New Zealand is peppered with tracks and trails that wind through some of the world’s most spectacular scenery. Horses were the main form of transport until the early 20th century and played a huge part in the making of modern New Zealand; they are still used on many farms even today. This landscape and history, combined with the wide variety of equestrian sporting options available has created a rich and varied equestrian culture.
So how is it that riders are losing access to the great Kiwi outdoors?
As our green spaces shrink and our towns and cities grow, the number of people with ‘horse sense’ reduces. Roads get busier with ‘town’ traffic – drivers who don’t understand they need to pass horses wide and slow.
Once the roads are too dangerous, riders without floats or trucks can only ride at home. No more hacking to pony club, no more hacking to friends’ houses, no more exploring without adult supervision for children. Hacking, even for those with horse transportation, becomes an activity of its own rather than a means of getting from A to B.
In the past, riders haven’t been well organised to engage with councils and other authorities, so where there is competition for access to popular public spaces like beaches and trails, they can lose out to the likes of mountain bike clubs and 4WD clubs (even though many trails that have been claimed by mountain bikers were originally stock routes!).
Even worse, as horses disappear from public spaces and the general public grows increasingly less familiar with and confident around horses, they start to be seen as a threat – something people and the environment need to be protected from. When the Waikato District Council tried to ban horses from Raglan beaches, they cited damage caused by horses to delicate sand dunes and the potential for ‘horse versus human conflict as the district grows – an increased health and safety risk’. This is despite the fact that ACC have no statistics for horses injuring humans in public places.
In addition to public opposition, there is the old problem of private landowners locking gates to prevent public access to unformed legal roads (sometimes referred to as ‘paper roads’ to incorrectly suggest a lesser level of access).
What can be done?
Several determined riders are working quietly in the background to make sure we protect the access we are at risk of losing and even regain access we have lost. I spoke to some of them to find out what is being done and how you can help.
Riders helping riders
Treks and Trails New Zealand are husband and wife team Corey & Stacey Woodward, and can often be found riding around Canterbury and the surrounding high country on their Erewhon-bred Clydesdales. Corey is a relatively new convert to riding and his wife is often asked how she managed to get her husband into horses, but as Corey points out: “She didn’t have to try very hard, actually! I’m a bit of a history buff and I have always been interested in Clydesdales as a family member, William Black, used to run teams of Clydesdales in the Waimate area. He was the Fulton Hogan of the day, with gangs building bridges and roads between Timaru and Oamaru. When Stacey found her dream Clydesdale and another young gelding came up for sale on Erewhon shortly afterwards, I couldn’t resist. We were both green, but he has worked out really well.”
Corey and Stacey set up the Treks & Trails Facebook group after struggling to find good places to ride.
“Many sources of information, like NZ bridleways, will have trail descriptions, but no visual map. The DOC website is also a bit hit and miss in terms of up to date information for horse riders. So I started to GPS-track the trails we rode and upload them to our online map, which then links back to other relevant websites and the information they have. I use the Facebook page to ask members for good places to ride so I can track them and upload to the map.”
Corey and Stacey have also linked up with Hanmer Springs Horse Riders to help them map their trails, creating a PDF for their website and files which can be uploaded by members to GPS handheld units/phones.
“Access is very much a case of ‘use it or lose it’. If you keep your favourite trails too secret, other riders won’t use them and this can lead to other user groups starting to feel entitled. It doesn’t have to be exciting or exotic – even good grass verges which allow you to ride good distances are really helpful’” Corey says.
He also offers this advice:
- Be considerate of other users. Be conscious of your impact on the environment/trails.
- Use the walking access website to find legal roads where you can ride – if there are locks on gates, contact the local council and get the locks removed.
- Contact your local riding group to help with track maintenance. Don’t have one? Start your own!
How you can help: if you know a great trail, or area for riding, send it in to Corey and Stacey. You can contact them by email at [email protected]
‘Be the squeaky wheel’
Taranaki Equestrian Network came about after the local racing club decided in 2009 that the pony club had to move off the grounds it had used for 70 years (leased on a handshake). The pony club objected, and the council said the pony club needed to prove that there was an ongoing need for club grounds. A group called Taranaki Equestrian Needs was formed, and once the grounds were secure, it became the Taranaki Equestrian Network Inc or TEN. TEN has been an active and passionate advocate for access to riding places ever since.
Co-chairman, Megan Gundesen, offers the following advice:
- Become a familiar face to the District Planners and Open Spaces Planners.
“Eventually, those folk will see you as a credible, reliable source of information. You also need to be persistent, watchful and somewhat dubious about council actions. Council officers hold the power, not the councillors. t’s more likely that the officers are responsible if horses are excluded from beaches and not included on walking and bike trails.”
- Trawl the ‘Have your Say’ tab on the council website weekly
“That’s when I discover council plans for walkways, redesign of parks, open spaces management plan changes – on and on it goes. I send it round all our TEN followers and beg them to make a submission or at least do the survey. Being the squeaky wheel is essential.”
- Represent your cause at your local council by making submissions at every available opportunity
“If you make a submission, you must speak to it. You will be notified of the hearing time and about three days before that, the Officers’ Report will be on the council website. You MUST get a copy of it because the officer will have made a recommendation. You need to speak to that recommendation.”
- Identify ‘horsey’ roads around your district and make sure they stay that way.
“These aren’t main roads; they are local rural roads. TEN strongly advocated for our council to erect horse signs to inform motorists that horses will be on those roads. And they did! On horsey roads, the roadside grading will not be as severe. On two occasions, TEN members have stopped the roading contractors in their tracks and then negotiated with council to change the gradient. Your grassy footpath will be destroyed unless you do this. The contractor just takes it all off at the same gradient but can change that to suit the situation if need be.”
- Adopt your local horsey areas!
“We had boulders removed at the beach that blocked our horse transport parking. Horses had made so little impact that the council didn’t even know we used the parking area. We have adopted a local forest which is a water catchment for the city – the Bridle Zone at Lake Mangamahoe. TEN now manages the riding trails there and made a whole jumping track with logs earlier this year. Equestrians love it.”
- Join up with other riders and riding groups.
“Horse-access advocacy groups need to have a united, coordinated approach. We all generally want the same thing: unformed paths beside pedestrian walkways or cycleways, with some boulders or casual planting to indicate definition and a good line of sight ie. no sharp turns to frighten horses. Good signage and horse transport parking with poo bins are great too.”
You can contact TEN on Facebook, at their website www.taranakiequestriannetwork.co.nz or by email at [email protected]
‘Be part of the solution’
Louise Baker, a keen trail rider based in Auckland, has 20 years’ experience of transport planning. Transport planners plan where routes should go, get involved in strategy and work out multi-modal routes (routes that can be used by more than one form of transport). Louise therefore has an inside perspective into how to influence decision-makers to ensure that horse riders get equal consideration with other forms of transport.
Her advice:
- Form stakeholder groups.
“The main problem that horse riders have is that they don’t approach the council as a stakeholder group and they therefore carry less weight as individuals. We need to form formal groups – incorporated societies or trusts – and those groups need to organise and share resources! It’s great to see groups like Te Hapori Hōiho, the National Māori Horse Association Aotearoa Trust, launch – anyone can join, and we all should.
“In the UK, Sustrans – which is a charity making it easier for people to walk and cycle – have a partnership with the British Horse Society. There’s no reason why riders couldn’t form a partnership with the Walking Access Commission here.”
- Be aware of your rights, and part of the solution.
“We are road users, like walkers and cyclists, and we have a right to be there. It’s crazy to generate emissions floating horses to get to somewhere to ride, when horses are the original low-emission form of transport and that’s before you consider the health and community benefits to being able to ride your horse around. There is a gap around national guidance for horse trails and what is appropriate. There are plenty of examples we could borrow from Europe to help engineers designing shared-use paths; it would be great to have a toolkit/ template that local advocacy groups could use.”
- Use the same language that councils and government agencies use.
“When you make submissions, use language that fits in with council goals and objectives. Horse riders, like cyclists, are ‘vulnerable road users’ so we should be considered as part of Road to Zero, which has a vision of no-one being killed or seriously injured on our roads. We can reduce emissions from vehicles if we can ride locally, so addressing access to local trails is important as New Zealand works towards its goal of net zero by 2050.”
If you or your group need transport planning support, Louise works for Vitruvius (www.vitruvius.co.nz), a transport consultancy firm.
Working together
Shelley Warwick is the co-chair of New Zealand Equestrian Advocacy Network, or NZEAN, which she describes as a collection of riders who have come together from all over Aotearoa to create a national umbrella group that all the other equestrian advocacy groups can sit underneath.
“We have found that many organisations – DOC, the Walking Access Commission, local and national government bodies – want one national body that represents riders to be a single point of contact.
“It’s early days, but our aim is to be that body and to create and hold resources all equestrian advocates can use: advice, guidelines and template documents to promote access, safety and wellbeing. If you can’t ride safely, if you don’t have places to ride, your wellbeing and your horse’s wellbeing will suffer. NZEAN want riders to take action, together!
“NZEAN needs to be a vehicle for change to recognise the importance of horses to New Zealand’s culture, history and economy. If you have a problem in your local area, NZEAN would like to be able provide resources and support to help you fight for better access.”
Shelley points out though horse riding is a minority sport, it’s a significant minority.
The 2012 Matheson report, published by the University of Waikato, found that:
- there are around 80,000 sport horses (horses not used for racing) in New Zealand;
- average total annual spend per horse is $12,500;
- the sport horse industry contributes over $1 billion to the New Zealand economy annually, (greater than 0.5% of GDP);
- the sport horse industry directly sustains the equivalent of 12,000 full time equivalent jobs; and
- sport horse owning land owners spent an additional $5 billion on land purchases to support their interests.
The report concluded that a move by some district councils to restrict the subdivision of land to what they determine to be economical farm units ignores the fact that the use of land for equestrian pursuits makes a far greater economic contribution than traditional farming practises could. This economic contribution means that riders are potentially an important political group if they get organised and NZEAN is determined to do just that.
