Failed Driving Test – One Serious Mistake

Learner driver, Samantha fail was looking forward to her driving test at Slough on Christmas Eve. She thought she was well prepared after taking a year of continuous driving lessons. Part of the Slough driving test route covers country lanes. The country lanes around Slough are a popular place to deal with horses.

Overtaking a Horse

Samantha spotted a horse rider along George Green Road and prepared to overtake. She moved slowly to the right side of the road and prepared to overtake. Unfortunately, she failed to spot the oncoming cyclist. Samantha panicked and started moving back to the left – towards the horse. Lucky of the horse, the driving examiner intervened. Horses, even when trained, are incredibly unpredictable animals.  Moving past them in your vehicle in the wrong way can be dangerous for you, the rider, and anyone else in the vicinity.

As a vehicle approaches a horse, the horse will be making a risk assessment of what is occurring. They’re “flight” animals, meaning they’re more likely to run from perceived danger than fight it. If your car approaches the horse from behind, the horse will undergo a variety of thought processes.

What May The Horse be Thinking

Firstly, your vehicle will be in the horse’s blind spot, however, it will hear the sound of it. Resulting in the possibility of the horse taking these options:

• Accept the risk, due to its training and trust in the rider. Experienced riders will have the horse’s attention, trust and respect
• Attempt to remove the threat by kicking the car
• Attempt to reduce the risk by kicking out and running in the opposite direction.
• Attempt to avoid the risk by suddenly moving to one side

You do not know which one of these options a horse will take, as they are all likely and depend on the horse itself, the rider, and the relationship between them. You cannot assume the horse will remain calm if you speed past it.

How Best to Approach a Horse

1. Slow right down to crawling speed and be prepared to sto[
2. Give them as large of a space as possible, a car’s width is ideal, and pass incredibly slowly.
3. Avoid any actions which are likely to frighten the horse. This can include: splashing them with puddles; revving the engine, and sounding your horn.
4. Look out for signals given out by the rider as advice on how best to pass.

Overtaking Horses – Useful Tips

• Both the rider and horse may be inexperienced, it may be their first time on the road. So it’s important to remain considerate and move past as slowly as possible if the rider seems nervous.
• A horse and rider will remain on the left even if they’re intending to turn right until they reach the turn. This is different from a vehicle or cyclist who moves over to the other side of the road before reaching the turn
• Riders often try to avoid complicated and difficult junctions like roundabouts. However, sometimes there may be no choice. Therefore, if you do see them there, expect riders to keep left and signal right to show that they’re not leaving. Slow down and give them as much room as possible.

DTC Driving Test Services

Samantha will be retaking her driving test very shortly at Slough. She has used the services of DTC UK to get an earlier driving test date rather than wait over 2 months. DTC UK guarantees earlier driving test date throughout the within 2 weeks or it’s free.

DTC UK even has dual control automatic and manual car available at all London test centre. All our car rental comes with an accompanying driving instructor. We wish Samantha the very best of luck with her next driving test at Slough.