Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I ride  in the Rockefeller State Park Preserve, just 22 miles north of
NYC.  The park and adjacent Rockefeller land have 150 miles of trails
and are designated for use by pedestrians  and equestrians only--
neither bicyclists nor motorized  vehicles are permitted.
I ride on the trails 7 days a  week and almost never see other
horseback riders.  I do see tons of crazy dogs that have never seen
horses before, joggers, and baby  strollers.  Being that the  park is
so close to Manhattan, there are a lot of people that have never seen
horses before and have no idea how to behave.  The people that climb
into the bushes are particularly amusing-- especially since the trails
are all carriage trails and are very wide.  As I ride along, I try to
be friendly to people and ride as far away as possible so as not to
disturb or scare them.  I do not always slow to a walk when I pass 
people, but if I see a lot of children or a bunch of people in the
middle of the trail I do.  It took a long time  for my horses to
adjust to being ridden in such a busy area, and they still do get
spooked occasionally.  I always make sure that I tell people that I
don't mind if my horse is spooking, that they will get over it and
it's good training for them to get used to whatever is scaring them. 
I figure that if I try to be as friendly and polite as possible,
people will not mind that horses are ridden on the trails.
Fortunately, the Rockefellers all have horses, so I can't imagine
horses being banned from the trails, but I try to do my part to create
a positive image in people's minds.  My horses are friendly and not
likely to injure anyone, but I do not let people pet them as the
liability would be too great were something to happen.
The only real problem I have  is with the neighbors of the farm where
I board.  We had to have a hearing with the local zoning board so as
to be able to continue to keep horses there, even though they've been
on that property for over 60 years.  Before this whole incident, and
numerous run-ins with the  psychotic neighbors coming to the gate and
screaming at us about our horses, we were very polite and picked up
the horse poop in the road.  After the huge ordeal we went through, I
just don't feel too inclined to pick up that manure in the road
anymore.  Since there is no law against horse manure in the road and
it is a public road, I just leave it there.  One of the neighbors
complained the other day about it getting on his tires and all I could
say that I much rather have horse manure on my tires than other things
to be found on the streets of NY.

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