A HORSE rider who was ‘verbally abused’ by a driver while out on a hack has urged road users to have more patience.

Rachael Colton, from Barrhead, was out on a quiet hack with a friend on the back road between Neilston and Uplawmoor, when a man driving a Honda CR-V revved his engine and had “no intention” of slowing down.

And despite the mum-of-one signalling to the driver to slow down, he drove closer to her and her horse, Honey, and shouted towards her.

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Rachael said: “It is a bendy road and I understand people drive quickly but this man had absolutely no intention of slowing down even after spotting us on a long stretch of clear road.

“I signalled for him to slow down and I moved out further onto the road as the horses would have landed on his bonnet had I let him fly past at this pace.

“When I moved in, he revved his engine loudly pulling close enough to my horse that I could have touched him with my leg and he rolled his window down giving me a mouthful. He sped off narrowly missing us.

“What made it even worse is that I was wearing a hi-visibility jacket saying, ‘young horse in training’.”

Rachael is now urging drivers to respect and be patient with riders out on public roads.

She added: “Please treat me and every other road user with the respect and patience you would expect for your own loved ones by slowing down to 10 to 15mph max and passing wide.”

A police spokesman confirmed the incident, but said officers had “not established any criminal offences”.

He added: “We are going to make attempts to speak to the driver to remind him of the importance of correct behaviour around horses.

“Drivers do need to be mindful when they are on rural roads, in terms of their driving.

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“We contacted our colleagues at the Mounted Branch to see if there is anything that can be done in relation to the Lose The Blinkers! campaign.”

The annual road safety initiative was launched by Police Scotland in 2017, in partnership with the British Horse Society after 3,737 incidents, with 315 horse fatalities, 43 rider fatalities, 945 horses injured, and 1085 riders injured, had been recorded since 2010.

The British Horse Society found that 73 per cent of incidents occurred because cars were passing too closely to horses, 31 per cent were due to vehicles passing too quickly, while 32 per cent of riders reported road rage.

Alan Hiscox, Director of Safety at The British Horse Society, said: “We encourage all road users to be courteous and patient with one another whilst sharing the roads.”