"trail maintenance" is that what kids are calling it nowadays?I do on occasion take a mule onto local trails, but that is usually for doing some trail maintenance.
that would make you a psychopath.if that had been me and my old horse Porter that DH would have been pedalling for his life as we chased his ass down the trail. No my horse wouldn't have spooked and as an old Rodeo Pick up horse he kind of liked racing Mt bikes on the trail. It would be me seriously pissed off going after his ass to give him the what for. Wonder how he would feel with a 1000 pound horse a couple inches off his backside at 35 mph
Yup. We don't meet horses on our trails often, but I definitely pay them respect...they are beautiful animals and I would hate to be the reason someone lost a trail or even worse, got injured because I couldn't take a minute to do the right thing.I think a few people are have lost sight of 2 facts. IMBA policy is that the mountian bikers stop and let the horse pass when meeting on the trail. The second is if the horse had bucked and the person riding the horse was hurt the trail could end up being closed. If you do not stop and make way for a horse on the trail you are wrong and creating more people against MT bikers
B) Members of the redneck Idaho side of my family who probably cumulatively own 100 horses have told me that if a horse can't deal with a bike passing them in close proximity, it shouldn't be out on public land.
It's very cut & dry.
Horses spook easily, get off your bike well in advance and asked the rider if it's okay to walk your bike past the horse.
Remember,, the equestrians usually have the money and the backing to get the mountain bikes off the trails. So respect them whether or not they deserve it, it could go a long way in keeping the trails for everyone's enjoyment.
Living here in the hippie capitol of the world, you have to learn to play by the rules. As much as it does suck big time.
I'm going by Bay Area experiences.Large, expensive pets spook easily. A solid, well trained to be bullet proof (literally, not shying from guns etc) horse does not spook at anything.
You clearly have not ridden in Santa Barbara or some other oddball hiker-intensive places around SoCal haha.or some crazy hiker jump out in the middle of the trail causing me to crash.
stop trying to justify acting like a doushe.You clearly have not ridden in Santa Barbara or some other oddball hiker-intensive places around SoCal haha.
Thanks for the clarification.I wasn't trying to justify it. I was just recalling a couple incidents where a hiker literally jumped out in front of me or whoever was in front in my group to give us a lecture. Nowhere else would you encounter that kind of retarded-ness.
Douche or no douche, I just do whatever it takes to keep my proximity to a skittish big animal to a minimum for a minimum amount of time. I could be standing still letting the horse pass and something else entirely could spook the thing and I'd get fvcked. I've seen that happen too. Big reason why I simply just avoid the things as much as I can, regardless of what rules are in place. Not saying I agree with what the dude in the video did at all though, that was somewhat careless and dumb.