Safety tyres.

One of the Lancaster University engineers who worked on the Saddlechariot design came up with the fascinating theory that British Driving Society members make their horses wear blinkers so they would have the same restricted view as their owners. It is either that, or a new form of equestrian dyslexia, which means that BDS members are incapable of reading their own website.

This is the BDS on the subject of long distance driving.

PNEUMATIC TYRED VEHICLES with their greater tyre friction and often heavy axles have been proved to create considerable extra stress for horses/ponies over the longer distances in the above Awards and are therefore not permitted.

Likewise the LIGHTWEIGHT pneumatic tyres vehicles are deemed unsafe and unable to withstand the stress and wear of the longer distances of LDD Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards and are also banned.

Just read this through. Pneumatic vehicles are banned because they are too heavy. Lightweight versions are banned because they aren't.

Someone should get to the next committee meeting and find out what these guys are putting in the tyres of the cars they drive, because they are clearly inhaling it, and wow, it is potent stuff.

Their analysis of pneumatic tyres is, by any standards, a total lie. I have just driven the Bannedwaggon across England, from Exeter to London on ultralight pneumatic tyres, running 22x12x8 slicks on the front and 16x6.50x8 puncture proof on the rear. Obama and I did 200 plus miles of incredibly variable terrain, carrying the thick edge of 250kg without any problems at all.

But the site starts with a lie. Sorry it starts with the BDS, after sniffing whatever goes in their tyres, version of reality.

The British Driving Society. To Encourage and Assist those interested in Equine Driving Patron: H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh K.G. K.T.

I would have thought 10 years of designing vehicles to go behind ponies and horses would vaguely fit in the category of "those interested in Equine driving." In that time the BDS have allowed, and probably encouraged their members to attack me, and denigrate my vehicles and ban me from any participation.

Is this really their idea of Encourage and assist?

Yes, but only if you are so far out of the loop that you can ban pneumatic tyres with the sort of meaningless, lying twaddle, the BDS use.

Actually, that is unfair. I know exactly what they mean. Gyppos use car tyres and axles and we don't want gyppos, travellers and common people. So lets ban the preumatic tyres.

OK so they are a private society, shouldn't they be allowed to get on with their own ideas in their own way? Maybe, but that defence also applies to the Ku Klux Klan. Much more damaging is their claim to be devoted to safety. If they are banning pneumatic tyres for the reasons they claim, and not just to exclude Gypsies, are they capable of making any rational assessment of safety.

Their objection to me, is that I build safe vehicles. If I am right, they are in deep animal byproducts, but rather than make their setup safer, they prefer to destroy me. Hardly the action of a safety conscious society, to ignore the guy who has been building safe vehicles for 10 years.

But they are the establishment, so they must be right, and more importantly, nobody is going to take the risk of challenging them.

To see some of my marginally more organised rants, try these links. If all else fails, try hitting them with whips. It works with horses, doesn't it? http://sites.google.com/site/wehithorsesdontwe/ http://saddlechariot.comlu.com/index.php