No place to ride -- was Re: [OHAHSEmail] OH Shipper of Horses Stopped in New Holland, PA

[Sue Brown <sbrown@wamedes.com>]

Howard said:
>
>>
>> The ironic thing is this is the same state that is on its way to
eliminating
>> horse trails on it's Keystone forest property so the hunters can have
>> exclusive rights to it.  So, even if the horses are given life over death,
>> and some good deed doer does purchase one, nurtures it and helps the horse
>> become fit, where will they ride? It won't be in Pennsylvania.  There's no
>> place to ride, except on the streets behind a cart, and that's only for the
>> Amish and Mennonites.
>
> This paragraph brought some thoughts to mind in regards to the horses
here in
> Washington state.  We have a lot of good riding areas in the mountain
> foothills yet I'd venture a good guess that the *majority* of horse
owners in
> this state rarely go outside of an arena...and if they do, it's to a
> manicured bridle path or a short trail with little challenge close to their
> barn.  They "hack out" to give their horses a little mental break from the
> four walls they normally see.
>
> Many of these people say they would like to go on different trails but never
> seem to actually get there.  I had one dressage instructor (and a good one
> according to my standards) who stated she *"hated"* trail riding.  Even *I*
> stayed in my arena for a few years during my "dressage" phase. <g>  
>
> I've been involved in varying degrees with several disciplines over the
years
> and am pretty aware of the huge number of big barns that do primarily h/j,
> reining, dressage, and so forth (other disciplines that do mainly arena
work)
> that exist in this state -- particularly west of the Cascades.  My county,
> according to a newspaper article a few years back (so the statistic may be
> changed but probably not to an extreme extent) had more horses per capita
> than any other county in the US that year...yet we see very few riders
out on
> the trails when were doing training rides...some days we're the *only*
rig in
> the parking lot where we ride most frequently (silly endurance riders will
> ride in ANY kind of weather. ;-))  This area has a lot of endurance
> riders...but for every one of them, I'll bet there are probably 10 who don't
> venture far from that arena...and have very little desire to do so.
>
> Sue