Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2017 | Page 86

Equestrian
Trouble afoot on
Island roads
Anger, discontent and disgruntlement is brewing among the
Island’s normally peace-loving horse-riding community
Why? Well, it seems that
as soon as one of our
roads is re-surfaced under
the new PFI contract,
it’s instantly rendered
virtually unusable for
horses and their riders.
Whilst there may be some car
drivers now jumping with joy at
the prospect of horses no longer
being able to use the roads, the
reality is that this is a serious issue,
and affects not just the horse
riders, but motorists too.
The problem lies in the road
surface, which is proving extremely
dangerous, causing horses and
their riders to continually slip and
slide on roads once they’ve been
re-laid. Prior to the re-surfacing
work on the Island, there didn’t
seem to be a problem – but now
clearly it is. Horses can weigh up to
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a ton, so the last thing you want to
happen as a rider is for the horse
to slip and fall on top of you: this
could almost certainly lead to
serious life-threatening injuries or
in extreme cases, prove fatal.
There have recently been a
couple of serious incidents on the
Island where this has happened,
with one owner’s horse - Georgia
Hedley-Ward’s part-bred Arab,
Archie - sadly having to be put
down. So, what’s the problem? It
appears to lie in the type of road
surface being laid by Island Roads
under the instruction of the Isle
of Wight Council. Although the
road surface meets all the required
national standards for wheeled
vehicles, it seems that it fails to
meet the standards when it comes
to metal horseshoes.
We asked Island Roads to
comment and were told: “We
were very sorry to hear of Miss
Hedley-Ward’s incident and
we are conducting a thorough
investigation which has included
a meeting with Georgia and
her mother to establish the
circumstances. There have been
no previous reports of horses
slipping at this location, which
was resurfaced in October and
November 2016.
“While our investigation has
confirmed the skid resistance at
this location is above the required
level, the only industry and UK-
wide standard for measuring
skid resistance of carriageways
is based on vehicle tyres and
not a metal horseshoe. This was
among issues we discussed during
a Horse Forum held in 2014 in
Newport, which including national
and local British Horse Society
representatives, the Isle of Wight
Bridleway Group, the IW Council,
a national expert farrier and an
equine vet.
“We welcome our ongoing