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Riding and Road Safety - Achievement Badge

The Pony Club Road Sense Achievement Badge aims to make children aware of the hazards and dangers of riding on the road. It also teaches us how to be safe and courteous when riding in traffic. This is one of few achievement badges where we ride our ponies. It is also so important that we arrange for a Riding and Road Safety instructor from the BHS to come and teach us. Our last training day for this achievement badge was on the 19th October at Peckleton, here's how we got on:
 

The first part of the achievement badge is carried out un-mounted. We started off by talking about how you can make you and your pony look more visible on the road.....which one of these two riders can you spot easier? We quickly agreed that when riding on the road, you will be much more easily spotted if you and your pony are wearing a fluorescent/luminous bib and light coloured gloves, saddle cloth, girth, hat silk, reflective/luminous leg bands etc.


We then set up some cones and road signs in the yard and then walked through some junctions, practising how we would negotiate each if we were on our ponies:

Before riding off or turning, ALWAYS look behind you to make sure it is safe...

...then make a clear arm signal showing which way you intend to go...

...then make a final check before moving off or turning
 

To practise what we have learnt, we set up a route of junctions and obstacles (including a parked car and something that the ponies may spook at):

When you ride out, you should always make sure you know where you are going (and that someone else knows too!), so we walked the route first on foot...

...then we tacked up, making sure that our tack fits correctly and is safe, and that both us and our ponies can easily be seen by drivers...

...we must always ride out with an adult and never on our own.

 

Once we were tacked up and Rose had given us a final reminder of how to negotiate obstacles, we then practised riding round the course.

One of the obstacles we had to get past safely was something that our ponies may spook at. When we see something they may spook at, we first do a check over our shoulder to check if someone is about to overtake us. We then turn the ponies head away from the object (using our outside rein and leg).

 

After lots of practising, we then rode the route on our own and Rose assessed us to make sure that we were able to ride safely.

We all passed and our lovely DC came and gave us our badges (cue groans from parents at the thought of more stitching!).

Well done to everyone who took part, and thank you to Rose for providing the excellent training and to the Palmers for providing the venue....