This is kind of crappy...

Isn't it crazy? I refuse to be a part of the argument though, all the horse people have said almost all that can be said...I've nothing to add lol.

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/t38419/ :lol-sign: Have fun reading! All 130 pages...:rofl1:

I've read that! All of it. Very interesting conversation that one.

I did too, till 2am in the morning.....but it was like a book you can't put down, and I just couldn't leave the rest for another day!

This is just another one of our most intellectual Chazzy conversations. You can count on one of these from time to time for your viewing pleasure. :rofl1:

*wipes of screen... perfect LOL cat for this thread Eddie.. that is just great. :rofl1: At least the OP doesn't have to clean it off by licking!

:rofl1::rofl1::rofl1:

Too cute.

LOL at the lolcat.

Juicy, Tahla, you guys need to change your setting so their arent' a billion pages. Saves a lot of clicking.

Wow, this conversation is still going 21 pages later. Gramps, when will you just leave everything be, everyone has their own opinion, which I agree with pretty much everything that people have been saying about horse manure. Yes it's poop, yes you don't like it, but no one is forcing you to walk on that trail. If it bugs you so much, leave.

Also, what did your story have to do with anything?

I will preface this by saying I am fairly ignorant of horses, so please excuse that. Also, this is not meant to be snarky at all.
There seems to be a consensus that horses are spooky animals, and would be upset by a rider carrying a shovel/baggies etc. Why then are people so upset about designating some trails as being horse only? It seems that if animals are spooked by shovels and bags, they would also be spooked by the joggers/dogs/screaming kids found on most trails.
A horses only trail seems like a reasonable and safe solution to the problem. The horses are less likely to be spooked, and joggers/dogwalkers are not exposed to horse poop. Seems win/win to me. Or maybe I am misunderstanding something about it?

The fact is that most of the time horse only trails don't exist. The most horse oriented trail in this area still allows hikers, although not hikers with dogs. The biggest issue I've found is actually people with dogs. Before i owned dogs and only rode horses i thought that as a group dog owners where the most inconsiderate bunch of ninnies on the planet. They would walk their dogs OFF LEASH on a trail frequented by horses. They would not move off the trail so that horses had to pass within feet of their barking, screeching, leaping dog while the person just laughed at the reaction of the dogs and horse. They would travel that wrong direction in the trail then get all annoyed when they had to move off the side of the trail for you to pass safely because the brush was too thick there for the horses to walk into, etc. I felt this way and my horse LOVED dogs and NEVER shied at their antics. That is actually why DOGS were the ones banned on the local trails.

still & silent
no one is arguing against horse only trails or even banning horses on multiuse trails. what Gramps has been saying & i agree with is that the REFUSAL of horsemen & women to clean up on a multiuse WILL lead to their being banned. i haven't seen an arguement yet that is going to matter.
1. the whining ten percent of nonhorse riders don't give a rat's @$$ that horse poop is relatively harmless as far as they're concerned poop is poop. the other 90% either don't care or don't care enough to make the effort against it.
2. if you say the horse will be skittish to a diaper or carrying a small folding shovel (like say a military style e-tool) and that will be dangerous to the rider, they will respond then the horse is dangerous to everyone if it's dangerous to the rider and so should be banned for safety. they won't have to argue hard because the horsemen put the idea of danger in everyone's head.
3. saying that mounting & dismounting is bad for the horses' backs won't matter either way really but it will give ammo to any PETAphiles to push a general ban on pleasure riding (maybe even all riding) as being cruel to the horses.

ultimately the people making the decision will bow to the larger voice & since horsemen will usually be outnumbered, they are going to lose.

See to me, this speaks to a much deeper societal issue. This attitude of "THIS offends (not hurts or injures, but offends) ME therefore it MUST be stopped.

Yes, poop can be gross and some may find it annoying. There are actually a LOT of things I think are gross and annoying, much more so than poop. People with nasty, knock-you-over BO are gross. Should I start showing up to town counsel meetings demanding the regulation of deodorant? I think overly hairy men in Speedos at the beach are gross. Should i start calling the DNR and ask them to make rules banning hairy Speedo men? I find it incredibly annoying when a kid has a meltdown at the table next to me at a restaurant and the parents refuse to remove him from the situation. Maybe I should push for that banning of all children under 8 from eating establishments that are not fast food places.

Hell, why SHOULDN'T the whole world be designed specifically so I don't have to be offended, annoyed, grossed out, or inconvenienced? I mean, that's my RIGHT isn't it?

:hail::hail::hail:

FANTASTIC AND SO RIGHT ON! :hail::hail::hail:

sally
not disagreeing w/ your point but this is a political issue and while you see it as offensive others see it as hurtful. and i have to agree that not cleaning up on a MULTIUSE trail in an urban/suburban PUBLIC park setting is hurtful to the majority of users. i do not feel the same about horse only trails in the same kind of parks, ungroomed & even most groomed trails & recreation areas on wildlands like NFs, SFs & BLM lands. ultimately the side that has the most numbers or makes the most noise is going to win. and when horses are banned the owners only really have themselves to blame for refusing to clean up after THEIR animals.

Thanks, now you have answered me. I get where you are coming from.

Because this seems appropriate for this thread...what a joke