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I try and adopt a "whatever floats your boat" attitude to it and I do try to be as considerate as possible (see below) and usually it goes as did my first horsey encounter of the weekend, exchange hellos, the horse rider(s) are generally appreciative that you've slowed down or let them know you are approaching etc and everyone gets on with their day and their chosen activity.
My original post maybe came across a bit arrogant and gave the impression that I would be happy to just tear past horses with little regard for them or their rider but I assure you that's not the case.
I'm happy to share the countryside and as a motorcyclist I'm particularly aware that a horse could be spooked by the noise of the bike (though my bike is not loud in the slightest, fuck knows what happens if you're riding a horse and a harley passes). If I meet a horse on a narrow road I'll often stop and kill the engine and allow horse and rider to pass me at their pace. Similar story on the mountain bike, if I come across a horse on a path, might as well just pull over and grab a drink and allow them to do their thing.
I do think though that if you're gonna ride your horse down the middle of the road, you should know which side of the road to move over to and you should be able to deal with very slow moving cyclists who don't want to, or choose not to, talk to you.
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M_V
I have wondered this. I should preface this with the fact that I'm pretty ignorant of horse things and that I do, of course, slow down and pass horses very carefully on my bike and in my car.
I have often found myself wondering where the pleasure lies in sitting on a horse walking at 5mph down the road.
Do they just use roads to get between fields where they can run about and jump over stuff? Or is the plodding along a road bit as good as it gets?