Having ridden on horses on roads frequently since I was young, I have to agree with most of the sensible views. Some of the horses I have ridden can be seriously spooked by anything from buses, lorries, vans, cyclist, even a lamppost or anything on the road!!
Even an experienced rider will have a hard time controlling a spooked horse but they should be able to anticipate a situation when it is likely to occur and be able to bring the horse under control without endangering other roadusers- otherwise they shouldn’t be on the road.
Whenever I`ve been on my bike trying to pasting a horse I always try to assess the rider and horse to see if horse is likely to get spooked - tell-tell signs are if the horse tries to look behind where you are, if it doesn’t look bothered I go past slowly with a wide berth, if it is spooking I pull back and wait until the rider pulls off the road before passing with the clutch pulled in if safe to do so.
Karl
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