@article{ref1,
title="Public roads as places of interspecies conflict: a study of horse-human interactions on UK roads and impacts on equine exercise",
journal="Animals (Basel)",
year="2021",
author="Pollard, Danica and Furtado, Tamzin",
volume="11",
number="4",
pages="e1072-e1072",
abstract="Real or perceived traffic risk is a significant barrier to walking and cycling. To understand whether similar barriers influence equestrians, this study obtained exercise behaviours, road use and experiences of road-related incidents from UK equestrians (n = 6390) via an online questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with road use and experiencing a near-miss or injury-causing incident in the previous year. Content analysis identified themes around equestrians' decisions not to use roads. Our results show that most equestrians (84%) use roads at least once weekly, and in the previous year, 67.7% had a near-miss and 6.1% an injury-causing incident. Road use differs regionally, with exercise type and off-road route availability. Road-using equestrians covered greater daily distances and were younger. However, younger equestrians were at higher risk of near-misses. Respondents' decisions not to use roads were based on individualised risk assessments arising from: the road itself, perceptions of other road users, the individual horse and the handler's own emotional management. Roads were perceived as extremely dangerous places with potentially high conflict risk. Injury-causing incidents were associated with increasing road-use anxiety or ceasing to use roads, the proximity of off-road routes, having a near-miss and type of road use. Targeted road-safety campaigns and improved off-road access would create safer equestrian spaces.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2076-2615",
doi="10.3390/ani11041072",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11041072"
}