Hostility on the Trails

[kshnooks]

I went trail riding over the weekend in an area that has trails open to pedestrians, bicyclists and horses. The general rule is everyone has to yield to the horse. Now, most people did this but a couple of the bicyclists I encountered either completely ignored me as they whizzed by or were openly hostile about stopping. I know the recreation area I ride in is under going some changes in terms of useage and its amazing how some people feel about equestrians-they hate us! They think we should be picking up horse crap (yea right) and that we have no control over our horses (well yea, a lot of horses will spook when a bicyclist rides up right behind you). Anyone else experience these things or is it just my area?

[dimpleflirt]

People will just be jerks at times. I ride in public parks,on roads and neighborhoods and in busy towns.The only advise I can give you is to prepare the horse the best you can with training at home first.Have a friend ride all around you on a bike even bump in to the horse till it gets comfortable with the distraction.My geldings are so use to such things that I can grab a tail or stirrup leather and get pulled along while my girls are riding,we think nothing of dropping in traffic by semi trailers and motorcycles, even a person jumping out of a truck and flash opening an umbrella doesn't startle them,(Yes,that has happened). Just do your home work over and over till it is second nature to them.I started my guys with such frightening things as colts with lots of hand walking.Good luck

[kshnooks]

the horse I have been riding is pretty spook proof...however, he has been known to occassionally stop and poop, God forbid. It just makes me sad that can't all share the trails, you know?

[FastHorses000]

Yep, some folks are just like that and you cant change them. Its sad because someone could be really hurt. Not much you can do about it.

[breburtch]

No matter where you are trail riding(unless on your own privite property)your always going to run into someone thats not going to be impressed about you riding on the trail. And if your someone that rides on the road your always going to encounter people that don't respect you being there either. If its not people complaining about the horse poop there complaining about the sound of your horse walking or snorting. Heck I had a women freak out once after a parade and we were getting ready to load the horses and my horse snorted and she started whinning about how she got horse snot on her new jacket and now it was ruined and I had to buy her a new one.

What I don't get is people whin about horse poo and the fact we don't pick it up yet lots of people don't pick up there dog crap, I would much rather step in a pile of horse poo then dog poo. Plus what do they think we're going to dimount every time the horse poops and carry shovels to pick it up with?

I;d say just ignore the ones that are having an issue and just ride by

[Bear Bait]

We don't have much in the way of 'public' riding grounds so the only encounters I have had has been with quads and wildlife. The wildlife hasn't caused us much grief except the occasional chicken flying up in front of the horses' faces. As for the motorized toys, well they have caused me several mishaps due to their ignorance. As for the poop, well its resonable to think if they are gonna complain about dog poop than horse poop is also going to be an issue. Why not have a volunteer base group that picks it up once or twice a week. Than you remove the issue and come out looking like a responsible group of riders.

[paso_lover]

In my area, we are either really liked or really hated.

[bayrider]

Yeah, never mind the poop. How about all the trash people throw around, it's horrible, at least the poop is biodegratable!!

[grullatobiano]

If I'm riding on a bike/pedestrian/horse trail I try to have my horse poo by the side of the trail as opposed to in the middle, but sometimes I don't even realise the horse has "gone", my horse doesn't stop to poo. If we're stopped and the horse makes a mess in the middle of the trail, I will get off and kick it to the side, it is no skin off my nose and the joggers and bikers could slip in fresh manure. For the "moving" road apples I don't worry too much because it is spread out.

On ATV trails, I don't bother. They are usually sloppy with mud and tire tracks anyway.

Most people I come across see few enough horses that they think it is kind of neat, and the majority slow down or give a wide berth. I always thank them or give a wave because I def. appreciate the courtesy!

[banjo's mom]

I worked at stables that were right in the middle of a campground- we had many run-in's with idiots! My favorite was this:

There was a new girl working the store in the campground, and she apparently didn't know that you don't mess w/ horsewomen. She gathered up some horsepoo that was on the road in the campground, tied it up in a plastic walmart bag, and sat it in front of the barn door for us to find the next morning! My boss was SOOO PISSED. She took that bag of horsepoo and marched down to the store and threw it at the lady!!! CLASSIC!

[banjo's mom]

btw- fasthorses- i LOVE that pic in your avatar! is that you?

[Nor Cal Farrier]

No matter where you go or what you do, your going to run into someone who has nothing better to do than complain. Hikers cry about bikers, bikers cry about horses, etc. etc... Just a part of life.

[taelesean]

Here in VA, we have a lot of mixed use trails. For the most part, everyone that uses them gets along pretty well. Part of that may be that many of the trails, while officially mixed use, are really only suitable for the types of users that most frequent them - bicycle trails are mostly paved, equestrian trails are natural surfaces such as mulch, sand or gravel and include obstacles like ditches, streams and mud.

There are more problems between the equestrians and the 4 wheelers on the unofficial trails, and also with the people who own the land those trails often pass through - the land owners are more inclined to allow horses but not the offroaders, but will block access to the trail entirely if the 4 wheelers won't respect thier whishes. Of course, that means the equestrian folks get really peaved at the offroaders sometimes, and the offroaders don't feel it's fair either. Sometimes this animosity carries over into public debate about public trails.

[fishing_trex]

I belong to a local riding club that sponsors a large trail ride (hundreds of overnighters) every spring and fall on our club grounds (and neighboring properties). We typically take out 30-70 riders at one time. To get from one property to the next, we cross over/ride short distances on several roads (anywhere from 4 to 8). The people in the township complained that there was horse poop ON THE ROADS so we now have to go back and shovel it all up when the ride is over. We've never had more than a wheel barrow full on all of these roads, so it's not like it's wall-to-wall poo (there may be a pile or two on each crossing and some down the shoulder of the road when we ride along side it). Guess they don't like the look of it on their pretty paved roads.

[Sunlei]

Originally Posted by kshnooks

I went trail riding over the weekend in an area that has trails open to pedestrians, bicyclists and horses. The general rule is everyone has to yield to the horse. Now, most people did this but a couple of the bicyclists I encountered either completely ignored me as they whizzed by or were openly hostile about stopping. I know the recreation area I ride in is under going some changes in terms of useage and its amazing how some people feel about equestrians-they hate us! They think we should be picking up horse crap (yea right) and that we have no control over our horses (well yea, a lot of horses will spook when a bicyclist rides up right behind you). Anyone else experience these things or is it just my area?

I live right outside Houston,Texas and yes, I've experienced those things. Many of the neighborhoods have zoning laws where no livestock are allowed at all.They require 5 acres for one pig or horse to be housed at your home. All the parks near me are no horses allowed. It's against the law to ride along the sides of many roads. The electric company easements acres and acres of those towers and mowed meadows , have no trustpassing signs!

The stables and barns around here they just ride in their arena or paddocks. I break the law to ride my horse when I am using those easements.

Manure is not a problem because I don't take her to the public parks. At home I pick up twice a day because I don't want any non-horse people to complain.

It's a shame the great majority of people have never even touched a horse in their life. To them its like a 1000 lb, dangerous pooping beast

[SACREDWINDWALKER]

There are jerks everywhere.....yeah, horses drop every once in a while but with jerks, sometimes they open their pie-hole and just drop out!

One lady in the city limits of our tiny little backwoods town who lived in her little brick house on the corner saw my husband on his horse cut a corner through her ditch to catch up with us....and she stepped out of her house and screamed "get that horse out of my yard!" He's like did you hear that old bitty? What about all the excess loose dogs around town that no one does anything about....you think they pass up her yard to poo?? I hope not. I hope they go up on her porch and cut loose! People like that, I wouldn't call 911 on.

[kshnooks]

Yea, I could understand if horses are dropping load on people lawns. I HATE it when people let their dogs crap on my lawn. But on a public trail or the road where cars are going to flatten in it a matter of minutes? People need to calm the heck down!
I know this is weird...but when I was little I actually liked seeing horse poo on hiking trails because that meant I might run into one! And being the horse crazy little girl I was/am, that was the highlight of my day!

[Gotta Love Duns]

Originally Posted by kshnooks

I know this is weird...but when I was little I actually liked seeing horse poo on hiking trails because that meant I might run into one! And being the horse crazy little girl I was/am, that was the highlight of my day!

I'm so with you on that one, I always looked for manure on the trails when I was a kid in hopes to see a horse while we where out hiking!

Usually while we are out riding in K-country I haven't had too many issues. There are the occasionaly biker that comes flying past but most use the trails so often they know that the horses are there and will call out before hand. If they are coming towards us usually we will pull off the trail and let the bikers past, but that is just us.
We have also been riding in a public park in Calgary and the people are really good there as well. So far we had no issues there at all. People are just so excited to see the horses that its a non issue.

[Duckie0370]

We have a lot of cyclists in my area in some of the parks we ride in as well. Some of them are very courteous, but a majority of them are... well, jerks!

Many of them feel as though they have more rights to that trails than equestrians - this is something I've never been able to understand. That, and quite often they come zooming up behind you silently and then get pissed off when you don't realize they are there! Once I had Nakai scooting forward every couple of steps. I was looking everywhere BUT behind me, and when I finally did here was a cyclist only about a foot off Nakai's rear They don't realize how far a horse can kick out OR the damage a horse can do! It's the same way with cars - Many people slam on the breaks for a 90lb deer, but they honk their horns, speed by, and purposely try to spook a 900-1500lb horse?? Are they insane?

[PaintsQH]

There are really no so called horse trails in my area anymore. I have to ride to the end of the road, cross a steep ditch (it used to be solid but our county dredged the canal) and if you want to go much further, you have to take some old wire down. The only problem we have riding are the idiots on ATV's flying by 90mph on the street. And the occasional car who thinks if they honk the horn they will freak the horses out. We were riding on day and someone was having a Sweet Fifteen party (Mexican version of a sweet 16) and there were cars everywhere. One quite large man decided to keep driving as we were trying to get on the shoulder. He was persistant so I just laa tee daa'd along, took my sweet time and when he passed he got a nice dirty look. Im in a RURAL area and in the 18yrs Ive lived in my house, its more like a city street.