NewTimesSLO.com - Full Article
By Camillia Lanham
July 18 2024
Knobby tire tracks crisscross through soft sand. Intermingled with foot, paw, and hoof prints, they occasionally overlook the late spring remnants of the Salinas River as it runs through Atascadero.
Some of those hoof prints were left by Kathryn McGinnis’ “big bay ranch horse,” which she takes to the Juan Bautista de Anza Historic Trail on Saturdays and Sundays. She’s ridden her horse on the riverbed trail for 10 years.
“He’s just a good guy,” she said of the quarter horse she’s had since he was 7 years old and “a little one-sided.” “He takes good care of me.”
When he gets spooked, he doesn’t buck, McGinnis said, but he does react to the dirt bikes that ride the same trails in the riverbed and its riparian corridor. Sometimes, he starts to spin—which is just as dangerous for the rider.
“If they were to come out of the bushes or come around the corner, oh my God. … It’s only because I’m more afraid to come off than I am to stay on that I’ve stayed on,” she said. “It’s a 1,200-pound animal and when they get scared, you’ve got your life in your hands. … And a motorcycle, you can turn that off in an instant. You can’t do that with a horse.”
Trail etiquette, McGinnis and other horseback riders said, is super important for multi-use trails. Horses have the right of way over hikers, bikers, and “especially over motorized vehicles,” she said. Those unspoken rules call for motorcycle riders to pull off to the side of the trail and kill their vehicles, but that doesn’t always happen...
Read more here:
https://www.newtimesslo.com/special-issues/a-long-standing-trail-use-conflict-erupts-along-the-salinas-riverbed-in-atascadero-15559023
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