[pct-l] Bikes and Horses

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

Well, if the experiences in Santa Barbara are any indicator, the  
horses tend to panic and jump off cliffs, die and have to be blown to  
smithereens with dynamite. What happens to the bike riders is they  
escape before anybody can get them to take responsibility. Then they  
bitch and moan about how riders don't have proper control over their  
animals. How can you expect an animal to behave any other way? It  
takes a bit of energy to keep myself from doing something similar and  
I understand what's happening at the time.


On Oct 19, 2012, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> From: Fred Walters <fredwalters2 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [pct-l] Bikes and Horses
>
> Question: Not being a horse rider and not having hiked the PCT it is a
> genuine question.  How do horses and Mountain Bikes get on ?  e.g. MTB
> speeding down a fast curved stretch, round a blind corner to meet a  
> horse
> (oncoming or same direction).  I ask because where I used to live  
> there
> were loads of horses and I got to appreciate that (some) horses can  
> rear-up
> when surprised suddenly by something moving (fast).  And being  
> thrown of a
> horse rearing up is probably quite dangerous (broken ... or worse).
>
> Fred