Sounds Familiar?

[V8 Archie]

As a result of the conditions at the Badminton horse trials, apparently every rider in the cross country section acquired time faults - a rare event indeed. Lucinda Green, however suggests that those who did best were the better horsemen/women.

Lucinda Green in the Daily Telegraph said:

Time to ditch the watches and ride by instinct ...No longer did anyone have the technical safety net of knowing exactly which tree they should be passing at what second. They had to set out on four miles and 32 fences of mud and feel at every stage just how much speed and effort they could ask of their horses. ...The time allowed on the cross country course that is calculated at 570 metres a minute has put riders across the world into a mindset that they have failed if they do not... record... zero [faults] on the score sheet... ...It is time to abandon the "specified time", which gives riders the opportunity to listen to their watch and not their horse. We saw that happen on Saturday, and entirely to the benefit of the horse and not, as so many fear when the idea is mentioned, to his detriment.

Reading this article I could not help but draw comparisons with the debate on speed enforcement and, more generally, a driving culture based on what one must not do rather than encouraging people to take responsibility for setting their own speed or generally ensuring the safety of their driving.

In fact, replacing references to a specified or minimum time with "speed limit", references to horses with "cars", etc. I quickly found myself reading an article that could have been written by Paul Smith (SafeSpeed). i.e. The driver has the responsibility and when we take that away accidents start to rise.