Horse riders are calling for vulnerable road user recognition to allow for education and awareness of safety needs.
Horse riders are calling for vulnerable road user recognition to allow for education and awareness of safety needs.
Horse riding safety is being highlighted for the first time during Road Safety Week ahead of a visit to Parliament by advocacy organisation Pass Wide and Slow New Zealand.
Road Safety Week 2025 is on May 12-18 with the theme “Be a road safety hero“.
Between 2000 and 2019, 40 riders were killed while riding or driving a horse-drawn vehicle on the road, according to Health New Zealand figures.
“One death is one too many, but this degree of suffering is tragic,” Pass Wide and Slow founder Julia McLean said.
McLean is advocating for increased awareness and education around keeping safe when sharing roads with horse riders.
At present, horse riders are considered “other road users”, rather than “vulnerable road users”, which takes away protections. McLean will present to Parliament in the next few weeks to try to change this.
Julia McLean presented a petition to Parliament in October to get horse riders a vulnerable road user status. Photo / Adam Pearse
In October 2024, she submitted a petition with almost 9000 signatures, including an endorsement from the New Zealand Equestrian Advocacy Network.
“The vulnerable road user status is what I’ve identified as the crux of the issue in our transport legislation,” McLean said.
“We have no road safety messaging or awareness wrapped around us, so in my eyes we’re the most vulnerable road user in the country.”
Horse riders being considered vulnerable road users would allow information on how to approach and pass a horse on the road to be included in standard drivers’ education.
Horizons Regional Council road safety co-ordinator Val Overweel said being more careful around horses on roads was not complicated.
“Horses can frighten easily so it’s important to adjust your speed. It’s common sense really,” she said. “It’s a bit like when you go past a cyclist.”
To prevent horses from being scared, drivers are advised not to rev their engines, honk or speed past.
“It’s really about us as drivers taking care and giving them plenty of room, and going past slowly and quietly,” Overweel said.
Okoia’s Falling Creek Ranch co-owner, Mel Scott, said most drivers were respectful and passed appropriately but issues sometimes arose on beaches.
Mel Scott from Falling Creek Ranch urges horse riders to desensitise their horse before taking it on the road.
“We have incidents on the beach where we’re riding horses and people, especially motorbikes, don’t slow down to go past,” she said.
Scott urged horse owners to ensure they were doing everything to protect themselves and others on the roads.
“It sort of goes two ways because if someone is riding a horse that reacts to things then they shouldn’t really be riding on the road until they have desensitised their horse,” she said.
The process of desensitising a horse included exposing the animal to stimuli in a controlled environment, such as driving a vehicle with a trailer or loud engine past the horse on the owner’s property.
“Finding out your horse is afraid of something while you’re on the road is a dangerous situation to put yourself and other people in,” Scott said.
Overweel agreed, saying riders should “not take up too much room” on the road to allow vehicles to pass safely.
Commonsense was crucial and, like the organisation’s name, drivers should “pass wide and slow”, allowing 2m of distance when possible. When not possible, it was important for drivers to remain patient and not make any noise to startle the horse.
For more information and resources, visit passwideandslow.co.nz
Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.
