By Nicole Vaugeois
The Equine Educators conference was held Jan 21-23 in Kelowna. Tammy Mercer, Peter Reid and I all attended from BCCTRA and were able to share some of our unique needs with respect to trail access. Peter and I participated at the Trails Roundtable on Saturday where about 20 land managers and different equine trail user groups discussed their needs or position on trail use for horses. The event was a great success as folks were able to share their perspectives in a respectful way to understand each other. I am sure that the outcomes will be positive and am hoping we can continue this sort of dialogue in years to come. Congrats to Horse Council BC for pulling this together and inviting us to participate.
I was asked to speak about the needs of competitive trail user groups, which included input from Endurance, competitive trail and TREC. The following are some comments shared:
- We have unique usage needs for trails in that we use them frequently for training and require numerous miles of varied terrain;
- We require access to trails for training and competition as we seek permission for each mile we use in competition;
- We have experienced challenges with respect to access, particularly from private forest companies where permit fees and delays in approvals has impacted events;
- We are seeking to develop stronger working relationships with land managers so that they understand our sport, our usage patterns and see us as partners in land management;
- Our competition requires travel and overnight camping. Further enhancements to travel with horses such as pull outs, ferry knowledge about horses, signage and camp facilities are needed throughout the province. Camp facilities that are accessible and accommodating of horses are needed, particularly sites that can accommodate numerous large rigs for competitions.
Since the event, I have already been communicating with Rod Bealing, who represents private timber companies in BC and he has been helpful in linking me with the right people that we can communicate with about things such as annual permits and partnership. Similarly, Connie Faulk in Barriere, who was also on the roundtable has emailed me to say she is keen to have a BCCTRA event in their region as they have the trails and facilities we need for our events. Similarly, Chilko Ranch is keen to have a BCCTRA event this year and there is some interest in having a schooling ride on the Sunshine Coast.
All in all, this type of exposure for our sport was invaluable. We need to be understood with other horse groups and with land managers in order to move toward the goals in our strategic plan. I believe this event helped and we can build upon it by using the contacts made.
