Has anyone trail ridden with a biking husband?

[chicken_derby]

I have a lovely pony who I really enjoy trail riding with, and he is good with bikes. We regularly ride on mixed use trails at our local state parks, and have never had an issue. I also have a lovely husband who is not a horse person. He is a sensible person and has no interest in falling off or entrusting his life to a prey animal lol! However, he is toying with the idea of getting an electric bike (not a motorbike or dirt bike, something quiet that offers him assistance going up hills).

This would open the door to us possibly trail riding together. Has anyone done this with a friend or spouse? Are there any big reasons why this would be a no-go? One thing I worry about is speed. We trot out a bit, but we walk a lot. I’m thinking my husband would be circling back a lot. However, we could definitely stand to trot more and get into better shape!

[Mohan]

Not with my husband but with my mom. I had a horse that thought a person on a bike meant the end of the world. So with the help of my mom, we eventually all went trail riding together. She never quite got over other people on bikes, but she was at least manageable.

My mom would go ahead and then take a break and wait for us. Or sometimes I’d be waiting for her. As long as your husband understands he will be traveling faster I don’t see an issue.

[FjordBCRF]

Yep! My SO has similar feelings. My gelding also drives and isnt worried with anything you’d see on a road. We did a couple trail rides/bikes last summer.

I suspect, we will be looking at more of this in our near future too. SO broke his foot last week and we’re waiting to see if he needs surgery. I suspect he will be able to get back on trails on a bike much sooner than doing any significant hiking with us which he normally does.

[chicken_derby]

Thank you both for your input! We’ll be trying it out with a regular bike at the farm I board at before he makes any big purchase of a new toy. But I’m hoping it gets us out together more!

There was a lady who boarded at my barn briefly whose husband biked with her, but I didn’t know if she was sane or not and she didn’t stay long enough for me to find out. My instincts told me that no, she was not sane. Therefore, I was afraid to just jump into something having only seen her try it.

[Mohan]

Yay! But I also want to emphasize that one horse was just the one about bikes. So if she could deal, I’m sure it will be fine.

A semi could go screaming past with us on the road side, but god forbid there was a cyclist 50 yards away

[NancyM]

Yes, I’ve been thinking about it. DH is a mountain bike enthusiast. Not the crazy stuff… well, sometimes the crazy stuff, but not always. I can’t find anyone with horses who I would want to ride with locally (either crazy, or too green that I would have to babysit). So I’ve been thinking about the bike/horse combination, on the right trails. Haven’t tried it yet. But I’m happy to see that others are just as crazy as me. It was easier when he rode horses a bit, but he seems to have dismissed that idea now in old age. Likes bikes. Has 3 in all, one electric mountain bike.

[FjordBCRF]

I probably do more “crazy” things than a lot of people. I like to expose my guy to as much as I can, so nothing is a big deal. And we have a lot of options for fun and doing different things.

This was our first venture out! Not crazy at all

IMG_3043

[sophie]

I’ve gone trail riding years ago with my BIL on his mountain bike when I had my little “jack-of-all-trades” Morgan mare. She actually really enjoyed it and learned to follow his bike and/or wait for him (we’d canter up the hills and she’d wait for him on top). It was a lot of fun!
He had a regular mountain bike, this was a longtime ago, no electric cars/bikes then! I don’t know how it would work with an electric mountain bike. The horse would have to be fit! lol

[MorganMaresVT]

I have, with my lovely husband both jogging and biking. He doesn’t love trail running/riding though, so when we’ve gone out, it’s been on dirt roads. I wish he liked being off road more!

One thing that stood out to me in your post, I know some horse people where I live are a little touchy about the explosion of e-bikes. My personal feeling is that as riders on roads and mixed use trails, it’s just one more thing to expose our horse to as much as possible to prepare them for real-world encounters. But I’d just be sure your husband is a pro in horse/ebike trail etiquette in case he rides up on other horses if he happens to go off ahead of you or hangs back.

[ReSomething]

The hony I had fully understood that bicyclists were just strange looking people with treats, and would want to either wait or catch up. They all have their own personalities, that’s for sure.

[AllSport]

This thread brings up a fun/funny/dangerous memory. The horse I was taking care of was the best trail horse ever. Yes she was, it was her! Anyway, we were on a single track trail that had signs saying no bikes. We got to some “traffic” being a couple of hikers and a jogger. Suddenly two mtn bikers sped in. The hikers yelled that they weren’t supposed to be there, jogger kept jogging and my mountain goat camly climbed the cliff side next to us to get out of the way. But, she was a smart mtn goat with attitude. Once we got past the jogger I let her decide where to go next. She followed the bikers and sped up to catch them. She had that special look in her eye she’d sometimes get and I’m 100% sure she was hoping to knock the biker in back off his bike. Soon we were cantering after them and her nose was breathing down his neck while I had her checked just enough that her legs wouldnt get caught on the wheel and that she couldn’t actually grab him! It was hillarious and we hope we made him nervous. I finally did have to pull her up as we were getting too far from home. I loved that girl! So many cool memories with her. Rest assured, I’d never allow any other horse to do that because I know it wasn’t the safest thing to be doing!

[sophie]

I’ve met many mountain bikers on the trails when I had my afore-mentioned Morgan mare. All of them were polite and considerate about meeting a horse.
One time, we were in the woods, at the bottom of a steep, narrow trail with big rocks, and I saw there was a biker coming down it, so I parked my mare a little to the side, thinking he had seen us and I would just let him pass before climbing up the hill. When he was navigating his way down though, I quickly realized he had NOT seen us, so I yelled “heads up!”. Well, his head shot up, he saw us and promptly took a nasty tumble! I was mortified and profusely apologized, but he said it was his fault for not paying attention. Glad he was wearing a helmet, though. He could have really hurt himself.

[OzarksRider]

When I was scanning through the discussion titles I misread this one as “Has anyone trail ridden with a balking husband.”

[Alterration]

An ex used to either run or bike with me all the time when I rode.

[Horsecrazy3]

Yes. It was great fun. DH out front on his mountain bike and I would chase him at a trot. My horse loved it. Unfortunately, those trails no longer exist, area became a light industrial park. DH rides extreme trails where I wouldn’t want to take my horse nor is it allowed. The trails I ride now don’t allow bikes.

[Caol_Ila]

We’ve tried it, but OH decided that it was easier to walk/jog with the horses than cycle. My horses don’t care about bikes.

We don’t have many trails where you can trot for a long distance, so on the flat ground, the bike is quicker. We do, however, have lots of hills. The horse is considerably faster than OH in ascent, while he is much faster than they are in descent.

If we want to have a conversation with one another, matching horse and bike speeds on most of the terrain we deal with is tricky.

[4horses]

I did with my mother as a child. It worked well until my horse stopped suddenly and the bike bumped her in the rear. Luckily no injuries except for a big bruise on my mom’s leg where the bike fell on her. The main issue is keeping up. Your horse has to do a lot of trotting to keep up.

[StellaTMK]

Yes, I used to do it regularly. However due to the type of trails he enjoyed (death-defying root covered hills) and the speed that he took those trails vs the type of trails that were horse safe did not match up to our riding together. We used to travel together, ride separately and then meet back at the truck/trailer for a snack. sometimes we would meet out on the trails but his tight narrow trails with sudden drops and jumps are not as much fun at speed on a horse.

[chicken_derby]

Thanks for all of the encouragement!

My husband did end of getting an ebike and it is so much fun riding out with him. My horse really likes to chase the bike and can get pretty revved up. We actually have to switch positions and have the bike follow when I need him to chill and and walk quietly.

[GraceLikeRain]

My timid little mare loved the ebike. Once she realized it went away from her, the chase was on. I’m glad it worked out so well for you!