Small children: Invite the parents to direct the situation, so you're both firmly on the same team. "What do you need?" I usually ask. "Where do you want me to be, or how far off the trail would you be comfortable standing with your child while I pass?"
Beyond Courtesy: Horse Power on the Trail
As a trail rider, you may have opportunities to make a positive difference for other trail users. If you're in an area you know well or have a map for, you can provide directions for lost cyclists or point a thirsty hiker toward a flowing spring on a hot day. Your first-aid supplies may come in handy--I once bandaged a cyclist's injured hand with gauze and Vetrap! And if you carry a cell phone, as I do, you become a mobile communication center for others in trouble.
That's the kind of ripple effect we want to create: the good feeling that stays with a hiker who, when she gets up to speak in a land-use meeting two years from now, remembers a trail rider lending her a map and sharing some water when she was lost.
This article originally appeared in the September 1997 issue of Practical Horseman magazine. For information on efforts to preserve horse communities and trail networks in Half Moon Bay, Calif., see the "You Can Do It!" column in the September 2003 issue.
