Just been out on my local trails and the local horse riders have been up it previously and churned it to beggary, now its like riding through a quagmire. Some bright spark has also decided the best way to repair this is to dump 20 ton of hardcore on it, thus wrecking the trail for walkers and riders as the stones are massive and have not been packed down.
Do you think horse riders should exercies a bit of judgement and stay off the trails when they’re muddy, ie stick to bridal paths that haves surfaces made for horses to traverse in all weathers and stop buggering up my local trails?
This has got to be a countrywide issue. MTBers have places they dont go in peak periods, should it be the same for horses and muddy paths?

Do you think horse riders should exercies a bit of judgement and stay off the trails when they’re muddy,

It would help if everyone, horse rider, MTBer or walker did this occasionally.

On the trails that are local to me there was a huge amount of damage a few weeks ago caused by MTBers sliding around a series of steep corners. A nice piece of singletrack had become an 8ft wide motorway in places.

But yes, horses do a lot of damage!

4x4s and MXers are worse in those conditions.
I hate horses, but they have the right to be there, perhaps more than cyclists. Really bugs me when they put sand down on the trails for horses, and the fact that they shit everywhere.
But I would choose to ride elsewhere, somehwere they don’t go.

Fully agree dabble.

Buggers have been riding the footpaths in my local woods and some of the best bits are churned to buggery.

And they do far more damage than MTBs, before anyone gets all sanctimonious.

+1 for EVERYONE opting to show some consideration when trails are boggy and delicate. Having said that, i live in the Pennines where there are lots of trails to choose and a fair number of them drain fairly well. Not knowing how things are in Quantocks for instance i don’t know how practical the above idea would be.

Many horse riders round here seem to ignore any effect they have on trails; they also have the same flexible approach to RoW designations as most cyclists but do far more damage to footpaths. Recently some of the steeper bridleways were “improved” by turning them from nice singletrack into 3m wide tracks. Whoever did it put signs up asking people not to ride horses on them in wet weather until they had time to settle. Needless to say people didn’t take any notice and now we have ugly 3m wide quagmires that I can’t imagine is any fun for the horses never mind anyone else.

I suspect the main culprits are the rental horse crowd rather than horse owners – as they say, you can go mental in a rental.

They even build jumps for their horses on the singletrack round here.

I think that’s the kids from the travelling community though, having seen them at it once.

no, and I have to be honest IMHO (and experience) they’re the most inconsiderate and thoughtless users (everybody else has to do what they want, mainly as they tend not be of in full control of their ‘vehicle’, something that would not be tolerated for car users), and even 4wders don’t have vehicles that will stampede when a crisp bag blows past.

Fair point about everybody exercising common sense, as it really is muddy out there but my mtb doesn’t leave lots of 9″ deep 6″ round holes eyerywhere it goes.

Horses are fine compared to the deep ruts MX’ers leave throughout the winter. Riding through knee deep ruts that are narrower than the pedals is just a no go when there is no other line choice on tight singletrack. More fun than riding a horse though I guess…