Flourescent Exercise Sheets - Yellow or Pink

[Tangle]

OK - for my next thread :o

Hopefully Fifi will be going out on the roads soon, although probably in-hand or long reining for the moment working up to ridden once we know she's a bit less spookey.

I think she'd look lovely in pink (cue Alex ;)), but OH reckons yellow is much more visible and therefore much safer. Anyone have any thoughts?

Oh - and a piccy to help you decide :D

[makebelieve]

I think pink would look adorable on her! :D

I think either could work, as they're both bright and fluorescent.

[aliw]

PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK

[Showjumper]

Yellow's good on roads - people see it and think "Police Horse" whereas with pink, they could be too busy going, "I wonder what's happening over there?"

I think yellow is recommended for built up areas, and pink for countryside (so you don't blend in).

[shirley]

She is beautiful - yellow would be better and make her seen. Why not try your own research. Could you borrow anyones pink and green things and then put them against her and go and look from a distance and see which looks brighter on her.

[Mossy]

I had a horrible experience involving a pink fluorescent exercise sheet and i have never forgotten it. I was driving on a dark narrow country lane and saw a yellow fluorescent sheet ahead of me. "Horse!" thinks I and pulled out, thank God v. slowly. What I had not seen at all was the other horse with a pink sheet which was on the outside of the yellow one. Both horses were dark bay and the riders had dark jackets on. Disaster was narrowly avoided but I was sweating for a while.

[Tangle]

I think it's going to have to be yellow. At the end of the day the whole point of having flourescent gear is to be seen - and reading your comments I think yellow is probably a safer bet.

I'd love to be able to try the two colours on her, but I don't know anyone with a pink sheet.

She'll just like everyone looking at her :D

thanks, guys :)

[Wally]

Hold on, ages ago the road traffic police did some fairly in depth investigations as to the visibility of Saturn Yellow and Jupiter Pink for Hi Viz gear.

The conclusion was that you need to be in yellow for urban and suburban areas and Pink for rural areas. I have both and I really do think that the pink and orange show up far , far better in the hill that the dayglow yellow.

[Tangle]

Trouble is I need what's best for both - we have nice hacks, but have to do 10 or so minutes of road work (fairly busy road) before getting to the country lanes that lead to the bridleways. Plus the rural hacks require >2 hours - less than that and it's a meander round the fairly built up village.

Would orange be a good compramise (If I can find any)? Or should I put her in pink and me in yellow (that started out flippant, but might actually be a good idea :p)? Any thoughts?

[virtuallyhorses]

Yellow is definitely the most visible colour (even in non-flouro it is recognised as the most visible vehicle colour in dim light conditions)

As a driver - get the exercise sheet with the most reflective strips you can find. These show up first - then yellow (pink and orange are not visible in dim or night light) I drive in both urban and rural environs and certainly notice yellow more than other colours - but this may be affected by the background I guess.

A US Study (Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute) showed Fluro Yellow-Green to have the highest rating - Fluro Orange (which they call Fluro Coral) next and pink-purple last. They were investigating road sign colours and looked at a lot of driver factors that are relevant IMHO to riders like - braking and recognition and reaction times.

[Mossy]

Sorry to argue with accepted research but if you have pink and yelow next door to each other the yellow takes your eye in preference to the pink. I have never seen a pink sheet on it's own so to speak, but my after my experience it is yellow, with or without reflective strips, every time.

[virtuallyhorses]

I had a think about this on the way up to Imp this morning - I looked at the various people\signs\cyclists etc and evaluated them against the various backgrounds. I hadn't really considered Wally's situation of hill country.

The Fluoro Yellow\green definitely shows up best in every situation EXCEPT - bright sunshine glare against a light background - esp that weird fluoro colour grass and some bushes can go in the midday sun ( to be honest I don't think that I've ever seen the type of white light we have in the Sthn hemisphere anywhere in the UK ;) )

However, if you were concerned about riding into areas where hunting might be in progress or where you might be concerned about people searching for you if you were badly hurt (laying in the grass) - you should wear the orange and the horse the yellow. Both should have reflective strips if you will be in dim light conditions. You haven't said what sort of light conditions you may encounter or are most worried about.



BTW Here's a news article about Devon council (http://cms.3m.com/wcms/view.jhtml?ilRiuFP=1-0-171&langid=1) (its talking about a particular 3m product but it backs up our yellow + reflective theories)

[Tangle]

I'm thinking mix and match is probably best. The lighting is usually just your average dark, dingey English day, with the occasional bit of sunshine to stop us all getting too depressed ;)