Equestrian "Right to Ride" Bills

[Scotty]

Anyone else notice all the piles of horse *bleep* on the race course at Fort Custer last weekend? Ad muddy as it was out there I hope the few piles I avoided was all that was out there.

Of course, if I let my dog *bleep* and left it lying around like that I'd get a ticket. But if some priviledged *bleep* with a horse leaves his animals' *bleep* all over the place it's A-OK?

[scat silvurz]

That's because Equestrians will tell you that horses are vegetarians and their *beep* contains none of the "bad" stuff that carnivore/omnivore scat carries....why, horse plops are so wonderful, Equestrians will often eat these mushy brown apples whilst out on a trailride!. You can tell, by their *beep* grin....

Yes Virginia, you CAN bunny hop a PLOP!
http://racerxgrl.smugmug.com/Politics/Biking-Stuff/horseplop/222383964_DW3uv-M.jpg

[FrankenFuel95]

Novi Town Center?

What the heck was that doing there... well, besides baking in the sun?

[Scotty]

perhaps, to illustrate a point, we could go scoop up all the shorse *bleep* out there on some of the local trails and haul it to the next Snowmobile Trail committee meeting and dump it in a pile right in front of them. Just to let everybody know how clean and lovely all that horse *bleep* really is. if the horse lovers on the committee love it so much, I'm sure they'll take a big bite!

IMO, if we're going to be mostly shut out of the decision making on trails in the State, we should do everything we can to raise holy *beep* about the filth caused by horse owners. Our policy should be "No S H I T on the trails!" If you cant get them off trails, make a huge "stink" about their *bleep* Since horse owners are virtually guaranteed NOT to comply with picking up after themselves, it ought to be an easy issue to use as a wedge.

There are a lot of trail users who don't give a *bleep* about "trail science." But give them the idea that their local trail is going to be buried knee deep in *bleep* and you might change a few minds.

[c0nsumer]

There are a lot of trail users who don't give a *bleep* about "trail science." But give them the idea that their local trail is going to be buried knee deep in *bleep* and you might change a few minds.

Wholly off topic, but I find your manual insertion of *bleep* quite amusing, as opposed to just letting the forum software censor words on the list for you. Also, if you want to use the icon, it's the word beep not bleep.

[wingzz]

We need a mtb subcommittee to match theirs. This way we always have someone to fill in the current position. Throw it on the backs of the TC's who imo would have the best knowledge of area trails anyways and it’s not like its more work. Maybe an extra meeting should something happen in their area.

It’s a slap in the face to not have a mtbr listed or at least state members from additional non-motorized trail users (not including the "horse" lovers). I understand that it grants nothing. However, it’s a foot in the door. All I want is a voice and for now we possibly have one. How long will it last? ...will anyone listen? ... any vote our one seat has is already downed if the 2 equestrian seats vote.

The focus is all wrong. It should be on the right to recreation for all groups. Handle issues of park closures and such ... not this. Let groups work it out with the land managers with facts and keep the govt out of it (as much as possible)

Now the equestrians have really created a possible issue for all trail users... It appears we are in a difficult spot...do nothing or attempt to create more red tape and legislation. What to do ... what to do...?

Please can someone post up a utube of the horse issue at the fort ... or get some footage of the camp out.

Thats great how you decide who should do what, look us TC's have plenty to do, please don't try to add more.
All you see is traildays, we have to plan that trailday and get ready for it, sometimes this can take 4-5 hours to get everything together, or longer if it is a big project, then after the trailday we have to put all the tools away, clean up the trailer and tools, record all the hours for FAFL reporting and send/post a report on the trailday.
There are also scouting, meetings, marking, trimming, things that dont show up on your radar.
Please don't volunteer others for a job you can volunteer for yourself

[Di_bear]

We do have a system in place, now, but you have to let it work.

The latest and good news: Equestrian Right to Ride Laws – Pigeon River Country.

[Scotty]

We do have a system in place, now, but you have to let it work.

The latest and good news: Equestrian Right to Ride Laws – Pigeon River Country.

What exactly is the "system" that's in place. In the case of Pigeon River, was it the DNRE that made the final decision, or was it simply that Equestrians didn't push the issue at pigeon river? What happens if they dig in and demand access?

[Di_bear]

We do have a system in place, now, but you have to let it work.

The latest and good news: Equestrian Right to Ride Laws – Pigeon River Country.

What exactly is the "system" that's in place. In the case of Pigeon River, was it the DNRE that made the final decision, or was it simply that Equestrians didn't push the issue at pigeon river? What happens if they dig in and demand access?

The only thing that the bill requires is that certain trail systems be discussed in regard to equestrian access. That's it. The equestrians don't have rights to everything, just the opportunity to be heard. From what I've heard, I suspect Fort Custer will end in our favor. The issue is that we have to work at a government pace, so it will take time, but we have good people in place to speak on our behalf. It helps that the Michigan Horse Council seems to be for building new equestrian trails and leaving current hike/bike trails for hikers and bikers.

[David H.]

Thank you Board Members and TC's!
My workload never allows me to get involved as so many of you do. Until retirement or a lottery win I'll have to settle with being a patron member and trail days when I can.
Thanks each and every one of you for all you do on this and all the issues we face.

[Di_bear]

David, your attendance on trail days is a huge contribution. Thank you for volunteering your time.

[nate.phelps]

We do have a system in place, now, but you have to let it work.

The latest and good news: Equestrian Right to Ride Laws – Pigeon River Country.

What exactly is the "system" that's in place. In the case of Pigeon River, was it the DNRE that made the final decision, or was it simply that Equestrians didn't push the issue at pigeon river? What happens if they dig in and demand access?

The only thing that the bill requires is that certain trail systems be discussed in regard to equestrian access. That's it. The equestrians don't have rights to everything, just the opportunity to be heard. From what I've heard, I suspect Fort Custer will end in our favor. The issue is that we have to work at a government pace, so it will take time, but we have good people in place to speak on our behalf. It helps that the Michigan Horse Council seems to be for building new equestrian trails and leaving current hike/bike trails for hikers and bikers.

Scott the equestrians did dig in, the result being the Horse Bill, which was ultimately much watered down from the original version. Moving forward, honestly there is some agreement between groups on trail use. How it fleshes out remains to be seen or is at best speculation. We all love our trails, often passionately and "to last drip of my blood" at a local level. And this has worked effectively for many years. Late last year we changed our approach. Besides the local boots on the ground advocacy, we retained a lobbyist firm in Lansing which aided greatly in changes to the horse bill and moved state level advocacy from the plate of the ED to an advocacy director, John Gonway.

To say the least we are watching legislation much closer, but where we are losing is in numbers. There are 80,000 members in the BCHA, we aren't even a tenth of that number. It is arguable to say that we have capacity to take on new projects. The numbers simply are not there. There are many legacy members like yourself that renew each year. We have the choir as evidenced by the number of passionate posts, what we aren't doing well is growing and outreach to new members. Our next challenge is determine our economic impact. If read Howard Meyerson's column today, we have the start- but in reality we suspect the number to be much higher. And this is not taking into account purchases, tourism, and events.

With all of that being said, I'd really like to be able to say there will be no trail use issues and all is good. But to do so would not be the truth. There will always be a need for a mtb advocacy group as there is a distinct lack of new real estate being made. There will be trail use issues as we all want our own place to recreate in the way we want.

[Loren]

Thanks for the update Nate. I appreciate the work you put into this.

I'm wondering about that stat you quoted of 80,000 members in the BCHA... The BCHA website claims 13,300 members across 47 states. Did you mean a different organization, or are we looking at different things?

From the article: "State MMBA recorded 1,926 volunteer hours spent building and maintaining 30 trail projects in Michigan."

I suspect that number is an order of magnitude lower than reality, which is sad. A great many people don't report their hours. (I know I don't ) We did the work, we simply didn't keep track of it or tell anyone about it. While we enjoy the physical benefit of that work (nicer trails), we don't enjoy the political the benefit of that work (leverage.)

[fattyclark]

On the reporting of hours thing. I think there is room for improvement in reporting and collecting them. Has anyone given any thought to having one person in charge of putting these together? It would be one place that everyone in the state reports there hours to.

I

[Loren]

I'm not sure that the logistics of reporting volunteer time is the constraint here. In our chapter, you report hours by sending an email to the trail coordinator. This helps the TC keep track of who is doing what on their trail, keeps them up to date with volunteer hours so that they have that info to share with their land manager, etc. The TC tracks this and forwards to the chapter for fafl hours at the end of the year. Sending an email to the TC is easy and fast, and yet time doesn't get reported.

State wide volunteer tracking wouldn't be a very fun job, but maybe we could write a little on-line app for that. Worth thinking about...