Saturday 2 May 2015

Cars "Threaten horse-riding skills"

From the BBC

Horse-riding skills are under threat because of a growing reliance on cars, experts say.

The Royal Institute of Horse Riding (RIHR) said increasing dependence on technology means people are losing the ability to get around on a horse. The RIHR wants schools to encourage the teaching of basic horse-riding because few pupils can ride one. Its president, Roger McKinlay, said society is "sedated by steering wheels".

Mr McKinlay added: "It is concerning that young people are no longer routinely learning at home or school how to do anything more than press an accelerator pedal to get anywhere.

"Many cannot put on a saddle, canter, gallop or get to their destination with just a horse, let alone wonder at the amazing role straw plays in looking after horses.

"Instead, generations are now growing up utterly dependent on the internal combustion engine and petrolget around. The RIHR believes that horse-rising can develop character, independence and an appreciation of biology and shovelling shit.

10 comments:

Random said...

No mention of global warming? Shame.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Excellent. Especially the shit shovelling bit.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Especially as "maps" ruined each individual's ability to make thousands of random journeys into the great beyond, to remember which route led where and how to get back home again. Blloody mapmakers.

JuliaM said...

What's more distracting to a driver, fumbling around with paper, or listening to voice instructions?

Physiocrat said...

I assume this must have been written, at the lastest, in 1930.

Railways and bicycles had a detrimental effect on horse riding too.

Bayard said...

J, it's nearly impossible to read a map and drive safely at the same time, as I have found out the hard way. Even if you are not listening to instructions, a satnav can provide a "head-up display" of a map with your route shown on it.

P, it's a spoof, but I did once find a book written at the start of the C20th urging young men to give up the dangerous sport of hunting and take up motorcycling instead.

Tim Almond said...

JuliaM,

Sat navs are awesome. Select a postcode or a street in a town, click and go. Or in the case of Google, look up a restaurant/pub by name and click the directions button.

Mine got a route wrong once (it thought I could cross the M4 at Membury services). A few times, I've overrriden it. I'd much rather drive around Rouen than through the middle of it, and I'd rather not be at the M4/M5 intersection on a bank holiday Friday.

It also has restaurants and petrol, so I'm not filling up at Autoroute prices.

Piotr Wasik said...

...and writing skills are detrimental to one's memory, as noted by Plato: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/wordscape/museum/plato.html

James Higham said...

It's a definite problem in this day and age. Imagine the pollution we'd save in the air if we all mounted the geegees and imagine the natural pollution on the roads.

Bayard said...

"and imagine the natural pollution on the roads."

Ah, but that's good for the garden.