I think the rider in the news article might not have bargained for the level of opprobrium which the cycling community seems to have expressed in the online feedback I read following the article.
This seems an unforunate incident where two perfectly respectable and lawful activities collided head on. Thankfully no-one was hurt and it might have been best resolved by putting the matter down to experience and possibly a chat with the race organiser to see if anything could be done to avoid a similar situation arising again. Trotting off to the papers is rarely a good idea, they're generally not interested in resolving problems rather stirring up passions and exacerbating the problem as that sells more papers.....
At the start of out 5 mile event last Tuesday two horses were ridden past the start while riders were still starting and despite giving them a warning they chose to continue along the road rather than wait 4 minutes for the last riders to start. I would have been very sorry if one of them had been hurt or had hurt one of our riders but this is the public highway we are talking about and you use it at your peril.
