New statistics released by The British Horse Society (BHS) has revealed that incidents involving horses and vehicles have increased by 16 per cent in Wales with 71 incidents reported to the charity during 2020-2021.

This comes despite lockdown restricting activity during the reporting period. Carmarthenshire saw the biggest increase, with almost a doubling of incidents.

While the number of incidents across the UK decreased by 3 per cent compared to the previous year, the number of incidents, the BHS said, are still worryingly high, especially considering the periods of lockdown which prevented riders from getting out over the last year.

However, the number of horses that died on Britain’s roads almost halved during the same period.

The BHS has collated incident statistics to understand the rate of incidents involving horses on UK roads.

Of the 1,010 reported, 80 per cent of them occurred due to vehicles passing by too closely and close to half were subject to road rage. The charity has launched a new free safety app, Horse i, which allows riders to report incidents as soon as they get back to the yard.

The charity is urging drivers to be careful when passing horses on the road and encouraging them to adhere to its Dead Slow campaign messages.

Dead Slow was launched to help better educate drivers on how to safely pass horses on the road. The campaign consists of four key behavioural change messages to drivers:

If I see a horse on the road then I will …

  • Slow down to a maximum of 15mph
  • Be patient – I will not sound my horn or rev my engine
  • Pass the horse wide and slow, (if safe to do so) at least a car’s width if possible
  • Drive slowly away

Alan Hiscox, Director of Safety at The British Horse Society said: “The number of incidents involving horses on Britain’s roads remain far too high, despite the time spent in lockdown over the past year.

"With 80 per cent of the incidents reported to us having occurred due to vehicles passing too close it is evident that there is still a great need for better education on how to safely pass horses on the road. It is also deeply concerning that close to half of riders were subject to road rage.

"We all have a right to feel safe on the roads and no one should face abuse for exercising this right. Only 1 in 10 people report incidents to us and we hope the new BHS safety reporting app, ‘Horse i’, will encourage more people to report these incidents to us.”

The new BHS safety app ‘Horse i’ is available to download for free from the Apple store and Google Play. Equestrians who do not use smart phones can record incidents via the online form at horseincidents.org.uk.

  • Carmarthenshire saw 11 incidents recorded in 2020-2021 compared to six in the year 2019-2020

National statistics: 2020 – 2021

•1,010 road incidents involving horses have been reported to The British Horse Society

•Of these, 46 horses have died and 118 have been injured

•130 people have been injured because of road incidents

•43% of riders were victims to road rage or abuse

•80% of incidents occurred because a vehicle passed by too closely to the horse

•41% of incidents occurred because a vehicle passed by too quickly