YESTERDAY evening my friend and I were riding our horses quietly up a footpath leading to the Purlieu just outside Colwall when two mountain bikers rode down the hill in the opposite direction. Unfortunately they didn't see the horses and we only saw them coming round a blind corner at the very last second. They spooked the horses so badly that we were both thrown (very painfully) and the horses took off and galloped back down the road to the stables. Firstly I want to apologise for the bad language I used once I realised I wasn't dead, only badly bruised and shaken. The riders were a father and his young son and I didn't see the young boy there!

Secondly, and most importantly, I want to draw to bike riders' attention everywhere (and there are a lot of bikers around this area) that horses are flight animals and their instinctive reaction to sudden and quick movement is flight - with or without their riders! Both of these riders were extremely apologetic and couldn't have been more helpful but my friend fell about twelve feet into a stream and was very lucky not to have been badly hurt. As it is she was in shock and very distressed. She'd had a lucky escape. The roads are much busier than they used to be and our horses are normally excellent in traffic - it's just that sudden movement or noise freaks them out. Could I ask bike riders please to slow down announce calmly that they're about to overtake? Once the horses know they're there - they're normally fine.

Horses have been around a long time but they're outnumbered now by modern traffic. They need to be driven round/cycled round slowly and carefully. Almost with reverence I feel! There are fewer and fewer places where they can be safely ridden away from the omni present wheeled brigade. Both of us today are nursing massive bruises and sore aching bodies. This is certainly not the first time we've missed injury and near death experience as a result of encounters with bikers. Hopefully it'll be the last time but I wouldn't bet on it!

Please go slowly and carefully round horses - they're big, beautiful and relatively intelligent animals that can be unpredictable though. That's why they're addictive and still around in an age of wheels and long may that safely last.

MRS PENNY CROWTHER

Malvern