Does horse-riding require a cell phone 'hands-free' microphone?

JarvisMillan

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Mar 25, 2020
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Right, so this is what happened: as I was riding a horse around field next to my house which was part of my daily (once in a day) routine exercise and was on the phone with a friend. I then was approached by a police officer who told me….drum roll…. that I should not be out in due to the lockdown (…fair enough I suppose) and (b) that I should be using a hands-free device if I want to use my phone.

I mean seriously?! If there a law against speaking on on the pgone whilst riding !? Sounds incredible! It is not a car and I riding along the filed with no traffic in sight! Has anyone come across this before? I mean, what I think a more likely explanation was that the police guy was just not too happy to see me outside for what he considered to be a ‘non-essential’ reason, so that was just a pretext, nor did I want to really argue with him. But still…
 
Are you in the UK? My answer assumes you are.

As you no doubt know you are allowed out for daily exercise provided you exercise alone or with members of your household. Riding is an acceptable form of exercise, and indeed at least two police forces that I know of have specifically said riding is allowed. The police officer should have known this.

As for having to be hands free when you ride, well as far as I know it isn't a legal requirement but I have to say it would make sense. I don't talk on the phone when riding, I prefer to concentrate on my horse, and if someone calls and I need to answer I will halt long enough to answer and say I'll call back. That's just my take on phones and riding though. I guess if you were on the roads and they were being particularly difficult they could say you weren't in proper control/being negligent, but in a privately owned field I don't see that it's any of their business.
 
Yep I'd agree, nothing they can say if you're on private land. There's a law against driving on a phone but even that is only applicable on a public highway. Now should something go terribly wrong and a member of the public got hurt, even off the road, and they could prove you had been on the phone I suspect they would call it negligence and throw the book at you.
 
I think it could be classed as negligent if in any public place. If i have to answer the phone whilst on the horse i usually stop and make the horse stand. I try not to answer a call on the road. If i do i step off onto a pavement and stop or find a quiet side road.
If you are walking along you cant be fully aware of people or bikes coming up behind you. Especially if you are along a track or footpath.
If its on your own property i wouldnt think it would be an issue. But if its someone else private land it could be.
 
As for having to be hands free when you ride, well as far as I know it isn't a legal requirement but I have to say it would make sense. I don't talk on the phone when riding, I prefer to concentrate on my horse, and if someone calls and I need to answer I will halt long enough to answer and say I'll call back. That's just my take on phones and riding though.
Totaly agree. In the days when I hacked my old share, the girls from the polo yard were constantly on the phone while riding their ponies out. Often riding one and leading another.
It could possibly be a legal requirement on roads as a horse counts as a vehicle. But I cant lay my hands on my copy of the highway code. Maybe it went AWOL when grandchildren took their driving tests.
 
My phones on silent while I'm riding - only comes out for pics. As for not riding during lockdown, I'm afraid they can go whistle! You can ride a bike, do yoga, jog, skip, et al so we can certainly ride our horses, until it's officially deemed too risky.
 
Right, so this is what happened: as I was riding a horse around field next to my house which was part of my daily (once in a day) routine exercise and was on the phone with a friend. I then was approached by a police officer who told me….drum roll…. that I should not be out in due to the lockdown (…fair enough I suppose) and (b) that I should be using a hands-free device if I want to use my phone.

I mean seriously?! If there a law against speaking on on the pgone whilst riding !? Sounds incredible! It is not a car and I riding along the filed with no traffic in sight! Has anyone come across this before? I mean, what I think a more likely explanation was that the police guy was just not too happy to see me outside for what he considered to be a ‘non-essential’ reason, so that was just a pretext, nor did I want to really argue with him. But still…
hi. Whether or not we should be hacking is a moot point, and not a conversation I intend to get into. However it drives me nuts when I see folk hacking whilst on the phone. We are sat on sentient beings who can spook, and react with minds of their own. A car is a mechanical box which can do great damage if we’re not in control of it but it can’t think for itself. A horse can, so surely we should be more on the ball not less?
 
Are you in the UK? My answer assumes you are.

As you no doubt know you are allowed out for daily exercise provided you exercise alone or with members of your household. Riding is an acceptable form of exercise, and indeed at least two police forces that I know of have specifically said riding is allowed. The police officer should have known this.

As for having to be hands free when you ride, well as far as I know it isn't a legal requirement but I have to say it would make sense. I don't talk on the phone when riding, I prefer to concentrate on my horse, and if someone calls and I need to answer I will halt long enough to answer and say I'll call back. That's just my take on phones and riding though. I guess if you were on the roads and they were being particularly difficult they could say you weren't in proper control/being negligent, but in a privately owned field I don't see that it's any of their business.
Thanks for your response! Yes, it was near Derby (UK). I have calmed down a lot since then and ordered headphones for that exact purpose from Amazon.

I do agree that it is not a particularly sensible thing to do but my point was largely that as long as I am putting myself in danger of injury or worse and do not expose anyone else to risk, then it should be my and no-one else's affair. Especially away from any traffic or pedestrians.
 
I don't think that it is very sensible to be chatting away on the phone whilst riding your horse, but on your own land there is nothing to stop you.

How did you come across a police officer in a field? Sounds a very strange place for them to be.
Ironically, their car was parked on an adjacent road (also private) and I presume he saw me at some distance, as by the time I got to that road I was off the phone!
 
hi. Whether or not we should be hacking is a moot point, and not a conversation I intend to get into. However it drives me nuts when I see folk hacking whilst on the phone. We are sat on sentient beings who can spook, and react with minds of their own. A car is a mechanical box which can do great damage if we’re not in control of it but it can’t think for itself. A horse can, so surely we should be more on the ball not less?
I could not agree more and not trying to say that it was by any means a good idea or a sensible thing to do (nor is it something I do on a regular basis). That said, if it is not prohibited and the only risk is to myself (I suppose a view on whether a put anyone else at risk may differ, yet away from anyone in a field, the risk is negligible), it should not be the police' business ... that is my view.

Ultimately, what the laws are for, are not they? Otherwise, we would be told what to do and what not to do in an arbitrary way based on someone's perception as to what is right.
 
Off topic, ever so slightly, but relevant (I think). I've seen more police round our quiet corner of the world, in the last month, than I did when my car was vandalised, on my drive, (no-one even came out), or when ours and next doors barns were burgled, and feed, tools and hay stolen (no-one came out), or when 3 times (3!) Someone came into our field and took £300 worth of rugs of our horses backs (You guessed - no-one etc)
This petty policing is grating on me now.
 
@Huggy but it involves issuing fines now. So money for them. They dont get anything from attending some petty thieft callouts.
Police do a good job on some things so im not really knocking them, just trying to be light hearted under the current crisis.
 
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Off topic, ever so slightly, but relevant (I think). I've seen more police round our quiet corner of the world, in the last month, than I did when my car was vandalised, on my drive, (no-one even came out), or when ours and next doors barns were burgled, and feed, tools and hay stolen (no-one came out), or when 3 times (3!) Someone came into our field and took £300 worth of rugs of our horses backs (You guessed - no-one etc)
This petty policing is grating on me now.
Yeah, I am not the one to criticise the work of the police, as in reality as many other public bodies, they are understaffed and overworked, yet you might have come across an article in the Guardian, where the police was called in 30 (this is not a typo - THIRTY) times to a property whose tenant was engaging in all sorts of anti-social behaviour before they finally decided to take actions! I happened to know a poor neighbor of that property whose life was turned into hell-ish existence whilst all this was happening. It make matters worse, during the lockdown there isn't much of a choice but to stay indoors, so you can imagine the gravity of the 'trauma' inflicted on them.

So yes, I do agree that the is definitely a questions of the allocation of resources - it looks like reprimanding in an aggressive way someone who is talking on tone whilst riding is much higher in the priority list than, say, investigating burglaries and break-ins ....
 
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