running all the way through it, you can get pretty much any where only having to cross the odd road if you wanted, yet where do the horse riders choose to ride? That's right, around the tight road ways avoiding all the fields

Any one that gets so bored riding a horse around a field should maybe come to terms with the fact that maybe horse riding isn't for them?

And don't even get me started on horse shit being dumped all over the road or retarded riders riding two abreast making it impossible to pass slow and wide because they are taking up most of the road. They then throw you the obligatory evil for passing too close, fucking knob jockeys.

Horses are just very stupid animals (and no, nodding a certain amount of times in return for a treat isn't a sign of intelligence) and only do as the rider makes them so they have an excuse. The riders on the other hand have no excuse for their stupidity.

I love threads about horses

I must admit, now this probably makes me an evil person, I'll happily creep past at 5mph on the opposite side of the road, but seem to have developed a tendency where if they don't thank me or at least acknowledge the fact that I've gone out of my way just so they can ride, sometimes two abreast, on what is usually a pretty busy road, I will happily drop to 1st and give them some VR6.

If you grab a horseeys top lip it goes into a trance. Troo fax.

Edited 8 July, 201115 yr by User ID

I'm quite happy that my thoughts are shared and it's not just me

mabye instead of passing slow and wide,you could play music the horse likes and give it a j so it chills the fuck out instead of spooking haha

so basicaly you flew past the horse like a prick and it spooked, you got what was coming to you, will be the horse thats liable for damages but it was clearly your fault

suck a chode!

I crawl passed horses as quietly as possible but the odd few to get pretty spooked even then, in some cases overtaking is not an option as the horse is skipping all over the place.

One thing is that almost all of these horse riders have no sort of public liability insurance, if they lose control of the horse and it smashes up your property then its going to be a lengthy court battle for any compensation.

Edited 10 July, 201115 yr by Cymro