A man using a mobile phone while horseriding has faced court - because he didn't have a hands-free device fitted to the animal.

The man was riding along a rural NSW road, travelling at an estimated speed of 10km/h and holding a mobile phone to his ear when police stopped him, the Tenterfield Star reports.

When he later had the matter dealt with in Mudgee Local Court, Magistrate David Day said, "under the road rules a horse is a vehicle ... and he didn't have a hands-free device fitted to the horse".

While the defendant's solicitor submitted that the matter was "trivial", the 30-year-old man pleaded guilty to using a mobile phone while riding a horse "because he concedes that the horse was in motion".

In NSW, a 'vehicle' includes an animal-drawn vehicle, and an animal that is being ridden or drawing a vehicle, with a 'ride' defined as the rider of a motor bike or animal-drawn vehicle, includes to be in control of (NSW legislation, Road Rules 2014, Road Users and Vehicles).

Originally published as Man riding horse stopped by police for using phone