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Helicopters..
They are bad enough to cope with when they are flying low over-head...

Sally Edwards and Jo Ware had problems with them when they were riding slowly up a hill and the helicopters suddenly rose up towards them from the other side.

“To the horses, it must have seemed as if they were coming up from the ground,” says Sally. “They just turned and bolted downhill.” To make matters worse, the helicopters were Forestry Commission helicopters. Says Sally, who at the time was riding Matrova, (pictured) an Arab X Welsh, 10-years-old, “We were in Ditcham Woods, near Chichester. We’re used to the Chinnooks, the big Army helicopters. Sometimes if the pilots see you, they swerve away from you.
But this helicopter kept coming towards us.”

Sally and Jo, however, have come up with a practical solution: Hi-viz. “We wear hi-viz on the roads and in winter. Maybe we should also wear hi-viz in summer so that helicopters can see us. It’s possible that some pilots just cannot see riders. Hi-viz would make it easier for them to see us. Anything to make it safer for horses and riders,” they say.

Have you had problems with helicopters? Have you or your horse been spooked by helicopters? Do you think wearing hi-viz is a good idea?

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