Small rant and what can I do thread - Public Trails

[jessiesgrrl]

Hi All,
My barn is amazingly located half a block from a provincial park. This is a natural park along a large river, with well used trails and a giant map at the parking lot showing the different trails throughout.
On this map is a chunk of trails marked as Horse Safe/Allowed.

So my group at least once a week goes out on these trails. We all stick to our designated area, as best we can when downed tress or missing colour coded markers don’t mix us up and send us to the wrong area

Recently there has been a woman (Mrs. X) that seems to go out the same times we do…not sure her exact walking path but she is often bumping into us on the horse designated trails. She is constantly mumbling obsenities about our F@*king horses being on her walking trails, etc etc. She has gone so far as to stop our lead rider and tell them to take the horse home as they aren’t welcome there.
I chalked this up to an unhappy with life woman who hasn’t canoed and is full of cob webs and can’t think straight.
We always pull our horses off the trail into the bush to allow walkers/runners/bikers the path, but lately we have been beating bush trails to really avoid her.

Well one of our riders caught wind Mrs. X is now petitioning to get the “horses allowed” rule revoked :eek: which means no trails within walking distance and some of us lease and just don’t have access to trailers to take the horses places.

Is there anything I/we can do in Southern Ontario to keep allowing our horses on these trails?!?
Or should we just keep doing what we do and wait to see if she actually has them thinking about taking it away (if thats even possible)

[Stushica]

I would not wait. I think the first thing I would do is find out who maintains the trails and tell them how much you all really enjoy the beautiful property it’s on and then ask if there’s any way that your barn could be more involved in keeping the trails maintained: Talk with your group and try to set up a day for trail maintenance, invite non horsy folk to join so you can get to know some of the other trail users.

Our group of riders is currently talking with the forestry/ EMS/ FD about setting up a communication system where they can contact our club and have us come out to look for missing persons, or injured people who would need to otherwise walk or be carried out.

Just a few quick suggestions, good luck!

[kimkatsooo]

Time for YOU and yours to be proactive! Find out who/what is in charge of the trails. Set up a meeting with them. Ask them if they would like for you to help clear the trails and replace missing markers. If they say no, ask them if they would like for you to tell them what needs to be done and where.

See YOU are being nice and offering help. Do not say a word about her. If they do not already know they will IF she talks to them.

Ask those in charge to include you in any meetings/talks about the trails. Ask where they post the info about such meetings.

Walking lady-could you bring yourself to give her something yummy or just stop, get off and chat with her for a min? MAYBE if she sees you as friends instead of enemies…

We ride off-road motorcycles. We share the trails with horses, walkers, bikers, etc. We make a point of pulling off to the side of the trail when we see horses, turn the bikes off AND talk to them. We have even been “used” as training tools for quite a few of them. After we show the owners we are good people they will start to ask us to let them go down the trail a little ways. We will then start up the bikes and let the horses come up to it while it is running. They will then go up the trail and we will come up behind them slowly and pass the horse while they are off of the trail.

Of course there are some that you cannot please but that is the way of the world. At least you know you tried AND if the mean ones do try to say something you have the good ones in your back pocket to prove you have tried to be the good guys.

Kim

[sunridge1]

Do a small fundraiser and donate the money to trail maintenance.

[atomicfriday]

As a waitress I run into many “miserable ladies along the trail” and know there are a number of people no matter what you do you simply cannot please. Maybe she has a reason for feeling the way she does about horses, who knows. Be the nice guy and give her no reason to resent sharing the trails. Not that you have, but make it hard for her to not like you. Also give the management reasons to approve of your usage, as stated maybe run a fund raiser. Do you need to pay to ride? I know in state management areas a daily fee is required or a yearly of around $30. If you are a paying user there is zero cause for her to start an argument over you riding the trails. Even so if only one person complains… So what. Where I live on the Gulf coast of Florida there are only two beaches I can take my dog. The countless others restrict it. Whenever the occurrence comes that someone complains about my dog being on the beach… Well I chalk it up to if they hate dogs that much they can go to 100x other beaches that don’t allow. BTW my dog is very friendly, non aggressive and obedient. I clean up after her. Some people are just that way. Best of luck!

[Flash44]

If she is actually filing a petition you will have to fight the petition.

[kaitsmom]

Great advice here, I would also get your local barn owners on board too. Have bo contact whoever maintains the park and offer her thanks for offering horse friendly trails and tell them your riding group is interested in volunteering to help keep the trails marked correctly and maintained. After all the bo stands to lose boarders if the nearby trails close to horses.

Also maybe suggest that in addition to the color coded map, that adding a small horse decal to the signs for the horse friendly trails. My bet is many hikers choose their trail based on distance and terrain and don’t even notice that horses are allowed o. Their particular trail. The decals would be a reminder that they have chosen a trail that they share with horses.

I hate people like the lady you describe. There are countless places to walk and hike on foot and just a few where you can trail ride. Ridiculous. If I managed the trails I would laugh and say both hiking and trail riding paths are available and she is ridiculous for using the horse trails if she doesn’t want to see horses. Who doesn’t want to see horses?

[Ibex]

If this is part of the Trans Canada or Rail Trail system, they made a BIG BIG deal about parts of it being horse friendly, and IIRC, there were a lot of contributions from the equestrian communities to the fund raisers originally. I’d go back to the OEF and see if they had part of the original lobby to get riders included, along with any local trail rider organizations. Chances are they already have the contacts and can get the wheels in motion to ensure riders continue to have access to the trails.

And I feel your pain… we have a couple of parks here with trails - some are horse friendly, and some are NOT horse friendly. Why people feel the need to take baby strollers on the horse parts is beyond me…

[Pocket_Pony]

Gosh, that really sucks! I agree with other posters about seeing what you guys can do to help maintain the trails for use. Is there a trail club group that you belong to or that you could join . . . or start? We have a local group that does a lot of trail maintenance and education and clean up and all sorts of community-involved things.

The trail that I go on the most is a mixed-use system for hikers, horses, and mountain bikes. We all get along just fine and I have rarely come across someone who isn’t friendly. I am always friendly to other users and often am the one pulling over to make space for them because I want to be a good ambassador for trail riders. Plus, when I come across something new, it is a great training opportunity for my horse. That’s HOW I taught him that bikers, joggers, strollers, dogs, screaming kids, and even llamas with backpacks are just things that we’ll encounter in a day on the trail. Actually the most unfriendly people I’ve come across are other riders - some are just grumps!

I think it is good to be proactive and show your interest in making the trails safe and clean and fun and accessible for everyone. Good luck!