In the towns in my area of CT, conservations lands which have been given to the towns, which I believe is what folks are referring to as “conservations lands”, each town has published the land use. New conservation land is anticipated by hikers in the the area, and we wait for the town to put up signs or decide on its use. Some may be off limits, but most of the time trails are allowed to be used, or made, and the land is opened to the public. When this happens, the towns always address horse riding, as well as mountain bikes, hiking, ATVs, dirt bikes. Local groups may go before the town to propose allowing certain use, and describing how their club might care for the trails if allowed to use them.
Anyway, I was surprised to hear, here, so much of how conservation land is not available for recreational use, as my experience in my part of CT was that it usually is open for hiking, mountain bikes and horses, at least. Local scout groups usually go in and armour the water crossings and build bridges. A local horse club usually teams up with them and with mountain bike clubs to do the same. Its easy enough to go to the town recreation part of a town’s website and find out what lands are available to ride on or not ride on. I think it responsible to do just that, and to know what lands are ok and what ones are not, what ones are private, and recognized them when you come upon them out on your ride. In our area, many many private owners have allowed horses to ride through their property, usually requiring some form of liablity waiver or, for instance, the club gets the property named on their insurance, and the owner’s rules are followed.
For example, part of a trail behind a raptor rescue and rehab sancuary is required that horses slow to a walk, talking is silenced, and care is taken to avoid and not speak to anyone on foot because they may be flying a bird and you don’t want to disturb or spook them.
A local farmers extensive hay fields are available to ride in only after the last harvest of the season, and during season only along certain edges of the field, and often not at all certain times of the season. By adhering to the wishes of the private owners, all of these lands are available for the club’s use at certain times for hunt pace and endurance events.
A good relationship with the local landowners goes a long way towards fostering good will, and most importantly securing access to the trails and lands decades into the future for horses and horse activities. As a result of this kind of policy and responsibility towards private owners, the horse club in my area has secured permission to ride on town conservation lands, state forest lands, private farm and hardwood woodlands, lawns, dirt roads, powerlines and privat driveways from the shoreline in CT almost if not entirely contiguously through the state into Massachussetts and Vermont. They spend weeks every year maintaining current trails and clearing older trails in support of a CT trailways and greenways association, and the work they do and the respect they show towards permission and responsibility to the access of trails for horses goes a long way towards fostering good will towards horse riding on trailways in the state.
I would urge any rider to do their due diligence and research the property owners they want to ride on and get in touch with them and get permission to ride on the lands they want to ride on. It will benefit all riders now and in the future, and can give a precident to call upon for good will when getting horse riding permissions and access to new town conservation land.
