Trail and Road Etiquette - What Do We Think?

Recently, with nicer riding weather here, there have been a ton of awareness type videos and posters being shared and distributed by our local equestrian community, mostly via facebook. Lots of guidelines for sharing the roads and trails, usually focusing on educating other users.

I think education is great. I think sharing roads and trails with everyone is great. Making everyone safer, also obviously a great thing. This website has some good tips and rules for sharing the road.

Seems reasonable?

I hate to say it though, but to me a lot of the equine-centric materials being distributed come across as entitled and honestly, unfair to other users. Ditto for some of my fellow riders, who I've seen in person being quite demanding of other users. Just one example, but I know people who ride three abreast down the middle of the road and expect traffic to wait for them. I guess they can do it, but it doesn't seem overly safe or like good PR for equestrians. I recently ran into a group of lovely ladies who had been told off by a rider whose horse was scared of their dogs, so thought the appropriate thing to do upon seeing me coming was to hide themselves and their dogs in the bushes next to the trail :D

Bear with me, I have a few thoughts on being a responsible and fair user of shared outdoor space:

- If I am taking my horse out in a multi use space, I think the respectful thing to do is ensure my horse is as prepared and safe as possible for that. I realize I am incredibly lucky to own Bridget, who is level headed in most situations. I'm doing my best to make Sophie just as solid, but it she doesn't turn out to be reliable, I will certainly be getting help and/or making decisions about when or if we share trails with other users. 

- I think it's unreasonable to expect the world to leave me alone in a big happy horse riding bubble. I'd expect pedestrians, trucks, cyclists, ATVs, and motorcycles to want to (politely) overtake me. I expect people to make mistakes and have bad days, for the weather to do crazy things, for strange situations to arise. My horse and I need to be ready for that, not just happy and safe in perfect circumstances.

All alone in our happy bubble...for now.

- Even though I *could* ride somewhere and there are no signs explicitly telling me not to, it doesn't mean I should ride there. I think I've mentioned before, there are some trails I simply don't ride. For example, the local mountain bikers put a ton of work into a few downhill spots and it seems very unfair for me to dig it up with horse hooves and risk damaging their bridges, etc. We also share our crown forests with active logging and resource interests - again, just because theoretically it's crown/public land, is it really a wise choice to ride through active areas during working hours and force the operators and drivers to shut down and wait for me?

Last year there was some facebook drama from equestrians upset at how busy the swimming beaches at a local lake...'their' lake access to be precise. I tend to keep riding past if people are there picnicking and swimming, it seems safer. The land is public, and it's only busy for a couple of months out of the year.

- Communicate. Let other users know your intentions, wave them past, smile, say hi. Thank them if they've stopped to let you pass on the trail or given you extra respect on the road. It's so easy to get into a zone and take things for granted.

I don't know, maybe some of the educational stuff is just trying to err way on the side of caution and be super safe by saying things like motorized vehicles shouldn't ever pass horses, bike riders need to stop and get off as you pass, etc. I feel like if I didn't have horses, though, I might be a little resentful of the lengths we ask others to go to just to share a trail.

Thoughts? :)