'Horses are not machines' warns road safety rider

A horse rider from Cornwall has created a video aimed at helping drivers understand how to safely pass a horse on the road.

Verity Perry, of Rosevidney Livery Stables near Penzance, said she understood how important it was that "we all understand each other a little better."

The video was created to raise awareness of the danger from vehicles riders faced when hacking.

Devon and Cornwall Police has urged anyone who has dashcam footage of issues to report it to them within 10 days.

Perry said that she had seen first hand how rural roads had become busy with cars, lorries, farm traffic and cyclists.

In the video she said: "In the United Kingdom there are approximately 1.8 million horse riders using our roads everyday.

"We are not asking for special treatment but we are asking for drivers to pass us at a sensible pace and a sensible distance - 10mph (16km/h) maximum and a 2m (6ft 6in) gap.

"Horses are not machines, they are in fact a prey animal and will react as such. Regardless of the best training, regardless of every owner's best efforts - sometimes things go wrong."

Speaking to BBC Radio Cornwall, Perry said that during her HGV training, there was "very little" focus on horses.

"The size of the vehicle is very intimidating to a flight animal, so we do the very best to train our houses - quite often we would put the younger horse on the inside.

"Some road users may think we are being obnoxious and just taking up room, but we are actually training the younger horse to copy the experienced horse's behaviour on the road.

"It is very easy for a horse to panic and spin, then run away from a big vehicle - that is the biggest problem I think.

"We don't have the network of bridleways down here - we have to ride on the road for certain amount of time before we can get off road.

"But, I can tell you all riders want to be off road."

Rural affairs officer PC Lucy Wyatt said: "We run something called Operation Snap - which is where you can submit footage directly to us via the Devon and Cornwall Police website.

"When submitting it is really important that the registration number of the vehicle is included, submit it as soon as possible no longer than 10 days after the incident.

"It tends to come down to speed and unfortunately being too close to them, causing them to have nowhere else to go."

She added: "We had 43 submissions through Operation Snap in relation to equine users between April 2025 and March 2026.

"53% resulted in positive action, so it is quite a good result really."

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