You are right I know nothing about your situation but I can tell your knowledge of anatomy and physiology isn’t very strong. To equiate not being able to mount from the ground with not being able to walk, really? If the load bearing part of my stride was when my knee was at an acute angle it would truely be a top candidate for the ministry of funny walks. Does it hurt when I walk yes. Does it hurt as much as mounting from the ground not even close.
Oh and as far as all rules have reasons yes that is true but that does not mean that all reasons are reasonable. For an email that came up from my homeowner’s association in an area zoned for agriculture, told people not to park on the side of the road (which they were doing so as to not block the the road as it was a narrow country road) when waiting for their children at the bus stop because when the ground was wet they left unsightly mud tracks on the road. Yes there was a reason for that rule but it wasn’t a reasonable reason and was roundly ignored.
People seem to want their country experience to be as sanitized as possible. Sans poop, pee, rotting vegetable matter, bugs and unsightly mud tracks.
I’m really divided about this idea. On one hand, it’s definitely a stupid city people rule- ewwww anything in nature is icky. But on the other hand, I, in no way, want to lose any trails available to horses. I haven’t seen any parks around me that have this rule but I don’t tend to ride gentle type trails that would be multi-use to any but serious cyclists or hikers. Luckily for me, on a 4-5 hour ride, my mare tends to go at most 2x’s and she pulls herself off to the side of the trail. As far as mounting from the ground- for the most part, I can’t. I had a very bad accident that left me only able to lift my leg so far, it simply is not physically possible for my body to bend that way anymore. I have gotten quite good at using any rock, stump, incline, etc to be able to get on though
I don’t mount from the ground ever. It has nothing to do with fitness. It has everything to do with the fact that my knees are trashed due to prior injuries and it is bad for my horse’s back. None of the portable mounting devices I have seen would be much use.
I foxhunt and trail ride all the time, frequently for miles. I tend to avoid the nice bike path with screenings that have all the strollers, joggers, bikers etc… I am certainly not getting off in a few hundred acre park with twisty windy little trails through the woods to kick off manure. Most of those trails were made by horse riders and initially maintained by them. Trust me there is plenty of deer poop and fox poop on those trails.
I don’t think that it practical in a 500-1000 acre park where I ride 10 miles or so to get off every time he leaves a little turd.
My friend’s horse is one that does the little diarrhea plop every 5 minutes for the first couple of miles.
If I am trotting along I can’t always tell if my horse has left a little manure behind. He is an arab cross so naturally flags his tail when trotting and does not slow down or give any indication that he is pooping especially if it is a single ball of manure.
Mind you I am the person that totally cleans up any manure around my trailer and will pick up manure left by others. I think there is a balance than can be struck.
Many of the posters mentioned that their parks have bike only lanes, the bikers that worry about the manure can ride on those.
Once again I tend to avoid the nicely manicured multi-use trails so I don’t have to feel guilty about the manure. But multi-use trails through the woods that are rocks and dirt are a different story.
Again, you know nothing about me or my knowledge of anatomy or physiology, nor have I brought that up concerning you. Your attempt to criticize me to justify your bad behavior in a public park is failing again. You seem to have quite the sense of entitlement.
I never said you were required to mount from the ground, did I? Find a rock, tree stump, portable mounting aid, etc.
If you live in a development that has an HOA, I would seriously doubt it is zoned agriculture.
It is a public park. You have read and know the rules. You are trying to justify the fact you are knowingly and wantonly breaking the rules because they do not suit your personal wants and needs. Rules are there for a reason, even if you do not agree with them. If you are former military, I would think you would gave a pretty decent understanding of rules and obedience to them.
If you cannot abide by them, find another place to ride. I can imagine you would be offended by other’s violation of rules, depending on what those rules are. If you are handicapped, how would you feel about an able bodied person parking in a handicapped parking spot?
If you want a place to ride with no rules, buy your own land. That would allow you to make and enforce any rule you like or have totally anarchy. Go for it!
In general, I already do this – but I do not have trashed knees, and I have a mare that will let me get on her from anything. Training her to swing her butt to the side is a work in progress.
Sharing the trails is important, and unfortunately it’s usually the equestrians who get kicked off if there is a problem.I agree that mountain bikers can be incredibly rude about not looking around them before zooming down hills or whatever… Mare’s last bad spook was from that. I have more issues with poorly trained, unleashed dogs than anything else. There is a woman in our area whose mission is getting horses off the trails by siccing her Husky on them. A friend of mine fell off because of that d*** dog, and the woman just walked away as if it didn’t matter.
We all know that this is a stupid rule, but if we don’t cooperate, what happens next?
Due to bad hips, I can’t mount from the ground and basically never have been able to… As a teen, I’d let my stirrup out as long as I could and do it that way. I was thrilled to discover that mounting blocks exist!
you said and I quote “if you can’t mount you must not be able to walk back” to anyone with a basic knowledge of anatomy and physiology that statement is false
Just like this statement shows a lack of understanding of rural development
If you live in a development that has an HOA, I would seriously doubt it is zoned agriculture.
Developers get hold of land that is agricultural. County will not change zoning to residential. So developer builds neighborhood on minimal average allowed per house. In my neighborhood that means 10 acres per house two miles north it’s 50 acres. Now to get to the lots from the state road they need to make a road since roads that are built so that the state will take over maintenance of are costly they build a private non state maintained road to allow people access to their lots. Now most people can’t afford to pay cash for a lot and build a house so they need to go to a bank for a loan. The bank doesn’t want to have as collateral a lot and house on a road the might become impassable due to neglect so at minimum a road maintenance agreement must be registered for the lots with a structure as to how maintenance will be paid for amongst the home owners. Often to have some control as to what is in the neighborhood the developer will tern that into an HOA so that people looking to buy lots aren’t seeing things like shacks and smelling hobby pig farms in the development
It is a public park. You have read and know the rules. You are trying to justify the fact you are knowingly and wantonly breaking the rules because they do not suit your personal wants and needs. Rules are there for a reason, even if you do not agree with them. If you are former military, I would think you would gave a pretty decent understanding of rules and obedience to them.
actually your knowledge of military is lacking also. Officers are not to blindly follow orders. We can and do use our own judgement. There were several trials post WWII about that.
If you cannot abide by them, find another place to ride. I can imagine you would be offended by other’s violation of rules, depending on what those rules are. If you are handicapped, how would you feel about an able bodied person parking in a handicapped parking spot?
. Again it is the reasonableness of the rules. The land for the park was donated for horse trails that should have bearing on if the rules are horse friendly the land wasn’t donated for hikers and MTBs. Just like the handicapped space wasn’t put there for the able bodied.
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If you want a place to ride with no rules, buy your own land. That would allow you to make and enforce any rule you like or have totally anarchy. Go for it!
actually I ride in many places and follow the rules. I haven’t and most likely never will ride at Preddy Creek. But I would hate to see even more horse trails co opted by such rules. The actual purpose of this thread was to see how big the issue was, if people realized the ramifications to there fellow riders and try to figure out to prevent further encroachment of devotees of sanitized nature.
From the horse Cano ground on Mt Hood the trails out are pretty well pooped high. But it doesn’t matter because it’s from the horse area. But if you park and ride from the general area you better be ready to kick the poo off the trail. That place has heavy usage from hikers. I recently hiked from Wallowa Lake and the shit trail out from base was ridiculous. I foresee horses being either banned or moved to a different trail system. We all know our horses poop a lot at the beginning of the ride so be aware! At least try to steer them over to the side vs right down the middle.
Well if we cannot even agree with our fellow Equestrians, what hope is there to influence others? I would prefer horse only trails. Unfortunately, the state of PA is broke, and trail maintenance is so far down on the list of the State Forest it does not even see daylight. So we have to share, and I imagine it is probably the same in most other states.
I personally find people with loose ill behaved dogs a real Pain in the HINDQUARTERS. And there is usually more than one loose dog. If you are on a horse, or hiking, you can be in peril from these uncontrolled brutes. Stepping in dog poop is not fun either. I imagine that is exactly how the hikers and bikers feel about us and our 1200 lb pooping machines.
I don’t know what the ‘answer’ is to this issue. But large groups of riders better be aware of what imagine they leave behind. Hikers have been very successful in the past getting trails closed to anything but human foot traffic.
Riding on public lands is a privilege, not our right as Equestrians.
Our local multi-use trail has a group of volunteers that clean the manure off the trails. Some folks worked very hard with Park service to get them to understand horses and riders. It works to Educate folks about equestrian issues… I think we have a hard time realizing how little most people know about riding and horses, they basically think they are big dogs.
Our trail is old railroad bed about 20 miles long and heavily used by joggers,bikes, mom with strollers and dog walkers on the weekends with lighter use during the week. I never ride on weekends except after 6PM .
So for yrs. now this has worked because the equestrians group works hard to have personal relationships with Park Service and we do clean the trails. Of course people complain and silly as it may sound when i explain its not like dog poo its just digested grass a lot of the mom’s relax.When I am just out walking I cary a stick and toss manure off the trails, every little bit helps.
Also we do not empty our trailers into the parking lots or surrounding vegetation and keep the parking areas clean. I know who would do that ,well lots of riders!
That said we have lost another trail when stupid horse people were leaving trash in the woods and bottles on the road. I couldn’t believe horse people were leaving bottles in the grass where we park. There i had to agree with Park Service.
Oh and for the nasty snarling dog i carry pepper spray ,just try NOT to get the dog in the face as the smell alone is enough to send them running. If they are on a leash then I don’t care as I know that a trail horse needs to be able to cope with a leashed dog. Unleashed well as they say “make my day”. Truthfully the pepper spray protects the dog as my mare will kick them given the chance, heck she chases bikes! Love her.
