# Why does no one pick up after their horses?!



## seabass07 (Mar 28, 2012)

So if I decide to bring dogs along with me to a trail, I'm required by most places to pick up their sh!t. Many trails I frequent even have a little trash can by the trail head with plastic baggies. There are often signs at trail heads about picking up after pets as well. It's also just a simple courtesy since many others frequent the trails. So why is it that anyone riding a horse on a trail can just leave massive piles of sh!t all over the place? Nothing better than hitting a pile of horse crap and having a tire catch it and fling it all over you. WTF!
/rant


So why is it that I have never seen signs asking people to pick up after their horses? I think it is disgusting to have to share trails with people when they are so inconsiderate. Thoughts?


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## pascale27 (Aug 26, 2011)

MOST equestrians feel they are entitled to do whatever they want......of course they say the same thing about us


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## ChainChain (Sep 25, 2010)

Horse crap really isn't very bad unlike dog poop. It is mostly hay. I've looked all over for a source that says it's dangerous because I hate piles of horse crap on the trail too.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

I don't care whether it is dangerous or not. It's poop and riding through it, getting it flung in your face is gross. I am not a hindgut fermenter.

It is common courtesy to at least kick it off the trail.

Horse people are not supposed to let their horses crap in the street, either, but they do it anyway until they get busted for it.


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## Live2rideUtah (Jan 3, 2012)

I would love to see a horse with a giant bag of horse **** hangin off it but I know that will never happen. Like the poster said above it sucks ass that it is all over the trail but it will never change.


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## zrm (Oct 11, 2006)

Horse's can defecate without stopping and since the human being riding is in front of that end of the animal, they may not even know the horse has taken a dump. If they do know the animal has defecated, then cleaning it up or shoveling it off the trail means they have to stop, get off the horse, grab a shovel (assuming they are carrying one). tie the horse, deal with the pile(s), and then reverse the process. All fairly time consuming, inconvenient, etc. Horse owners and some others also will say, as has already been mentioned, that horse feces is just "rolled hay" and no big deal.

Personally, horse poo doesn't bother me that much as long as the trail only sees an occasional horse or two. It's when you get strings of horses repeatedly using a trail that it gets nasty. Then of course I've seen people, whether on foot or on bikes who don't clean up after their dogs so I find it hard to get too self righteous about how "they" are so horrible and "we" are so inculpable.


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## Ridnparadise (Dec 14, 2007)

Horse crap is full of seeds and stuff not native to the area it is dropped. Even kicking it into the huge holes the buggers leave on our trails would be a start.


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## Zoke2 (Nov 16, 2007)

it can be done


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## R+P+K (Oct 28, 2009)

ChainChain said:


> Horse crap really isn't very bad unlike dog poop. It is mostly hay. I've looked all over for a source that says it's dangerous because I hate piles of horse crap on the trail too.


This.

Herbivore poo is far less offensive than omnivore poo. I've ridden through farmland littered with sheep or cow poo and while it's not ideal, I'd far rather that than a field of dog poo.


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## zrm (Oct 11, 2006)

Ridnparadise said:


> Horse crap is full of seeds and stuff not native to the area it is dropped. Even kicking it into the huge holes the buggers leave on our trails would be a start.


That depends on the feed. More and more forests require certified "weed free" hay and I'm pretty sure all designated wilderness does.

It's all organic material so "kicking it into holes" won't make any more difference than kicking human s**t into the ruts that MTBs can leave would..


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## garrett_xc (Apr 23, 2012)

I have little concern about the poop. It's mostly "sterile" and the bulk of it is usually hay. I'm much more offended when I see a pile of dog crap on the trail.

Of more concern is bombing around a corner and coming upon a...what...1,000lb animal that may be spooked. Where I ride, most of the trails are heavily forested so having limited sight is an issue.


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## ChainChain (Sep 25, 2010)

NateHawk said:


> I don't care whether it is dangerous or not. It's poop and riding through it, getting it flung in your face is gross. I am not a hindgut fermenter.
> 
> It is common courtesy to at least kick it off the trail.
> 
> Horse people are not supposed to let their horses crap in the street, either, but they do it anyway until they get busted for it.


Dog poop flung in your face off of tires is potentially dangerous, horse poop is not. The difference is when you as a mountain bike go to the meeting of the governing bodies of various open space, having an aurgument that a certain practice is dangerous carries significantly more weight than saying "Eeeewww," when you want the practice stopped.

I don't like it. I avoid ridding through it, but the reality is, on multi-use trails it is not going to change. In addition, certain land managers may be inclined to mitigate mountain bikers complaints of horse crap by simply banning bikes.

I think there are more important fights out there.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

herbivore feces are not entirely innocuous


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## thrasher_s (Oct 5, 2009)

I would rather deal with horse poo than the [email protected] that comes out of the mouths of self righteous hikers.


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## 475856 (Feb 6, 2010)

I agree with the OP that it is gross to see piles of horse manure on the trails even if they are multi use and this can be expected.
What bugs me more than horse [email protected], are inner tubes left by some bikers all over the trails... They apparently can take a new tube with them, but they can't pack out the old one ?? :madmax:
At least the poo disappears after a few rains, but the tube is forever and land managers are aware of this too and could tighten rules because of blatant littering by some cyclists....Something to think about...YMMV


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## kapusta (Jan 17, 2004)

seabass07 said:


> So if I decide to bring dogs along with me to a trail, I'm required by most places to pick up their sh!t. Many trails I frequent even have a little trash can by the trail head with plastic baggies. There are often signs at trail heads about picking up after pets as well. It's also just a simple courtesy since many others frequent the trails. So why is it that anyone riding a horse on a trail can just leave massive piles of sh!t all over the place? Nothing better than hitting a pile of horse crap and having a tire catch it and fling it all over you. WTF!
> /rant
> 
> So why is it that I have never seen signs asking people to pick up after their horses? I think it is disgusting to have to share trails with people when they are so inconsiderate. Thoughts?


Horse poop is just a fact of life sharing trails with horses. Yeah, it can kinda suck sometimes, but it is not nearly as bad as dog poop.

I try to pick my battles carefully, and this one is just not worth going to the mat over.


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