Why is it that in Fairfax County the law says you have to pick up your dog’s poop but you can ride a horse leaving shit all over the W&OD Bike Trail with impunity?
It may have to do with potential for disease transmission. And horsie owners/riders have a better lobby.
Interestingly, they aren’t supposed to be on the paved trail at all. The Park Authority’s site says that horses are supposed to be on a parallel gravel trail.
Interesting. I rode from Vienna to Sterling and back on Sunday and noticed at least three significant piles of road apples on the paved trail.
Safety tip: Never hit a pile of road apples with a speeding ATV.
I speak from experience.
Depending on the type of horse and the horse owner, some folks don’t want their horses walking on gravel, especially if they’re (the horses, sillies) shod.
I suppose the primary reason for not picking up the piles would be logistics; first and foremost you’d have to be carrying a “pooper scooper” and bag big enough to handle the job, then you’d have to dismount, find a safe place to tie your horse (if your horse doesn’t mind being tied in a strange place), hope that the horse doesn’t freak out, get loose, or get crowded by folks while you clean up the deposit, then either put the manure into the nearest trash can (ewww) or into a saddle bag (double eww), remount, and be on your way. It seems that the best way to avoid all that is to lobby the park officials to require horses riding on the path to wear the little catch-alls you see parade horses wearing.
If the horse apples were from mounted police officers they may have permission to use the paved trails.
Since this is the forum for speculating on the most appalling behavior of humanity, is it possible the horse owners are specifically avoiding leaving deposits on the gravel trail so horses don’t have to walk through it?
I thought horseshoes on pavement were a problem. Metal on a smooth surface doesn’t give the best traction, and bad things happen when horses lose their footing. It’s probably worse on concrete than asphalt (which I assume is used for the bike trail).
Most of the time you’d be right, but it really depends on the type of shoe… we have a horse here who has, for lack of a better phrase, ribbed shoes that are okay on asphalt (I wouldn’t move him much above a walk on that surface, but he’s not dangerous). The other shod horse we have would fall on his ass if we put him on anything but sand or grass. Mounted police horses have special rubber-coated shoes, and some people will put “boots” on their horses if they know they’ll be riding on a slick surface.
And yeah, it’s definitely worse on concrete.
I think there’s a general feeling that herbivore poop (at least dried herbivore poop) is less offensive than carnivore poop. While I assume that it still has bilirubin and other waste components in it, it at least appears to be mostly undigested hay. Granted, it’s still poop, but it doesn’t smell or look nearly as bad as carnivore or omnivore droppings. (Horse piss is another deal entirely, especially as it’s delivered by the gallon.)
Odd. If it were me, I’d much prefer to ride on the gravel trail rather than on the paved one, if only to reduce the concussive stress on my horse’s feet and joints. Helluva lot safer, too, in terms of slipping. If you want to trot or canter you’d be nuts to use a paved trail when there’s a gravelled one beside it.
Unless your horse is flat-soled and prone to stone bruises, and the gravel surface has lots of big pointy stones in it. Then I could see trying to avoid it.
Finagle has a good point about the poop. Having shoveled mass quantities of horse manure, and cleaned a gazillion catboxes, I’m here to tell ya, road apples are WAAAAAAAAAAAAY less stinky-awful than carnivore excrement.
Old Indian Scout lore: When horse apples in pile, horse is free ranging. When horse apples strung out in line, horse being ridden or driven. Brand new, fresh, juicie, green horse apples deposited next to head while sleeping very offensive. Also say that horse been eating green grass. Also say that horse has slipped his headrope.
I always heard it as: “Horse poop in morning, rider take warning. Horse poop at night, sing Barry White.”
Or something like that. (I only went to one Boy Scout meeting before dropping out.)
The last time (also the first time) I was on the W&OD there was a dead and decaying deer just off of it in one place. That was a couple years ago, but I bet it is still there, in skeletal form.
It’s also delivered in sufficient quantity that’s hard to not notice it in time and get it all over your shoe.
The W&OD bike trail is asphalt.
On the relative handful of occasions I’ve ridden the W&OD, I’ve never encountered horseshit on the bike trail. But it’s a trail that goes from the Blue Ridge to the Potomac (if you count a few miles of the Four-Mile Run Trail, anyway), and even though it’s a slow descent, you can still get up a pretty good head of steam, especially if you’re biking the trail on a weekday when it’s not crowded. It would be easy to be on top of a pile of horse apples before you really noticed.
[hijack]
Okay, bike riders, while we’re on the subject of trails used by both cyclists and equestrians, allow me to offer some useful advice:
When you’re biking along and come up behind someone on horseback, please, PLEASE call out to them when you’re still a good 20 or 30 yards back, to let them know there’s a bicycle about to zip by them. Horses can see (not sharply to either side, but shapes and motion) almost 360 degrees but they have a blind spot directly in back of them. Having something zoom abruptly into view from behind is likely to jumpstart the instinctive “PREDATOR ATTACK! RUN AWAY!” response.
Calling out before you go past alerts the horse that there’s someone approaching. It gives the rider a chance to take whatever actions might be necessary to keep the horse calm, like turning it to face the oncoming bike so it can see it’s harmless.
If a rider passes by when you’re standing or sitting by the side of the trail and says hello, answering isn’t just common courtesy. Some horses will spook at a stationary human, especially in an unexpected place, but be reassured that it’s not a monster when the object of terror emits people sounds.
I agree, having once been one a horse in that situation. We never figured out what it was she saw but boy she moved out in a big damn hurry.
I have never actually seen a horse on the asphalt, although there are a few places where the horse trail crosses the asphalt trail so there could be bike-horse meetings.
You’re exaggerating a bit here, now.
Normal urine production in a horse totals between 1 and 2 gallons, for a whole day! So about 6-10 ounces per hour. So maybe a cup or two, if the horse has been on the trail for a couple of hours. Hardly a gallon.