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Keep Jefferson County trails equestrian friendly

356 Comments

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Elizabeth Perkin
5 years ago

I have frequently used the Olympic Discovery Trail as a runner and walker and have never encountered any issues with equestrians using the trail. Any equestrians I’ve interacted with have been friendly towards other trail users. Furthermore, I have never personally seen any horse manure left on the hard trail surface.

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Shelley Antle
5 years ago

Horses and horse riding have a long and rich history across the USA. Today, equestrians still comprise a substantial segment of the modern trail user group, yet we are the most underserved group. Please protect and preserve trail access for equestrians. We deserve an equal right to use and enjoy public trails.

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Margaret Lyn Ader
5 years ago

it walks like a duck

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Leslye Wing
5 years ago

Not a pet.. a recreational animal, livestock.

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Anonymous
5 years ago

Horses are livestock!

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Deborah henry
5 years ago

This is a very misguided effort. Please leave horses alone!

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Michelle Gregory
5 years ago Featured

As equestrians and in many cases, hikers and/or mountain bikers, we use the trails together. Horses are livestock. Equestrians build and maintain the trails we ride. We take very good care of the trails we use for everyone's enjoyment.

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Amber Wolf
5 years ago

Please do not destroy the ancient tradition of riding horses with or without dogs. This is not the big city...we live here to enjoy the area. Thank you.

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Darlene Tuttle
5 years ago

Horse riders and there dogs have ridden trails long before mountain bikes were invented. This proposal is ridiculous.

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Linda L Bucher
5 years ago

This is a reticules law. How are they going to enforce it,? They can't even enforce people with dogs to clean up after them or even enforce the leash law.

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karen landis
5 years ago

This issue needs a lot more thought and alternative perspective.

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Anonymous
5 years ago

It is unreasonable and logistically not feasible to have an equestrian pick up their horses manure when out riding. Several studies over the years have shown that very few pathogenic bacteria exist in the horse gut, and most of those (probably 99%) do not affect humans. In the past 100 years, there have been very few reported cases of horse caused zoonosis and of these most were not serious. Normal contact with horse manure on the trail will not cause disease. If it did, horse caretakers over the centuries would have been ill, often. Please use the below link to see the full study. https://elcr.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Horse-Manure-on-the-Trails-by-Lyndall-Erb2-2019-002.pdf Horse Manure on the Trails: Should we do something? by Lyndall Erb, PhD for ELCR June 2019

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Penny Booker
5 years ago

With all the work Equestrian’s do on trails this is a real slap in the face.

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Anonymous
5 years ago

Horses should not be classified as pets! Please do your research on this

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Casey Peterson
5 years ago

Horses are livestock

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Wendy
5 years ago

Please reconsider. If you eliminate horse rides the trails will actually suffer.

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Jamethiel Morse
5 years ago

Education is always better than enforcement, and changing these codes is the wrong path forward to successfully sharing multi use trails.

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Dawn Shipman
5 years ago

I fully support this petition. These potential restriction will effectively keep equestrians off these trails, which would be truly unfortunate.

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Martha McKeeth Ireland
5 years ago

Horses are transportation for those of us who are physically less-able. Dismounting & remounting is not feasible for us, thus the proposed requirement would violate the Americans With Disabilities Act. It would help if trails were consistently constructed with adequate shoulder areas so riders can keep to the unpaved shoulders of the trail, where horse droppings should not be a problem.

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Ilene Johnson
5 years ago

Horses are not pets, they are livestock, please leave them as such.