Where I live and ride we have to be super-careful not to rip up the trails and get equestrians banned. So we have to use the equestrian bridges, stay off the trails if they’re super-wet, etc.
One thing I have seen done to the bridges is adding 1"x1"x 8’ long (or whatever the width of the bridge) or 2"x2" pieces about 8 inches apart the length of the bridge. That way there is a little stop if a horse should slip but it’s not so high that people are likely to trip on them.
We have a fair number of bridges, high and low, on our equestrian-only trail systems. Some are plain wood, and some are either covered with shingles for grip, or painted with sand/paint mix.
How awesome to have dedicated bridle paths. Do riding groups have to maintain them or does the county/town/whatever? In my area, we would be losing trails if we hadn’t started TROT years ago and more recently teamed up with mountain bikers.
Bridges are one thing. Bog bridges are another thing. When I googled what a bog bridge is (because I had not heard the term) I learned that it is not just any old bridge, it is a bridge built a certain way. Typically no sides, very narrow with a gap between the two boards.
If you are part of TROT we must be fairly locale 
The trails wind through the private farms and conservation easement lands in our very horsey area. Maintenance is done by dedicated volunteers under the guidance of a “trail boss”. We are very lucky here.
To clarify: it only became 3-4’ of muck after the horse thrashed its way into being literally bogged down. Knowing the location, I would have guessed the horse would sink to its knees at worst and be able to pull itself out again. Even the creek running through at the other end was only 2’. But it’s a bog. It has no real base. It was a very wet year, so maybe it was softer than usual, but again, bog, by definition = soft. You’re not stepping into a puddle or some mud with clay underneath. You stop when your weight has distributed enough goo to the side and compressed enough goo underneath you to stop you. (Very scientific wetland terms, I assure you.)
The picture in the paper was a horse buried in mud to its chest, as the rider held the exhausted horse’s nose out of the mud. The rider is sitting cross-legged on top of the bog, the tops of her legs showing, because she’s lighter and not struggling, so she’s not sinking. The surrounding firefighters are muddy to the tops of their boots, because they’re heavier and moving around. None of them are buried the way the horse is. Wish I could find that image, but I threw out my copy. Too dark for me.
So, again, I would not ride my horse into a bog and expect a 3’ width of wood to be enough protection against a slip or a shy, and I certainly wouldn’t think something sized wide enough for a pedestrian is going to gracefully accept the weight of a horse. Of course, the bog bridges where I am from are 50’ to 300’ long. Not inviting. Bogs are big and you’ve got to make it from one end to the other and there’s no solid ground to be found beyond the narrow, typically slick wood you’re standing on. The image in the conversation above, of the wide bridge crossing what looks like a ditch or creek - those are used in the equestrian parks around here. Spent a summer training my horse to cross them slowly, and now I use them without question. Have still seen some untrained horses try to jump off the side. So the moral is really to train your horse before you put it into a new situation…
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned - have you checked to see if the bog bridge is intended for equestrian use? Our bog bridges banned even bikes. You can turn sideways and pass another pedestrian, but you can’t pass a horse or a biker in two-way traffic, and meeting a biker or a horse halfway across a long bog bridge makes everyone unhappy. Before I decided to go traipsing across any bridge, I would make sure the local park meant it to be used for horses. Like I said, our foolish riders got all horses banned from the park in short order.
Lots of good experience added since I last checked in, thank you COTH hive mind. I think a version of bog bridges (which maybe should have another name when modified with extra width, guardrails and traction for horses) would work here in SE PA. Many of our trails are on private land, are equestrian only and do not allow bikes. Training, getting a horse well broke to bridges is obviously important. Perhaps also warning signs to riders with unreliable mounts to turn back.
thank you for resurrecting this. I have 40000 acres of trails at the end of my dead end road but i can’t ride into it anymore because one of the hurricanes washed out the land bridge to it. So my husband and i have talked about going in there and building something ourselves.
by trailer its only 5 miles or so from my house but it would be nice to be able to ride into the backside of it again. The pictures and descriptions are helpful.
From experience in my wet Atlantic island nation, what works well in one situation may just not suit another one. Climate, soil, hydrology, vegetation, construction materials, location and frequency of use are all variables that influence how a track or a gate or a bridge hold up over time. Local knowledge is invaluable and asking someone with useful experience of specific local conditions is really helpful.
Don’t feel bad, I have the same feeling. I get nervous walking across one and I would never ride a horse across one .
Most trail systems into the wilderness or state forests use puncheon bridges to cross boggy areas or creeks and are made to stand up to horse traffic. I’ve never seen or tried to ride across the one with the two boards side by side or called them a bog bridge. In some boggy areas, a trail is “turnpiked” where the section of the trail that crosses a boggy area, is built up with gravel and soil, side rails are sometimes added. I was on a work party in the wilderness, where power tools are not allowed, to rebuild a puncheon bridge. Some materials were packed in by horseback, but the puncheon were cut out of a downed cedar tree using just hand tools. Pack horses were used to haul gravel from a riverbank to shore up the ends. Looking forward to getting out on the trails this year.
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