Police are appealing for witnesses after a 19-year-old rider was involved in a hit and run while hacking in Suffolk on Thursday (19 December).
The rider sustained minor injuries but her horse is believed to have escaped unscathed.
The collision took place at 3.35pm on the B1078, Ipswich Road, in Charsfield, and the car is described as a blue/silver Mercedes.
Suffolk Constabulary is appealing for information after the driver failed to stop.
“Officers would like to speak to anyone who witnessed the collision or directly after it, or anyone who may have captured any dashcam footage of a silver/blue vehicle travelling between Wickham Market and Otley,” said a police spokesman.
Anyone with any information is urged to contact Suffolk Constabulary’s Roads and Armed Policing Team by quoting CAD 255.
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Last month the British Horse Society (BHS) published a hard-hitting video to address the importance of passing horses safely on the roads.
The short film was launched in support of road safety week (18 to 24 November) as part of the BHS’ “Dead? Or Dead Slow?” campaign.
The key messages of the campaign are to slow to a maximum of 15mph when passing horses, be patient, pass wide and slow, and drive slowly away.
The BHS urges all riders or carriage drivers to report all incidents they are involved in, regardless of severity, to the BHS’s horse accidents website.
More than 3,700 road incidents have been reported to the site since November 2010. In the same time frame, 43 people and 315 horses have died as a result of road incidents.
“If drivers adhere to our ‘dead slow’ key messages by slowing down and allowing enough space between themselves and the horse, then we can help bring this incident rate right down,” said BHS director of safety Alan Hiscox.
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Rachael joined Horse & Hound in 2014, initially as a digital sub editor then became part of the news team as a writer in 2015. The philosophy graduate studied journalism at the Press Association before working as a local reporter at the Brentwood Gazette. Rachael is now a mum of two and still loves all things equestrian, including hacking, dressage and jumping with her cob Bert. Rachael left the H&H staff to go freelance in June 2019, but still contributes to our magazine and website, as well as our sister magazine Country Life, among others.
