I emailed the article that was posted in here early on to my brother- who in the last year or so has decided he is one of the greatest mountain bikers of all time…We ended up having quite the discussion over it, and he feels that if people can not control their horses then they should not ride them on multi-use trails…I told him if he did not like the horse poop, then he should stick to sidewalks, lol.
Just remind him of what is easier/greater to control:
a) a non-thinking, non-feeling, non-breathing Bicycle under the physical control of a thinking, feeling, breathing HUMAN capable of stopping it (the cycle) at a moment’s notice…
or
b) a thinking, feeling, breathing, REACTIONARY 900-2,000 pound animal?
:winkgrin:
[QUOTE=ChocoMare;4804319]
b) a thinking, feeling, breathing, REACTIONARY 900-2,000 pound animal?
:winkgrin:[/QUOTE]
And reason b) is why my many motorcycle friends say they’d never ride a horse. They’d rather ride something that can’t think for itself 
This past weekend I was riding in the park across the road from where I board.
I love the park due to the fact that there are no paved trails and no bikes are allowed.
My friend and I were at the trailhead on our horses chatting with some friends that also happened to be there.
We see this strange object coming up the driveway to the trailhead (it’s about 1/3 mile long).
It’s a guy walking a velomobile, which looks like this: http://www.recumbent-bikes-truth-for-you.com/images/Aerorider%20Side%20Closed.jpg
He brought the thing into the horse trailer parking area and leaned it up against a tree!
One of the people we were chatting with was on a green horse, who definitely took issue with this alien spaceship landing in the parking lot.
While he was courteous by walking the thing in rather than riding, we were rather perplexed as to what he was doing there anyway. (We left right after he parked it.)
Most likely he was taking a rest, but he could have parked the thing in the woods near the driveway entrance rather than bringing it up near the horses…
Nah, thay don’t want to be outsmarted by a dumb animal.
Many, many years ago I lost a high school friend due to high school boys playing a prank. We had gone for a trail ride and she had to ride about a mile to her house from mine. There was a two lane road and way off to the side was a small trail where she was riding her horse. Teenage boys came up behind her in their car and blew the horn several times. Her horse took off and she was thrown off and hit her head on the pavement and was killed instantly. Amazing her horse stopped and wouldn’t leave her. The boys took off but witnesses got their license number. Her Mom called my house looking for her. My Dad went out to look for her and found the accident. My poor Dad lead the horse home and had to tell her Mom about the accident. The boys were located very quickly and found guilty of vehicular manslaughter/leaving the scene of an accident, etc and spent many years in prison. That accident left such an impression on me, I never forgot her…
Oh my 
[QUOTE=Leather;4804464]
This past weekend I was riding in the park across the road from where I board.
I love the park due to the fact that there are no paved trails and no bikes are allowed.
My friend and I were at the trailhead on our horses chatting with some friends that also happened to be there.
We see this strange object coming up the driveway to the trailhead (it’s about 1/3 mile long).
It’s a guy walking a velomobile, which looks like this: http://www.recumbent-bikes-truth-for-you.com/images/Aerorider%20Side%20Closed.jpg
He brought the thing into the horse trailer parking area and leaned it up against a tree!
One of the people we were chatting with was on a green horse, who definitely took issue with this alien spaceship landing in the parking lot.
While he was courteous by walking the thing in rather than riding, we were rather perplexed as to what he was doing there anyway. (We left right after he parked it.)
Most likely he was taking a rest, but he could have parked the thing in the woods near the driveway entrance rather than bringing it up near the horses…[/QUOTE]
Iwould have taken it as an opportunity to show my horse that it was nothing to be scared of…and walked my horse up so it could get a closer look and a sniff…
[QUOTE=FancyASB;4805406]
Many, many years ago I lost a high school friend due to high school boys playing a prank. We had gone for a trail ride and she had to ride about a mile to her house from mine. There was a two lane road and way off to the side was a small trail where she was riding her horse. Teenage boys came up behind her in their car and blew the horn several times. Her horse took off and she was thrown off and hit her head on the pavement and was killed instantly. Amazing her horse stopped and wouldn’t leave her. The boys took off but witnesses got their license number. Her Mom called my house looking for her. My Dad went out to look for her and found the accident. My poor Dad lead the horse home and had to tell her Mom about the accident. The boys were located very quickly and found guilty of vehicular manslaughter/leaving the scene of an accident, etc and spent many years in prison. That accident left such an impression on me, I never forgot her…[/QUOTE]
Wow…so sad. People just don’t THINK. I’d bet that those boys never thought that their stupid stunt could cost that girl her life. It absolutely infuriates me when people do stupid stuff like that though. My friend and I were riding alongside a road a couple of weeks ago when a man honked his horn while approaching from behind. He wasn’t somebody that either of us knows and we were well off the road with a ditch between us and the road and a farm field on the other side. We don’t know why he honked his horn…maybe he wanted to see some action 
[QUOTE=PRS;4806086]
Wow…so sad. People just don’t THINK. I’d bet that those boys never thought that their stupid stunt could cost that girl her life. It absolutely infuriates me when people do stupid stuff like that though. My friend and I were riding alongside a road a couple of weeks ago when a man honked his horn while approaching from behind. He wasn’t somebody that either of us knows and we were well off the road with a ditch between us and the road and a farm field on the other side. We don’t know why he honked his horn…maybe he wanted to see some action [/QUOTE]
I think some jerks do that because they DO want to see some action. The nearby park has a section of trail that runs parallel to the park road, and it’s not uncommon for local-yokels to actually speed up, revv their engines, peel out, honk their horns, etc. when they see a horse on that trail.
Funny thing about it, though, is that it’s such a common occurance that most of the people who ride the park regularly are used to it, and so are their horses. . .so it really doesn’t have the “desired” effect. People who do that are, IMO, just losers and cowards who would actually be terrified if confronted by someone on horseback while they were on foot.
Two friends of mine were on that trail at one point last year when a car tried doing that to her. . .she actually started chasing the car, yelling that she was going to kick their @$$ (she has a short fuse). My other friend, a guy in his sixties who looks like he stepped right out of an old Western, added “yeah, and I’ll hold her horse while she does it!”:lol:
If it was just a polite honk as he was approaching you from behind, it may have been a misguided attempt to warn you. I’ve had people do that to me.
Of course there are definitely those jerks who just want to spook the horses.
[QUOTE=Luckydonkey;4806003]
Iwould have taken it as an opportunity to show my horse that it was nothing to be scared of…and walked my horse up so it could get a closer look and a sniff…[/QUOTE]
Oh, brilliant. I love it when people make a deal out of unfamiliar things and have to “show” it to their horse.
[QUOTE=xeroxchick;4806949]
Oh, brilliant. I love it when people make a deal out of unfamiliar things and have to “show” it to their horse.[/QUOTE]
And why is that a problem?
Heck, I’ve had my NEIGHBORS drive down the driveway that goes by my pasture, honk, scream out the windows, swerve, etc. Then they floored it backwards and did it all again! Luckily my horses just stood there and stared at them like they were insane. Their dad is very very nice and respectful of livestock, and when we have had other issues with his kids he has always been easy to deal with. Like when his 22-yo daughter hit the fence while drunk one night, let all the horses out, and then just left and went home.
[QUOTE=Luckydonkey;4807019]
And why is that a problem?[/QUOTE]
Was wondering the same thing myself?
[QUOTE=Alagirl;4804476]
Nah, thay don’t want to be outsmarted by a dumb animal.[/QUOTE]
Oh they know darn well how intelligent horses are…they’re just scared of them. They can road race (legal road racing on a track,) but they’re scared of horses
On the subject of cars, I used to live in the suburbs of Chicago, where the vast majority of people have probably never touched a horse in their life, let alone understand how horses work. My barn had awesome trails, but you had to cross a street to get to them. Often times people would honk their horns at us… then wave hello. They had NO IDEA that honking was a bad idea, they just wanted to say hi to the pretty horsey I guess. :lol:
Now the people that revved their engines past us… they got a firm fist-shaking and a few obscenities hollered at them. :o
I’m glad to be living out in a rural area now… the people on these back country roads at least understand how large prey animals think! They slow down, cut it waaaaaaaaay wide around us, or if they see the horse is dancing or being nervous, they will actually come to a complete stop behind us and wait until a rider waves them by. It’s great.
A couple of years ago, I would have throttled a bicycle rider with my bare hands if I could have gotten ahold of his scrawny little spandexed neck.
I was riding back home after a trail ride on a quiet, two lane road. Now my guy is OK with cars, motorcycles, bicycles, dogs, baby joggers, cows, pigs, people with strange hats on, you name it.
What he wasn’t ok with was getting snuck up on.
The a**hole came up from directly behind us, no warning, no sound, probably doing about 25mph. There wasn’t a single car to be seen or heard on this stretch.
I heard a faint noise behind me, turned my head to see what it was in time to see this flash of yellow off my horse’s hip, like 1’ off his hip! (WHY do all the yuppies wear yellow? They all dress up like they are pretending to lead the Tour de France!)
Anyway, my guy heard it at the same time I saw it, and he panicked and jumped 10’ straight sideways. We went off a small drop onto someone’s yard. Thankfully, there wasn’t anything in the way, nor did he do that much damage to the guy’s yard.
I was royally pissed. That was one of the most boneheaded, ignorant moves I’ve seen. This dipstick had the entire lane to himself, heck the entire road, and could have been in the middle of it instead of all the way over to the edge where we were. It was like he wanted to deliberately buzz us.
My guy would have been ok if the bike was a little further away. And for sure he would have been fine if he could have turned his head and seen him before he got to us. But he never got a chance to be warned.
Thank God he’s not a kicker. Old “Lance” would have gone for one hell of a ride…
asshat
I actually have a sign that hangs on the back of my saddle over his tail that says “Beware I kick”. But I also have the luxury of riding a horse that used to be used as a carriage horse. He would never kick but most people see that and either ask me if it’s true (cluing me in they are close) or give me a wide berth. Now I do have to reach back and get the sign out of the way when he wants to poop but other than that it just sits there and he’s used to it so it doesn’t bug him. When I do have enough space for a good canter I remove the sign and stash it in my trail bag. If you can get your horse to tolerate it you might try that and I will happily post my template of the sign and take pics of him wearing it. Now if I can just convince my dogs not to chase the bikers we’d be good.
I just read all this. I would say that the majority of the bicyclists are decent there are just a few that have the nick name Richard Cranium.
I ride both mountain and road bikes. When on the trail I will stop and get off my bike. The horses go past me and i wait a bit before continuing on. When going the same direction of the horse I will say really loud cyclist back here. Most of the time the rider will stop and turn the horse around to look at me.
On the road I will say the same thing.
I would never ever pass a horse without saying anything.
On the bike trails I dread riding there. The people with baby carriage, multiple walkers, and so on have no courtesy at all. I yell on your left and they just totally ignore me. I yell a little louder…ON YOUR LEFT still ignore me. Finally I just get up right behind them and ride REALLY slow. They get the hint and move. One did ask me why I doing it. UM…because the 4 times I yelled on your left you ignored me and I caught up.
