Trail Riding
Marin Horse Council's Trail Etiquette Guidelines
As equestrians, we expect hikers, runners and mountain bikers to follow safe and considerate practices on our roads and trails. It is equably as important that we hold ourselves to the same standard. Below are the MHC's etiquette guidelines for equestrians.
After Rain
After significant rainfall, wait several days for the soil to dry out before you take your horse on the trail. When you encounter a puddle that is as wide as the trail, ride your horse through it and not around it. These practices will help to prevent erosion and damage to the trails.
Horse manure on paved streets or multi-use path
If your horse poops on a paved neighborhood road or on a multi-use paved path, please dismount and kick the manure off of the road or path. The presence of manure is offensive to home owners and to hikers and bikers on paved paths.
Obey posted signage
Obey seasonal closure signs and avoid riding your horse on sensitive trails.
Sharing our roads and trails
Follow Slow and Say Hello etiquette guidelines. For horse riders, even though we ask other visitors to yield to us, when meeting hikers, joggers, dog walkers on the trail, pull over, stop and communicate so it is a comfortable and safe passing experience!
The Importance of Filing Incident Reports
If you would like to see an increase in the number of rangers patrolling our parks and an increase in the number of citations issued for violations, it is very important that you file incident reports. Parks respond best to science driven data. Currently, very few of us are filing incident reports. Until they start to receive this data, Parks are unlikely to make room in their budgets for additional ranger staff or to encourage their rangers to actually issue citations.
Filing incident reports also enables Parks to help develop strategic responses, track trends, learn other information that could help such as need for more signage, trail condition issues, sight line improvements, groups to focus outreach efforts.
Filing incident reports is our shared privilege and responsibility. Below is the contact information for all of our local parks. Please enter it into your mobile phones for quick and easy access.
How to File an Incident Report:
Marin County Parks and Open Space District
Emergency: 911
Ranger Dispatch: MCOSD (high priority) 415-479-2311,
MCOSD Field Office 415-473-2816, Parks 415-473-6387
On Line Reporting: marincountyparks.org Under “Contact Us”
To View All Incident Reports filed with POS: https://data.marincounty.org/
Marin Water’s Watershed
Emergency: 911
Ranger Dispatch: 415-945-1500
Email: watershed@marinwater.org
On Line Reporting: https://www.marinwater.org/forms/watershed-observation
State Parks (Mt. Tam, Samuel P. Taylor, China Camp, Olompali
Emergency: 911
Ranger Dispatch: State Parks Ranger Dispatch - NorCom: 916-358-1300
You talk to a live NorCom person and a the Supervising Ranger calls you back one minute later.
We are impressed by that.
On Line Reporting: N/A
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Emergency: 911
Ranger Dispatch: Emergency: (415) 561-5656 / Non-Emergency: (415) 561-5505
On Line Reporting: N/A
Point Reyes National Seashore
Emergency: 911
Ranger Dispatch: 415-464-5170
On Line Reporting: N/A
