The load impact becomes greater when a rider is mounted on a horse and when horses are packed. Also, current park policy on the length of horse rides is a minimum of two hours and does not allow one-hour rides to occur within the national park. This limit reduces impact on the trails located close to the stables, shorter rides are discouraged. Commercial liveries are requested to remove manure from heavily used trails in national parks. In the future, horse recreational trail use on public land may become more restrictive.
Reliable data is needed to determine the amount of horse trail use that occurs.
The objective of this survey was to determine the number, times and duration horse riders utilize public land trails. Samples were collected between July and November and the demographics associated with trail use were collected representing 23 different trail heads. The data were collected at random from recreational and commercial trail horse owners. Survey questions consisted of length, duration and frequency of trail rides, location of rides, type and ages of horses and housing and management of the horses. The survey indicated there were two principle trail users.