Did anyone hear about the loose horse on the M25 today?!

MrA

MrA

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Feb 8, 2012
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Guy was travelling solo with a youngster and the horse jumped the breast bar and exited out the jockey door on the M25!!

He then stood all alone holding the youngster on the hard shoulder while they used the overhead signs to close one lane and warn animal in road! And everyone just drove on past! Imagine how scary that must of been.

Luckily a passing horse box stopped to help out and dressed the horses bleeding leg and then the police showed up and asked if the man 'could ride the horse to the next exit' :eek:

Anyway horrible situation could of been alot worse and sounds terrifying! Thank goodness it didn't end in any horses being shot. Apparently the man holding the horse did a wonderful job keeping it calm. Amazing work by all involved I say!
 
A motorway incident was always my worst nightmare when we were towing all over, it's not even legal for anyone to stop and offer assistance. Typical response from the police, its not their fault they don't know any better. Glad to hear all ended up OK, very scary situation.
 
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It is jolly scary. Been there myself. We narrowly avoided an escaped cow on the motorway. I brought a cow and calf about 7 years ago from the market. I had an old horse box that someone had given me and it was our first time towing it. We were travelling down the M5 and I was aware there was some wind whip on the car. I looked out the side mirror to see the side door on the trailer open and a cow with its head hanging out. Scary. I shouted to mum that she needed to pull over so I could jump out and shut the side door. Mum was like I can't stop I'm on the motorway. I said you need to or we are going to have a loose cow on the motorway. So she pulls over onto the hard shoulder and slows down. I remember the car was still moving as I jumped out the passenger side and ran to swing the side door shut. It turns out that when the weight of cow and calf all shifted to one side in the trailer it caused the side to come unlatched. After that experience we welded a new latch onto the side door so that could never happen again.
That was Plum with her baby calf Jam. Both cows I still have. The story didn't actually stop there that day mind. When we got home. We went to off load the cow with her calf. I went in the trailer and put headcollar and lead rope on them both. Neither of which had ever had one on. We have to off load on a quiet country lane and lead them down into our farm buildings. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. My mum was not able to help, so we decided that I would lead the cow out the trailer and attempt to hang on for dear life as she was not halter trained and just let her baby follow. We were like the calf will stay with mum. Well dear calf had other ideas. Was so scared it took off. The other side of the road is unfenced and is a big open steep hill. That calf ran, even her mum mooing didn't bring it back. So I managed to get mum into the shed and went off in persuit of calf. Fortunately I put that headcollar and lead rope on. It took me almost two hours to retrieve the calf. The saving grace was that the leadrope was trailing on the ground. I just had to get close enough to wild calf to pick up the end of it and hang on. Then get it back down the steep hill. That was some experience. Thank god that calf never jumped out on the motorway. We would never have caught it. I dread to think. Those two cows really made there entrance that day.
 
chunky monkey said:
It is jolly scary. Been there myself. We narrowly avoided an escaped cow on the motorway. I brought a cow and calf about 7 years ago from the market. I had an old horse box that someone had given me and it was our first time towing it. We were travelling down the M5 and I was aware there was some wind whip on the car. I looked out the side mirror to see the side door on the trailer open and a cow with its head hanging out. Scary. I shouted to mum that she needed to pull over so I could jump out and shut the side door. Mum was like I can't stop I'm on the motorway. I said you need to or we are going to have a loose cow on the motorway. So she pulls over onto the hard shoulder and slows down. I remember the car was still moving as I jumped out the passenger side and ran to swing the side door shut. It turns out that when the weight of cow and calf all shifted to one side in the trailer it caused the side to come unlatched. After that experience we welded a new latch onto the side door so that could never happen again.
That was Plum with her baby calf Jam. Both cows I still have. The story didn't actually stop there that day mind. When we got home. We went to off load the cow with her calf. I went in the trailer and put headcollar and lead rope on them both. Neither of which had ever had one on. We have to off load on a quiet country lane and lead them down into our farm buildings. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. My mum was not able to help, so we decided that I would lead the cow out the trailer and attempt to hang on for dear life as she was not halter trained and just let her baby follow. We were like the calf will stay with mum. Well dear calf had other ideas. Was so scared it took off. The other side of the road is unfenced and is a big open steep hill. That calf ran, even her mum mooing didn't bring it back. So I managed to get mum into the shed and went off in persuit of calf. Fortunately I put that headcollar and lead rope on. It took me almost two hours to retrieve the calf. The saving grace was that the leadrope was trailing on the ground. I just had to get close enough to wild calf to pick up the end of it and hang on. Then get it back down the steep hill. That was some experience. Thank god that calf never jumped out on the motorway. We would never have caught it. I dread to think. Those two cows really made there entrance that day.
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Wow!:eek:
 
Still catching up after my holidays and just found this thread. Two very lucky escapes :eek: I bet you'll never forget that day @chunky monkey.

I've always wondered what would happen if I broke down on the motorway. I have recovery insurance of course, but Raf is scared of lorries at the best of times and the thought of trying to unload him on the hard shoulder when there's lorries zooming past at 60 mph doesn't bear thinking about, even if they weren't in the nearest lane. He would be absolutely petrified and assuming I could even get him out of my box, what would happen if he had a complete meltdown and I couldn't hold him, or he snapped his headcollar/bridle and broke free? There could be a lot of families missing a loved one at Christmas ...

I'm sure I heard recently on the radio of a motorway being shut while they unloaded some horses from a wagon that had broken down. I wondered whether that's the correct protocol. I know it would be an inconvenience for the drivers on the motorway, but surely better than the potential alternative.
 
Bodshi said:
Still catching up after my holidays and just found this thread. Two very lucky escapes :eek: I bet you'll never forget that day @chunky monkey.

I've always wondered what would happen if I broke down on the motorway. I have recovery insurance of course, but Raf is scared of lorries at the best of times and the thought of trying to unload him on the hard shoulder when there's lorries zooming past at 60 mph doesn't bear thinking about, even if they weren't in the nearest lane. He would be absolutely petrified and assuming I could even get him out of my box, what would happen if he had a complete meltdown and I couldn't hold him, or he snapped his headcollar/bridle and broke free? There could be a lot of families missing a loved one at Christmas ...

I'm sure I heard recently on the radio of a motorway being shut while they unloaded some horses from a wagon that had broken down. I wondered whether that's the correct protocol. I know it would be an inconvenience for the drivers on the motorway, but surely better than the potential alternative.
Click to expand...
Yep to have any vehicle stop on a motorway you have to inform the police, so if you break down that's your first call and make it super clear there is stock on board and a road closure may be necessary. Many recovery firms will take a horse box with horses still on board, it depends on the type of recovering vehicle. Trailers are a different kettle of fish though. Often rather than a complete closure they will perform a rolling road block, they start miles away and slow the traffic to a crawl so you get a window of no vehicles before they get to you, it causes far less disruption than a complete closure that forces traffic to build/back up but gives you a safe window to unload/reload.
 
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