Horse riding group accuse cyclists of being 'rude and aggressive'

I read "The New Forest Equestrian Association claimed..." and didn't really have to go much further.

I ride in the new Forest, both on and off road. I have never seen groups of cyclists travelling at speed or being abusive. I have only ever seen huge respect for horses from cyclists, we slow, give them notice and a wide berth, we talk as we approach rather than ring a bell which may startle the horse, we open and hold gates for them offroad etc.

The issues I see on the roads are from cars driving too fast and close passing. Often the worst offenders are in Land Rover Defenders. Those are driven by local people, not tourists. Off-road, I see cyclist being courteous and slowing for other path users, I see dog walkers who control their dogs when they see cyclists or horses around. Generally it is all very responsible and courteous and everyone is out to enjoy the forest and share with others, without getting killed by motorists. 

There are well marked off-road cycle paths, but part of the problem is that they don't join up across the forest. There's a bit here, another loop over there, which is all well and good if you want to just go for a short ride with the kids. But if you want to go further, or cross from one area of the forest to another it is often difficult as some paths & bridleways are not supposed to be used by cyclists - but why not? As the ground gets soft and boggy, the damage is done to these paths by horse hooves and walkers boots. Bike tyres actually seem to smooth the paths and make them walkable as they dry out, rather than ruin them. 

The verderers seem to blame everyone, the horsey types sometimes think they own the forest. We other users often make allowances for them as they round up the ponies or release the stallions, or pigs, and we are happy to do that, it goes with the territory. I probably speak for many recreational cyclists when I say we want access to the forest and would prefer not to use/damage open ground or heathland, but we would like to use some of the existing paths and bridleways without being discriminated against.

Literally never seen any irresponsible behaviour when passing horses up here (Yorkshire, Derbyshire). Everyone always slows right down and gives a friendly hello.

New Forest seems a different breed, mind. Perpetually annoyed about something

What's that crap about "almost silent ebikes"? Ebikes make the same amount of noise as an ordinary bike plus the noise of the motor. Clearly the complainers have registered the fact that concern has been raised about the danger presented by "silent" electric cars and decided to apply that same concern to ebikes without any thought or evidence, which does make one wonder how much of the rest of their diatribe is also made-up bollocks.

I suspect if you drew a Venn diagram of "members of the New Forest Equestrian Association" and "members of the Verders Court", you'd find there was a quite extensive overlap between the two circles... 

Quote:

 The NFEA said the situation has made serious accidents and narrow escapes 'a common occurrence' but said they thought the issues were based on 'ignorance' rather than 'malice'.

Genuinely interested if anyone has the stats on all these serious accidents caused by cyclists in the New Forest. Someone else has posted stats of Horses killed by drivers so they must be out there. 

It sounds like a really shit place to live.

This is all about the Horse riders, the Verderers, Walker etc getting cycling in the forest band again. It doesn't matter if these incident have happened or not, they'd happily just make them up anyway to gride their axe. 

I have some sympathy for "just don't care attitude" of some cyclists. That the same attitude that walkers used to get access to land. 

There's pillocks in all walks of life, and I actually doubt there is any correlation between mode of motion and pillockedness. Meet these people down the pub and I doubt you'd know which was which.

But tribal instincts run deep. Even between fellow motorist, if nobody is letting me out of a side street and there's cars waiting behind me, I start to feel common purpose with them and animosity towards the pillocks on the main road who won't let me out. Of course once on the main road the us&them evaporates. Its not rational.

I'd love to know what % of UK citizens ride horses compared to what % ride bicycles. I think that would be very interesting along with the demographics (such as household income)

58 ponies/horses killed in 2019 in the New Forest by vehicles. Zero by bicycles.
Yet these horse riders are complaining about bicyles.
Mind blown.
Shouldn't be so surprised as this in a nut shell is all anti cycling propaganda/arguements everywhere.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/four-ponies-killed-new-forest-national...

The biggest problem in the New Forest with MTB riding is poor signage. There are paths everywhere ranging from wide hard packed gravel (official designated routes) to well-used tracks across heathland which don't necessarily permit cycling. And then there are the tracks used by wildlife. There's no joined up routes meaning inevitably you have to cut across heathland. I challenge anyone to ride any bike across un-pathed heathland - it's all tuffets of heather, tussocks of grass, hidden boggy bits (called mires), gorse, and sand pits that would challenge the best CX rider. 

Muddy tracks simply aren't caused by MTB tyres, even fatties. It's commoners' vehicles, Foresty England loggers, and wildlife/livestock. I find it funny that the NFEA complain about a few bikers who are acting like dicks (and I've encountered them, and told them to stick to paths, particularly at this time of year because the nesting season has started) when there are regular pony roundups across open heath and point to point horse races which do far more damage than a few MTBers. 

For example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvZ57XMmCaA

(and, as a local, I have to say I have no issue with the horse racing, it's part of the culture and, guess what, the forest recovers...)

Hmm.
This all sounds like a load of anti-cycling nonsense.
Most responsible cyclists would support taking care around horses but would get pretty rankled by the complaint about churning up the ground. As others have said, the horses cause far more damage.

Any cyclist who doesn't slow down past a horse is just as likely to have little concern for other cyclists but this article just has cyclists as the bad guys.
A couple of cyclists, who appeared to be racing, once charged past my husband, myself and 8 year old on a bridleway - we'd stopped because there wasn't space to safely pass another family with young children cycling in the other direction. The fast lot didn't care - forced them out of the way too!

380 - 1000 kg horse v 15-20 kg bike
Obviously bike is far worse!

The only research I'm aware of about path erosion showed that boots did more harm than bicycle wheels, so it is inevitable that horses hooves will also do more damage.  While they stress that they aren't anti-cyclist, only ant-irresponsible cyclists, it might look better if they could actually get their facts right.