Police pulled over 40 drivers in just over an hour for passing a horse too close and too fast.
Greater Manchester Police’s mounted unit spent a day on Slag Lane in Leigh, where a rider was injured on the road this year.
PC Matthew Hill from the force said they were “disappointed” with the way so many drivers passed them in such a short time.
The operation, on 14 November, was part of a joint “safer pass initiative” in partnership with the British Horse Society (BHS).
“The location of the initiative was chosen owing to an incident where a young girl was injured when she was knocked off her horse in September,” said PC Hill.
“We were disappointed to see so many cars pass us closely and at speed in such a short amount of time, but it was a great opportunity to speak to the drivers and educate them on the dangers of their actions.
“The damage speeding cars can cause not only to themselves, but to both the horse and rider, can be fatal and we want to reduce these incidents.”
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He added that more operations are planned in an effort to make roads safer for horses and riders.
“We were contacted by the riders involved in this incident and we’re really grateful that we have been able to work with GMP’s mounted unit to put together a safe pass initiative in the area to raise awareness among drivers on how to safely pass horses on the road,” said BHS director of safety Alan Hiscox.
“We would encourage any riders to report any incident to the BHS horse accidents website, as we can use this information to implement initiatives like this.”
Since November 2010, 1085 riders have been injured on the roads, with 43 losing their lives. The respective figures for horses are 945 injured and 315 deaths.
A total of 3,737 road incidents have also been reported to the BHS’ incident reporting site in the same time frame.
Devon and Cornwall, South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire police forces are among the other branches to have teamed-up with the BHS to educate drivers in a similar way.
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Lucy is an experienced news journalist, reporter and presenter. Since joining the Horse & Hound team in 2015, Lucy has reported from major global sporting events including the Tokyo Paralympic Games and multiple European Championships, as well as Badminton, Burghley and London, to name a few. She has covered current affairs and sports news across the full spectrum of equestrian disciplines and racing, as well as human and equine welfare, industry news and court cases.
