The topic is to better facilitate interactions between equestrians and hikers on trail, not a let's bash equestrians who may have behaved poorly.
Thank you.
The topic is to better facilitate interactions between equestrians and hikers on trail, not a let's bash equestrians who may have behaved poorly.
Thank you.
"Sleepy alligator in the noonday sun
Sleepin by the river just like he usually done
Call for his whisky
He can call for his tea
Call all he wanta but he can't call me..."
Robert Hunter & Ron McKernan
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A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White
the average trail rider will most likely appreciate it. As many have dealt with the the folks who do the freeze and silent thing. which is why many will actually greet you first,, in order to get you to respond.
Far as distance,,, I guess just normal greeting distance, or if you see the horse looking at you can getting stupid.
Honestly though asking you to drop your poles or gear or something is pretty lame, I mean I would expect you not to whip them around,,, but geesh.
As a hiker in that situation I would probably just ignore you.
For that matter pretty irresponsible for a stable owner to put non riders on anything but a dead head.
I hike a lot of areas with horse trails. 90 percent of the time, just make voice contact with the rider while stepping a few feet off the trail is what they like. I've never had an issue with hiking poles being an issue. Even my dog usually isn't an issue to the horse (dog is leashed because he has a habit of chasing and catching rabbits, armadillos, herding deer....). In years of hiking on horse trails, there was only one occasion when there was a rider taking exception to me, no matter what I did. Her horse was somewhat more "spooky" than most, but not the worst one I've hiked near. The rider had a smile on her face, but she let me know that pretty much everything I did (Voice contact, off trail, stopping) was NOT what HER horse wanted. I just smiled and said "Have a nice ride", waited until she was 20 feet away and kept hiking.
There will always be the exceptions.
For a couple of bucks, get a weird haircut and waste your life away Bryan Adams....
Hammock hangs are where you go into the woods to meet men you've only known on the internet so you can sit around a campfire to swap sewing tips and recipes. - sargevining on HF
I also read that the hiker should move off trail on the downhill side; because a spooked horse is easier to control uphill than down.
The older I get, the faster I hiked.