A rider who was injured in a fall caused by a cyclist who came round a corner on the wrong side of the road said the incident is a reminder of the need to report and record – and for all road users to keep each other safe.
Emma Coleman has had some closure as the man responsible has been fined by police but she has suffered emotionally as well as physically as a result of his actions, and her young horse has lost confidence.
“It was horrific,” Emma told H&H. “I’d had Storm for a couple of months and we’d been doing lots of hacking. He was bold and really happy with life. And I’ll be honest, I haven’t been back on him since.”
“We were coming up to the brow of the hill and my friend said ‘There’s a bike’,” Emma said.
“You could see the rider’s helmet above the drystone wall. We were going two abreast, as you’re told to, but we always go single file round bends. So my friend was pulling over to come in front of me, and the bike came around the corner on the completely wrong side of the road, at speed.
“He passed a foot or so away from my horse, between the verge and my horse; that’s how much on the wrong side of the road he was. My horse swerved; there’s no horse in the world who would have taken that well.”
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Emma said Storm jumped, spun round and took off for home, dislodging her in the process.
“I came off on the left, hit the road, went down into the ditch and rolled up into the drystone wall,” she said. “Storm bolted for home – across a road. When something like that happens, you’re on adrenaline, and all I could think was ‘My horse, my friend’.
“I heard my friend shout ‘Get back’ and I said ‘Did he look back?’ My friend said ‘He looked back, and just cycled off’.”
Emma suffered concussion and a suspected fractured rib.
“The air jacket saved me,” she said. “I highly recommend anyone invests in one. I’ve got a bright yellow Hit Air and it would have been really painful if I hadn’t had that.”
Emma’s Go Pro hat camera was damaged but she managed to get the footage from it. She took a still from it and put it on local Facebook groups to try to identify the cyclist.
“He was identified as local and I believe he saw it and went to the police,” she said. “It went from there; I’m pleased he did the right thing and went in. He said he didn’t realise what had happened so I’ll have to give him the benefit of the doubt; I’m a glass half-full person.”
Lancashire Police confirmed to H&H that the cyclist was fined £50 for riding a bike on a road without due care and attention.
Emma said lots of people cycle in her area, including her husband, and she does not want to tar all of them with the same brush.
“I meet lots of really good cyclists; this was a freak accident,” she said. “The police did follow it through and I got a resolution, which I’m really pleased about. The Pass Wide and Slow campaign has been really supportive.
“There are people who don’t do things by the rules, and people who do. There are people who ride horses and bikes, and drive cars; it’s the person, not the group of people.”
Maximum 10mph
Emma said she believes some people do not realise just how slow 10mph – the recommended maximum speed for passing horses – is, but how fast a speed higher than this feels to a rider.
“It’s just so important what they’re doing with the PWAS campaign, and that we do our best too by wearing high-vis and being as careful as we can, but also that people understand that 10mph is a crawling pace,” she said, adding that everyone needs to take responsibility for keeping others safe.
“I could get home in my car and have had a normal drive, or I could have taken [out] someone’s mother or daughter,” she said. “There seems to be a lot of aggravation about ‘Get on the bridleways’ but all the bridleways are defunct or don’t go anywhere; I’d be more than happy to be off the road.”
Emma added that Storm is being rebacked but that he is now very scared of bikes; she wants to raise awareness of the effect they can have.
“It’s really important; if he’d have been in a group, my horse could have really injured another person,” she said.”And what shook me up emotionally more than anything is that if I’d been in a car, on that side of the road, I would have killed somebody.
“It was terrible. But also what I want is people to report everything; they don’t use the British Horse Society app to report incidents, or the PWAS campaign to help them. But [this issue] did go to parliament and they debated it, and if they’d had more stats it would have helped.
“As riders we get a bit ‘It’s happened again’, but no. Get a cheap head cam and wear it.I’ve bought a new one and I’m not leaving the house without it. It’s important.
“I’ve said I’ll organise a PWAS awareness ride, that’s my main call, and to report; it’s super easy on the app. And hopefully we can all have a bit more empathy for each other.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
