The next important issue is access to public lands. Once you get more people involved in riding, you need federal and state lands on which they can ride. Urban sprawl, zoning, and other restrictions challenge our access to open space. The National Trails Funding Act provides federal money allocated to states for trail building, maintenance. We are tracking that to ensure the money flows from Fed govt.
Conservation easements represent another means to preserve open space.
Health is the No. 1 concern here. We need to encourage more study of how disease can affect horses. Forty two percent of people who own horses move them off their property to enjoy them. We need good diagnostic tests, we need quarantine facilities, and more. Costs are rising.