Kids on dirt bikes zoom by. A woman in a minivan talks on a cell phone while children make noise. Teenagers give a war whoop out the window while passing. A tractor-trailer’s air brakes make a loud noise.

All these situations have one thing in common – they can spook a horse as it walks along a road shared by all. And if there’s one thing Sarah St. Pierre, Deb Richards, Cher Griffin and Michelle Loulakis want the public to know, it’s that horses are not machines and it’s easy to scare them into doing the unexpected – like running toward a vehicle instead of away from it.

All four often ride their horses on the rural roads of Auburn, and each has had scary experiences.

Horses are everywhere, they said, and you can encounter a horse when you least expect it. Riders are not out on the road just for fun, they are legitimately using public roads to get to safer trails.

That doesn’t seem to occur to some drivers, however. “I’ve had people beep their horn,” said Griffin, owner of the Griffenbrook tack shop. She’s even seen someone get dumped when an ambulance decided to activate its siren just as it came near a rider.

“This guy turned his siren on right next to us,” she said. “The horse reared, went over backward and rolled down an embankment.” Jarlene Cornett, Auburn’s animal control officer and a horse rider herself, said the law requires vehicle to give horses the right of way, and for the most part, they do.

“I personally haven’t had much trouble,” said Cornett. “We do ride the roads a lot to get to the trails. If someone’s coming from behind, I can hear them, if they’re slowing or not. I put up my hand, like, ‘slow.’ Ninety-nine percent of the time they do slow. I smile and say thank you.”

She hasn’t gotten many complaints about horses on the road or discourteous drivers in the 19 years she’s spent as animal control officer but said drivers do need to realize that horses do have the right of way.

Awareness seems to be the key. Joanne Gelinas runs Gelinas Farm in Pembroke, and is concerned that the less agriculturally oriented the southern New Hampshire area becomes, people don’t know how to handle being on a public road with horses.

“In New Hampshire, we’re losing more and more of our open land, more and more of our trails,” she said. “A lot of times you need to ride on the roads to get there.”

As the population become less familiar with animals, they don’t understand how easy it is to spook a horse.

“I ride on Fourth Range Road,” said Gelinas. “A lot of people are courteous ; they come from an agricultural background. Up here, we have a little more of that base. Still, there are some who just don’t have a clue up here.”

The more “horsey” the country, the better drivers seem to be.

“Traffic is pretty good, on 149,” said Michelle Lisofsky. owner of Jakobi Farm in Weare. “They usually go way out and around. Sometimes you get teenagers and stuff like that, but for most part people are good around here.”

Heidi Ackerman, owner of Bunker Hill Stables in New Boston, agreed.

“I think it depends on where you’re from,” she said. “Here, people are aware of horses and I found people here to be very respectful, will stop their car and let you ride by. I’ve seen few people not respecting that.”