21 April 2010

A big thanks...

| Blingerific
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To the horse rider(s) who were not only riding their horses on a shared path (ergo, shared by pedestrians and cyclists, no horses allowed) but then let them defecate all over it and didn’t bother cleaning it up.

In my years of living in Canberra that action really does sum up what I have come to expect of most horse riders…

[ED – have we finally found a cause to unite cyclist, motorist, and pedestrian in a common hatred?]

Horses crapping on public paths...

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LootenPlunder4:37 pm 07 Oct 11

preacher said :

captainwhorebags said :

Same rules for dog owners should apply to horse owners… if your animal craps in public, you have to clean it up.

I believe it’s a $50 fine if you’re walking a dog without a bag, or similar method to clean up. (Like that law would ever be enforced)
So for a horse it should be at least twice as big. Fine/poo ratio should apply to turd-size.

Lucky no-one has pet cows they take for a walk.

I’m going to feed my brontosaurus a big bowl of chilli then take him for a walk and see how people like it. Maybe down by lake BG on a Sunday afternoon?

Erg0 said :

Fisho said :

Yeah good one….. let off an air horn and potentially injure a rider.

WTF is up with Canberra…. it seems as soon as someone gets in the territory their brains and tolerance magically evaporate (and yes that includes horse riders)

Yet….. if you bumped into exactly the same people outside of Canberra, mountain biking, horse riding or whatever – you tend to stop and have a yarn, brew up a cuppa and its all good.

I think that people here are just very territorial.

(Sorry)

Including the horses. They are just marking their territory.

So maybe the cyclist should start covering the droppings with their own scent?

(I am sorry, but it is Friday afternoon and it is a silly topic.)

Fisho said :

Yeah good one….. let off an air horn and potentially injure a rider.

WTF is up with Canberra…. it seems as soon as someone gets in the territory their brains and tolerance magically evaporate (and yes that includes horse riders)

Yet….. if you bumped into exactly the same people outside of Canberra, mountain biking, horse riding or whatever – you tend to stop and have a yarn, brew up a cuppa and its all good.

I think that people here are just very territorial.

(Sorry)

I never get harassed by people asking me to clean up after my pet grizzly bear, so i’m not sure why they do it about horses.

To start with horses are allowed on shard paths unless it specifically says otherwise. Check your road rules!

Blingerific said :

Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Australian Road Rules Incorporation 2010 (No 1)

I know; the reason I asked the question was because I looked it up. It’s not that simple, because rule 288 (5) declares that riders of animals are exempt from the rule against driving on a footpath.

Possibly a bit late but, meh, a busy week.
calla
it’s just grass, it will wash away.
Um, no, it’s grass and all the other additives horse owners feed their animals to keep them healthy (molasses, calcium etc) mixed with bacteria and acids from the horses digestive system. You think its harmless? Then we’ll see what happens when you cop a load in your face shall we? Think really ugly eye infections and bad, bad diarrhea…

Jim Jones
Oh FFS, now all horse riders are terrible people too?
I used to think the same way until I tried to deal with them here in Canberra (and yes, I have had formal and informal dealings with these people via various infrastructure initiatives and trying to get them involved along with other interested groups).

Postalgeek
Dry your eyes, princess. What do you think people were stepping around for the last umpteen hundred years before the motor car came along?
We’ll just ignore the little thing about them breaking the law then? Oh ok, that makes it ALL ok then! Sorry to have bothered you…

random
Citation needed? Going by the Australian Road Rules, I’m pretty sure they’re allowed, but must give way to pedestrians.
Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Australian Road Rules Incorporation 2010 (No 1)
http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ni/2010-113/default.asp
Rule 242
(2) A shared path is an area open to the public (except a separated footpath) that is designated for, or has as one of its main uses, use by both the riders of bicycles and
pedestrians, and includes a length of path for use by both bicycles and pedestrians beginning at a shared path sign or shared path road marking and ending at the nearest of the following:
(a) an end shared path sign or end shared path road marking;
(b) a no bicycles sign or no bicycles road marking;
(c) a bicycle path sign or bicycle path road marking;
(d) a road (except a road-

Clow killer
So what sort of fine should ACT Labor be given for inflicting Stanhope on us?
Good call 🙂

Devil_n_Disquiz
Carry one of those mini air horn thingees. If a horse is on a path where it is not allowed to be,,,,a short sharp blast from your air horn in reasonably close proximity to the horses rear end should suffice.
That has to be one of the stupidest things I have ever read. And I read the Canberra Times once…

Fisho
Yet….. if you bumped into exactly the same people outside of Canberra, mountain biking, horse riding or whatever – you tend to stop and have a yarn, brew up a cuppa and its all good.

Well no, I have lived all over the country and generally speaking there is a good respect for various spaces. But when someone breaks the law they cop it. If they want to talk about access first then fine, make the call, grab a brew and chat, but that isn’t what is happening. And is a sign of what I see as a change of the modern times with people only thinking of themselves…

I’m surprised that someone didn’t come along with their trailer to scoop up the horse poop! It’s great stuff for gardens.

As a cyclist myself, I will just chuckle quietly at the folks getting all agitated about horse manure. As for people trying to compare horse manure to dog shit, would you stack spades full of dog shit on your garden? There is a distinct aromatic difference between herbivore poop and carnivore poop.

thy_dungeonman3:56 pm 22 Apr 10

Just so people know it’s not “just poop” it can be quite a hazard on a cycle path making it slippery and also unpleasant to breath when your in-taking so much air. There used to be quite lot in the underpass underneath hindmarsh drive where the parkway crosses over, as I recall it sat there for some weeks untill it rained enough. Of more concern is whoever left a severed kangaroo leg on that same path, now that really stunk.

+1 Fisho, I agree entirely.

Yeah good one….. let off an air horn and potentially injure a rider.

WTF is up with Canberra…. it seems as soon as someone gets in the territory their brains and tolerance magically evaporate (and yes that includes horse riders)

Yet….. if you bumped into exactly the same people outside of Canberra, mountain biking, horse riding or whatever – you tend to stop and have a yarn, brew up a cuppa and its all good.

Bring your horses to my house and let ’em crap on my lawn. I’ll water it in…

Clown Killer said :

Fine/poo ratio should apply to turd-size

So what sort of fine should ACT Labor be given for inflicting Stanhope on us?

No fine. Someone is usually assigned to clean up his messes, or it’s denied there was any mess in the first place, despite the fact that you can see a huge arse.

Devil_n_Disquiz3:15 pm 21 Apr 10

Carry one of those mini air horn thingees. If a horse is on a path where it is not allowed to be,,,,a short sharp blast from your air horn in reasonably close proximity to the horses rear end should suffice.

People evidently have horses in Sydneyland too. In fact right next to my workplace in Matraville is a fenced-off area where people can graze their horses. Across the road from that is a large expanse of parkland where people often ride them. That said, I haven’t seen them anywhere else yet, maybe it’s an unusual arrangement

Clown Killer2:59 pm 21 Apr 10

Fine/poo ratio should apply to turd-size

So what sort of fine should ACT Labor be given for inflicting Stanhope on us?

Oh shit………

Thanks for that concept, Preacher. Suddenly I want a pet triceratops, just like the one in Jurassic Park! Think your pony leaves a big poop on your path? Quake in fear after BimboGeek takes her triceratops for a walk on Black Mountain! Mwahahahahahaha!!!

captainwhorebags said :

Same rules for dog owners should apply to horse owners… if your animal craps in public, you have to clean it up.

I believe it’s a $50 fine if you’re walking a dog without a bag, or similar method to clean up. (Like that law would ever be enforced)
So for a horse it should be at least twice as big. Fine/poo ratio should apply to turd-size.

Lucky no-one has pet cows they take for a walk.

The whole site’s a bit scatological today.

There are horse paths that are made out of dirt and therefore much gentler on the horse’s feet and also a better place for the horse to take a poop. If your animal poops on concrete or asphalt or recycled rubber or whatever they make paths out of, then you should have to clean it up!

I’d personally extend this to dedicated hiking trails headed to the top of mountains because even if made out of dirt, they are still rather artificial and experience high traffic (and joggers who are exercising rather than exploring), but on the gentle slopes for just wandering around and exploring, well you should just have to expect poop there! I mean kangaroos will hop along those gentle paths anyway, and nobody gets upset when they poop!

Poop poop poop poop! Somebody post another rant about poop so I can keep typing “poop”!

In 1894, the Times of London estimated that by 1950 every street in the city would be buried nine feet deep in horse manure. I think they banned horses.

Horse poo was a major, major problem in pretty much every major capital of the world at the turn of last century. See here for a discussion of the problem Thumper has alluded to, in New York. There’s also a nice discussion in Superfreakonomics, the followup to Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner. Both are great books (if flawed in some arguments).

Oh, and the solution to the great flood of horse poo through the cities? No-one could think of one. But, the problem fixed itself with the invention of the car!

🙂

And do horse riders have to dismount before walking across a pedstrian crossing???

This post is funny ! If all you have to comment on is a bit of horse manure then there is not much happening that‘s for sure.

The ability for people to have horses in Canberra is one of the many benefits of living in this city.

Don’t worry you could eat it and it would not hurt you, unlike dog or cat poo. Its good stuff, try composting it for your garden.

Come on horses keep that fertiliser coming!

wait, it isn’t at all clear – was the horse riding a bicycle?

grunge_hippy12:12 pm 21 Apr 10

a colleague goes walking up in the horse paddock area between kambah and chapman and got yelled at for getting a few paddies for her garden as compost.

problem solved… grab a shovel and put it on your garden for free!

shit happens. They should have gone before they left… okay, enough with the piss poor (and obvious) jokes…

It’s not so hard to avoid and it isn’t as hard to remove nor smelly and unpleasant as dog poo. I kind of wonder why horses are on concrete paths or cycleways though, surely most agistment is on the edge of suburbs, where, presumably, tracks are more easily accessible?

Inappropriate11:00 am 21 Apr 10

Buzz2600 said :

Wow…. its chewed grass for ch**st sake …. get over it.

Can I let my vegan friend take a dump on your driveway then? It’ll be just chewed organic natural food.

“(ergo, shared by pedestrians and cyclists, no horses allowed)”

Citation needed? Going by the Australian Road Rules, I’m pretty sure they’re allowed, but must give way to pedestrians.

Now if the horse managed to poo on a cyclist just as they passed (excuse the pun), that would be interesting…….

Dry your eyes, princess. What do you think people were stepping around for the last umpteen hundred years before the motor car came along?

Wow…. its chewed grass for ch**st sake …. get over it.

The horse poo your path is possibly a symbolic gesture to all you inconsiderate unbelieveable intoleratant cyclists the horse has had to put up with over the years.

calla said :

it’s just grass, it will wash away.

Or you could say ‘its just poo, it will wash away’ the question is WHO will wash it
away, the riders? I think not, lazy buggers.

Oh FFS, now all horse riders are terrible people too?

I agree, Blingerific, Horse riding should be banned.

Clown Killer9:04 am 21 Apr 10

Same rules for dog owners should apply to horse owners… if your animal craps in public, you have to clean it up.

It’s a slippery slope though. If we as a community are going to single out certain individuals who are no longer allowed to externalise the cost of their waste (dog poo, horse poo etc) then where will we end up? next you’ll be having idiots claiming that motor vehicle emmisions are bad and need to be cleaned up and that all road users will need to bear the cost … oh, wait a minute

it’s just grass, it will wash away.

captainwhorebags8:39 am 21 Apr 10

Same rules for dog owners should apply to horse owners… if your animal craps in public, you have to clean it up.

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