Riding Road Safety with Ambassador Jenna Hastings

03 Jul Riding Road Safety with Ambassador Jenna Hastings

This is becoming a much-discussed topic at the moment and I’d like to give you some of my top tips for staying safe when out and about. As someone who is forced to use roads for her own hacking, I try to keep myself and my horse as safe as possible.

• Always wear high visibility clothing. This may seem like a given; however, a lot of people still don’t do this. I would even say it doesn’t matter how much or how little you wear – something is better than nothing. It is a well-known fact that drivers can see you much earlier with hi viz on than without. I also always have in the back of my mind that if anything happened to me where I ended up parting company with my horse and hurting myself, I’m far easier to spot in hi viz than without
• Be courteous to other road users. People are far more likely to be respectful if you are considerate and thankful towards them. Always say thank you, try and give way to traffic when you can and try to avoid areas/times of day where you are going to cause a lot of disruption by being on the road. Sometimes it is unavoidable to not use busy stretches of road but by planning your timing of using them you can keep yourself safer and keep other road users happier
• Don’t be afraid to use your hand signals! If you need someone to slow down or stop and wait for whatever reason, be bold and use your hand signals. It is something all road users need to know and they should be respected. Don’t feel like you need to let traffic by whatever the consequences – it is always better for someone to wait a couple of minutes to keep everyone safe
• If you are involved in an incident or a near miss, please report it. The BHS is working hard to obtain a better understanding of what horse riders face every day when they are using roads. Without your information, they can’t do this
• Use a camera. These are becoming more common place across all areas of road users with dash cams and body cameras used by drivers, cyclists and horse riders. It is something that will help in the event of an incident happening on the road and gives an unbiased view of events – it can greatly help in any claims made by any road user and will assist the police if they need to become involved
• Get involved in a pass wide and slow campaign. Education is everything when it comes to sharing the roads and the more, we can spread the word of keeping everyone safe and happy the better!

Jenna Hastings