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Those of you who know me know that my Christian name in Greek means "lover of horses", even though I am Welsh.    So, I am  not against horses per se.

I live in Surrey and every day (slight hyperbole not intended) I have to contend with people on horses when driving.  My complaint is that they "offload" their smelly deposits at random and I find it to be quite incongruous that the Police et al can had out fines to dog owners whose animals conduct themselves in the same manner unless they pick the mess up, while horse owners/riders are exempt.  Ironically, in Kingston upon Thames (the borough council who lave to hate me), I witnessed (while "busking" some years ago outside  Bentalls) two Metropolitan Police horses relieving themselves.

My point is twofold:

1. Health and safety in terms of public places.
2. Health and safety in terms of the resultant hazard on a public highway.

In terms of the latter, perhaps the next time I change my tyres, I should contact Dunglop.

I even witnessed two riders on their horses today on the footpath!

When I  was living in Wandsworth a regular sight was the sensational Young's Brewery drays that delivered beer to the local pubs. They had sacks strategically placed between the shafts to capture all and any equine deposits. https://www.youngs.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/London-Event-Photographer-19.jpg?format=auto&width=1120&height=920

Smother your taters with it and you'll have some cracking ones. Really taste great.

IMO horse dung doesn't really have any odour in single pile form (maybe i'm immune?), and if there are lots of cars driving through it, it tends to clear really quickly, especially if it rains.

From a health and safety (infection risk) point of view, I understand horses diet and digestive tract mean that their manure really doesn't normally contain the really harmful stuff, compared to omnivores/carnivores like dogs, cats, foxes, etc who's droppings can contain extremely harmful organisms, hence the use of horse manure on your garden and veg. See here: https://www.bhs.org.uk/media/nt3ju4tt/dung-0824.pdf

It is however my opinion that if you're in a public precinct where there is a lot of public footfall they should be wearing manure bags...