To The Editor,
I had some interesting events occur in succession a couple days ago and it really got me thinking. I met a person riding their horse down the side of Route 2, so I slowed down till I was past, and kept on my way. Didn't really think about it until I counted six piles of horse poop on the side of the road in one trip to Isle La Motte. The kicker was the following night when I walked past a bulletin board at a local store on which someone had posted a notice saying it was the law to slow down for horses, and photocopied text from some Vermont Statute.
I must admit I was ignorant of this law before. I slowed down out of respect and not wanting to be the cause of somebody being bucked and hurt. I never understood why someone would choose to ride on the road with a horse when there's so many other places. I guess I've always thought of horses as for riding on trails and in fields if they weren't being used for work or competitive events. It must be hard to ride horses though with so much land posted to horse-riders, hunters and everyone alike.
Still, those piles of horse poop really got me thinking. It wasn't just because they have the potential to spread the seeds of invasive plants, or be vectors of disease. I'm a bicyclist in addition to being a motorist, and those piles of poop take up a good portion of the bike lane. The reality is you have four choices on a bike; swerve left into traffic, swerve right and risk the ditch, try to jump the pile, or plow right though. Not really a lot of options, but the question is, why should a bicyclist have to choose?
So I found horse manure catchers for sale online, they go by all sorts of names. They use them for horse drawn carriages, and events like parades, fairs, birthday parties, etc. They were a bit pricey ranging from fifty all the way up to eighty-five dollars. More spendy than I thought but worth the price to help keep Island cyclists from risk. Would those horse riders who choose to share the roads with motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists please consider purchasing some? You're friends and neighbors in the islands would sure appreciate it.
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3 comments:
hi ,
can you please gimme the details of the site for horse manure catcher at gagan@charmachan.com.
regards
gagan bisht
For those of you who think manure catchers are the answer. Here are some reasons why manure bags are unreasonable and unsafe:
They are designed for working horses in conjunction with arrangements for someone to unload the devices into a catchall and remove them from the area, drive them away.
As you mentioned you saw many piles of poop.
1.The bags are not designed for more than a couple of poops, so the rest would fall out onto the road anyway.
2.Unlike carriage horses, trail horses are not trained to carry a flapping item on their rear, therefore it can create a safety hazzard, especially if you have a mare in heat.
3.Saddles unlike harnesses were not designed to carry a heavy rear load, they are designed to protect the horses back by carrying the primary heft of the weight centrally and most saddles are not equipped with hardware to secure such devices.
SPEAK WITH THE MANUFACTURES, ASK THE CORRECT QUESTIONS, YOU WILL FIND THEY ARE NOT DESIGNED FOR ANYTHING BUT WORKING ANIMALS.
I plan on buying a bunbag.com for my pony when riding and driving. I'm in CA now (we just trailered out from VT) and its a very urban environment. EVERY dog owner is concientiously picking up poop, even though it's a nasty business. Horse owners need to be just as concientious. Use a bun bag and get off your horse to dispose of the pile as soon as it's delivered. Usually only once every 2 hours, it's not that big of a deal to keep your neighbors happy!
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