As urban sprawl relentlessly replaces wooded countryside, the demand for equestrian trails in Georgia is far surpassing trail availability. Few recreational trail riders today have the luxury of riding directly from the barn to a trail on public or private land. Consequently, equestrians are asking public land managers to provide trail systems for their use in the state of Georgia. However, we find ourselves competing with numerous other users and special interest groups, many backed by large national or international organizations, some strongly opposed to horse use in our forests and wildernesses.

Through SETC 2000, this panel hopes to explore ways to make our equestrian trail population aware of objections regarding horse use on trails, and ways equestrians can present a responsible, unified voice to our public land managers. We wish to demonstrate positive steps the Georgia equestrian community has already taken to effectively communicate and work with our land managers, while developing additional methods of identifying, addressing and resolving objections to equestrian trail use.

Our overall goal through this panel is to heighten Georgia and Southeastern trail equestrian awareness of the issues, and in so doing, create a cohesive, unified approach to resolving these issues and working positively with our public land managers.