Set up before you reach the road
Road work on foot is won or lost in the yard. Put high-visibility on both of you — a tabard for you, and leg bands, a breastplate or a sheet for him — because drivers react to what they can see at distance, and a brown horse against a hedge at dusk nearly disappears. Use a bridle or a headcollar with a bit or control noseband if he is strong, a lead rope you can hold without wrapping, gloves, and a hat for you. Walk a settled horse past the hazards you know first — the yard gate, the parked tractor — before the open road adds traffic to the lesson.
Your body goes between the horse and the traffic
Walk on the road side of the horse, with the horse towards the verge and your shoulder level with his. This does three jobs at once: drivers register a human shape sooner than a horse shape, you are the buffer if he shies away from a passing vehicle, and you can turn his head slightly towards the traffic so he sees it coming rather than feeling it arrive behind him. Keep the rope short enough that his head stays with you, but never haul backwards on it — a horse pulled by the head pushes into pressure and ends up on top of you. If a wide or fast vehicle approaches, step onto the verge, turn him to face it, and let it pass a standing horse instead of a walking one.
Hazards are handled by letting him look
Bins, drain covers, fluttering bags, barking dogs behind gates, cyclists arriving silently — the pattern is the same. Stop before he plants or spins, let him stand and look, and reward the stand with your voice and a scratch. Forcing a frightened horse past a hazard teaches him that hazards come with a fight; a horse allowed to look learns they come with nothing much at all. Cross bridges and narrow stretches one at a time, wave a clear thank-you to drivers who slow, and never lead two horses on a road where one spooking animal leaves you a rope in each hand and control of neither.
Turning, verges and the ride home
Plan the route so you walk with the flow of traffic on the side the local rules require, use wide verges in preference to narrow lanes with blind bends, and turn around at a gateway or junction rather than mid-bend. Keep to the same routine on the way home — a horse who knows the walk finishes soon is the one most likely to jog, barge and snatch at hedges, so the last stretch needs your attention most, not least.
If he gets away from you
Let the rope go rather than be dragged, note the direction he took, and call for help before you follow — a galloping horse outruns every handler, and the goal becomes heading him off at gates and yards, not chasing. Warn nearby drivers and houses if he is heading for a road. This is exactly the moment to use the Lost Pet Alert System on his KinsLe profile: it costs nothing, the map displays the alert, and anyone who finds or catches him can send you a direct message, so the search starts with neighbours looking rather than with you searching alone.