I know dog owners are required to pick up after their pets, but what about riders and their horses? I’ve seen massive piles along trails all over California – are these just isolated incidents from irresponsible owners or are they not required to pick up? If not, why not?
The rules depend on the laws in your current locality, which could be state, county or city law. (I suppose it could even be a federal law for national parks or federal land). I think picking up after your pet is most often enacted at the city level, but you’d have to check for each specific area to see what is covered and by which authority.
My guess is that collecting and disposing of horse droppings is too much of a hassle and not enough of a concern for there to be laws about it in most trail environments. You’ll probably find that any horse owners in the city are required to collect any droppings. I know that the horse and buggy rides usually have a catch bag behind the horse.
We live on horse property. Dog owners are expected to clean up after their pets, horse owners are not (at least here).
There is a rail-trail very close to me and we must share it with horse riders. They do not seem to be required to pick up after themselves. While there is a part of me that finds this annoying I recognize that is simply wouldn’t be practical.
Isn’t there some sort of horsie diaper which catches the offending material into a sort of basket type affair?
Yes, that is used in environments where cleanup is pretty much assumed, but difficult, like parades or buggy rides around fairs.
It makes a tractor look like a non-polluter, comparison-wise.
I thought about this very thing when I noticed a pile of horse shit on the street the other day while driving. Two people were jogging toward me and the pile. Makes no sense that the horse’s owner doesn’t have to clean up after the horse, but I have to clean up my dog’s shit. Although I do think cleaning up my dog’s shit is the right thing to do, especially on someone else’s property. I’ve actually had people thank me for picking it up from their yard while I was walking my dog.
I suppose we should be grateful that we don’t live back before the automobile took over. Then one of the major problems of every big city was how to dispose of the tons of manure that filled the streets.
Some cities did not even bother, and as most streets were dirt/mud, it make crossing the street quite an adventure.
There’s also the popular opinion that herbivore manure is less nasty than carnivore or omnivore manure. That probably contributes some to the dichotomy.
Having been downwind of horse farms and pig farms and mink farms, I will admit I’d prefer to be downwind of the horse farm if I had to pick from one of those three.
Bottom line, as has been alluded to, is that it simply isn’t practical. Diapers that are suitable for for trail riding without chafing the hell out of the horse don’t exist (systems that are suitable for carriage use, or in limited use in town aren’t suitable on regular trails). And the animals are far too damned incontinent to expect a horse rider to dismount and scoop the stuff up. The choice is either to put up with it, or say that people aren’t allowed to ride horses. The appropriate compromise is to limit equestrian trail use in such a way that there are ample horseless trails while allowing the equestrians enough places to do their thing.
bahiker.com has a take that I more or less agree with:
As a hiker in the Bay Area, I know what areas are heavily frequented by horse riders and which aren’t. And we are still in that time of year that a lot of seasonal places are closed to equestrian use. Enjoy it.
I’ll underline that the equestrians generally seem like a friendly and reasonable bunch. Yield the trail to them like you’re supposed to, and do your bit for inter-trail-user amity. In general, hikers are allowed to go everywhere, it’s the horse-riders and mountain-bikers that are only allowed certain places. You can figure out ways to spend a day mostly in places that they can’t go.
(The mountain-bikers are mostly OK, too, but there’s a measurable minority who are jerks.)
Thanks for the answers, all. “Isn’t practical” still sounds unfair to other animal owners and hikers. I think horses are some of the coolest animals ever, but their shit still readily enough exceeds my “Does this object look, smell, sound, feel, or otherwise resemble shit enough that I wouldn’t want to step in it?” scale.
Effectively immediately, I decree that all riders wear extra-large reverse-Camelbaks with the tubes carefully inserted into aforementioned equine orifices and the bags strapped to their own backs. Chafing problem solved and good exercise for the riders’ backs to boot.
Otherwise, next time I walk by one of their homes I’m going to drop a load and use the “I’m vegan” excuse and see how they like that.
The Sweet Pea parade here last summer found a novel solution to this problem. One of the participants in the parade was a local businessman who people can hire to pick up after their dogs. He rode his pickup truck with his logo on the side (and with shovel and disposal buckets in the back) behind the horses, and whenever needed, would stop and show off his waste-shoveling skills.
Why not simply make some trails “horse free” or require a special tax for horse riders to use it, that would enable the trail or government agency to employe someone to pick up the stuff?
We plan to have our Sesquicentennial Parade this summer. Antique cars, motorcycles, tractors, floats, but the horses will be last.
There’s been an influx of Amish in SW WI over the last 10 yrs or so. And this is one of the issues that really pisses me off. I don’t know if they are required to or not, but they don’t pick of after their horses.
You really have to be careful on a motorcycle on those roads.