Increase in Housing Developments and the Impact on Riding Trails and Large Parks

Jessica D. White

Tarleton State University

Abstract

Recreation horseback riding is an activity that equestrians partake in during their leisure

time and expect no economic compensation in return. Trail riding makes up a large portion of

recreational riding and is threatened by the expansion of housing developments. Equestrians trail

ride for a variety of reasons, ranging from connecting with nature to staying fit. Since the human

population grows at such a fast rate, housing to accommodate them must keep up by increasing
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6,000 acres a day. With nature being such a popular aspect for homebuyers, people are moving

into parks and national forests and as a result interrupting trails. Options to help create more

trails, such as converting abandoned railways into trails, have come up but were shot down due

to being unethical. In the end, funding is the answer to preserve and maintain trails for

equestrians and the economy. This report will discuss the basic information of equine trail riding,

the number of miles of trails available to horse enthusiasts, the rate of urbanization, and how

recreational trails can be saved and preserved.

Keywords: equine, trail riding, housing developments

Equine trail riding can easily be connected to the cattle drive era, where cowboys would

cross the country to deliver cows to railroads that did not yet meet the south. Today equestrians

and non-equestrians look to connect with the days of the open range through trails that cover

parks and various outdoor recreational areas. It also offers people the opportunity to connect with

nature in ways that a hard to come by in a world that is over populated and covered in housing

developments and commercial properties. However, horseback trail riding is threatened by the

continuous overpopulation of the world, as housing developments take over parks and trails

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scattered across the country. This report will discuss the basic information of equine trail riding,

the number of miles of trails available to horse enthusiasts, the rate of urbanization, and how

recreational trails can be saved.

The equine industry is composed of four main parts: racing, showing, recreation, and

other (Hu, Qing, Penn, Pelton, & Pagoulatos, 2014). Recreation can be defined in the horse

world as “…broad and includes activities that individuals pursue in their leisure time and expect

to receive no economic compensation for…,” (Hu et al., 2014, p. 1155). Recreational riding is

the primary use of horses; which determines that a large number of equestrians use horseback

riding trails. The reasons for recreational riding being so popular vary, but a majority of reasons

stem from the involvement of nature. In a study to find out why people trail ride Schneider,

Earing, and Martinson (2013) sent out a survey to equestrians asking what their motivations were

for trail riding. Schneider et al. (2013) study found the following:

These motivations included “to view the scenery” (96.4%), “to be close to nature”

(94.0%), “to get away from the usual demands of life” (93.6%), “to experience nature”

(93.1%), “to explore and discover new things” (90.0%), “to relax physically” (89.9%),

“to be physically active” (88.0%), “to be with people who enjoy the same things I do”

(85.7%), “to rest mentally” (81.8%), “to enjoy different experiences from home”

(80.2%), and “to get/keep physically fit” (78.3%).

The motivation trend is to be involved in some way with nature. An assumption can be made,

from the answers of wanting to get away from life, that riders prefer a quiet experience.

However, this has recently become a challenge due to the loss of restricted, horse access only,

bridle trails.

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Since recreational riding is one of the main uses for horses, it is a priority in the equine

industry. As of 2005, the American Horse Council said that there were “nearly 124,000 miles of

horse and pack stick trails,” yet access public land such as parks and national forests, is being

lost and private owners do not want riders on their property in fear of their land being misused or

torn up (Schneider et al., 2013, p.283). According to Hu et al. “two national equine surveys

found that the loss of trails and riding areas were the third (35.5%) and fifth (27.6%) most

pressing issues of the equine industry,” (2014, p.1155). Even though the number of available

miles of trail seems high, the amount that we are losing and predicted to lose threatens the

recreational component of the equine industry.

An average of 15,000 people is born per hour around the world. The amount of housing

that currently exists cannot accommodate them all, so naturally humans build. According to

Balliet, “residential and commercial developments increase at a rate of 6,000 acres per day,”

(2009, p.1). Eventually those acres will run into parks, national forests, and recreational areas.

Due to human kind being detached from nature, people do not give a second thought to taking

over nature’s acreage. When exploring the hard numbers of how much housing is being built, 13

million units are being built per decade (Radeloff, Stewart, Hawbaker, Gimmi, Pidgeon, Flather,

Hammer & Helmers, 2009, p.940). These numbers, however, are only in general building terms.

The statistics to units being built around and in parks and national forest are concerning. It is

understandable that parks would show the lowest number of developments near them, but

according to Radeloff et al. “85,000 housing units” were built within one kilometer of national

parks (2009, p. 942). This can cause trails to become isolated from the public and no longer

accessible, or non-usable for equestrians as the trails become to crowded and noisy for horses to

cope with. Some housing units are being built in national forests and take over trails completely.

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“In total, the number of housing units within national forests rose from 335,000 to 1,278,000

between 1940 and 2000 and housing density increased from .4 to 1.5 housing units/km2,” said

Radeloff et al. (2009, p.942). The reason that people build around and within these areas is

similar to why people choose to ride the trails that scatter forests and parks- nature. People are

more likely to buy home that has natural features, such as streams, water falls, lakes, or forests.

Humans find these attributed calming and buy houses around these areas so that their home is

more relaxing. Unfortunately, parks attract development. A report by Radeloff et al. (2009)

found the following.

Future development may even be stronger in and near protected areas that our projections

suggest, as Baby Boomers retire, more roads are built, and faster communication allows

further separation of homes and work places.

People are drawn to nature, so they build in it without realizing the consequences their actions

may have on other recreational activities. Trails are disrupted when a home is built where the

trail either ends, begins, or when the home interrupts the trail entirely.

People outside of the equine industry are not concerned with the disappearance of riding

trails, because the subject does not cross their mind. The real issue to stopping the disappearance

of recreational trail riding, is what can be done to stop it? The first effort to make new trails was

by the National Trails System Act (NTSA). This act provided an opportunity to convert

abandoned rail lines into trails (Gentine, 2012, p. 173). The NTSA failed to do this, as a result

many railroads gave the land, they had bought from original land owners to the government. This

became unethical as many original owner-railroad company contracts had agreed that if the land

bought was ever put up for sale, the original owner would be able to buy it back (Gentine, 2012).

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Since then, other methods of preserving and maintaining recreational trails has been

discussed. The equine industry should be “encouraged to partnership with conservationists and

other groups at the local level” (Balliet, 2009, p. 1). If the horse industry were to join

conservationist’s efforts, they would have a louder voice in the public and be able to fight for

their rights to a recreational sport that they enjoy. Another method is to look at what other

countries are doing to preserve their parks and forests. In England and Wales “developmental

control was considered the principal mean by which the beauty of these areas would be

sustained” (Curry, 1992, p. 107). England and Wales took the approach that one group should

have control over who should make executive decisions on what should happen in the park and

that “they should be best in a national parks commission” (Curry, 1992, p.108). Should those in

charge of parks and national forests in the U.S. decide to place a single group in charge of the

executive decisions of a park and/or national forest, it would allow for a simpler process, a

definite voice, and offer the best protection for those forests and parks. This would lead to the

preserving of recreational trails, including horseback riding trails.

The most effective way to preserve and maintain bridle trails is to get funding. Presently,

most trails do not require an entry fee. “Maintaining existing trails or building new trails requires

funding that may be collected from users” (Hu et al.,2014, p.1158). Hu et al. conducted a study

to find what riders were willing to pay for trail use, and the results are the following:

Riders were willing to spend between $2 and $5 per trip for an additional mile of trail

available. These results indicate that the equine recreation market is valuable and that

riders would be more inclined to ride trails if that had theses attributes. However, riders

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had negative utility for higher entry fees and for traveling longer travel distances to get to

the trails.

Overall, riders had a limit on what they were willing to spend on trail riding; however, the ability

to get funding to make longer trails and more trails available is high on the market list for

equestrians. The concept is that entry fees the number one way to preserve trails.

The reason for saving horseback riding trails may be lost for some, but to equestrians

these trails are extremely important. Trails offer an escape from reality, the ability to connect

with nature, and the opportunity to stay fit. To some people, it is just a way of having fun. Horse

lovers worry about losing this pass time and wonder where their grandchildren will learn to ride,

compete, race, and anything else trails offer (Balliet, 2009). Aside from recreational use, trails

offer, or can offer, a source of income on the local level and the national level. Hu et al. said,

“7.1% of the population,” participate in horseback riding trails (2014, p. 1155). If horse trails are

lost it will have a huge impact on equestrians and the economy.

References

Balliet, Deb. “Loss of land for horse-related activities.” The Horse Owner's Resource, EQUUS,

1 Oct. 2009, equusmagazine.com/horse-world/land_loss_horse_activities_100109.

Curry, N. (1992). Controlling development in the National Parks of England and Wales. The

Town Planning Review, 63(2), 107-121. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40113139

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Gentine, S. (2012). Riding the trails to bad law: The inevitably unjust results of the national trails

system act and current takings jurisprudence. Real Property, Trust and Estate Law

Journal, 47(1), 173-196. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41697883

Hu, W., Qing, P., Penn, J., Pelton, M., & Pagoulatos, A. (2015). Rider preferences and economic

values for equestrian trails. Journal of Environmental Planning & Management, 58(7),

1154–1172. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2014.918027

Radeloff, V., Stewart, S., Hawbaker T., Gimmi, U., Pidgeon, A., Flather, C., . . . Turner, B.

(2010). Housing growth in and near United States Protected Areas limits their

conservation value. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United

States of America, 107(2), 940-945. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40535876

Schneider, I. E., Earing, J., & Martinson, K. (2013). Revealing motivations for and conflicts

associated with recreational horseback trail riding. Journal of Forestry, 111(4), 282-286.

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