I've never heard that mounting and dismounting hurts a horse, as long as he's big enough for you and sound enough. And I've had horses since I was a kid, until recently. Anyhow, be that as it may, I have gotten off my horse many times while riding and perhaps leading him part of the way, just to relieve my aching back or whatever. I even had to pee one time on a very long ride and just held the reins and had the horse that many feet away (however long the reins were) and prayed that she wouldn't do anything crazy while I was in mid stream.:rofl1: But when ya gotta go, ya gotta go and when you're out in the middle of nowhere, what are you going to do?
I've sometimes gotten off to picked berries to eat, to re-adjust my cinch or maybe lengthen my stirrups to relieve my achin' knees. I've used my hand clippers to clip black berry vines away from across the trail. I think I wrapped the sharp end in a rag and tied it onto my western saddle that had raw hide strings on it for tying things on. When I was a kid, I rode bareback and went out into the woods to cut down a tiny Xmas tree my parents allowed me to have in my bedroom. I carried a hatchet all wrapped up in a rag and tied. I held that in one hand and the reins in the other hand. I could leap up on my big almost 16 hand, muscle-man palimino and rode like a little Indian. (I couldn't do that now. LOL) And that horse was really about as close to bomb proof as you can get. I would probably want to have both hands available when riding my Arabian horses I had as an adult.
Of course, even with my skittish Arabians, I would still let go of the reins to light a cigarette while on board. Everytime I'd stop to do that, I gave a piece of carrot to the horse. It was like our little break. As soon as I'd flick my lighter, she'd turn her head way around, like, "Oh good....now where's my carrot. LOL." There's that good old, associative learning.
So, yeah, it might be fine to get off, kick the poo off to the side of the road and get back on. Putting it into a plastic bag? Carrying a shovel? No way. Do you know the out-put of a horses bowel contents and how many times he poops on one ride?????? ROFLOL. Pretty impractical and really unnecessary, as it was mentioned....
in a day or two, will disappear the poo. hahahahaha.
And btw...horses can and do carry tentanus, so no....it's not entirely germ free. But who's going to eat it? Just my Lab, Bonnie. She loved those road apples. Never got sick either from a little snacking out in my pasture.
Anyhow, there are more important things to worry about IMO. And much, much
worser things to get offended over.