It’s Time to Ride

May 5, 2024

Is the snow over in Colorado? Probably not. But with longer days and more sunshine, we can ride around whatever snow falls in May.

Welcome to our Colorado Safe Horse Blog! Here, we share helpful information about safe riding in Colorado and anywhere you choose to ride. Standard safety guidelines are beneficial to know and practice.

We launched our work on chilly April 20, 2024, during the annual Friends of the Equestrian Skills Course Poker Ride, their primary fundraiser for the course in Bear Creek Regional Park in Colorado Springs. 

Colorado Horse Source prepared a wonderful article, featured here, about the event and its participants, who included trail horses, ponies, pack goats, pack burros, walkers, and hikers.

It was a great day to start legging up for the season and visit the skills course to learn and practice working with obstacles a horse and rider encounters on the trail.

Key to the course itself is its location in Bear Creek Regional Park in the heart of Colorado Springs, which provides interaction with a vast array of trail users. The park provides great exposure and learning for horses and riders, with runners, cyclists, hikers, walkers, and other park users picnicking and playing sports. A one-of-a-kind collaboration with El Paso County Parks & Recreation, the course is open from dawn to dusk and is free to the public.

Our mission, prompted by the tragic distracted driver collision with a horse and rider in Arvada, Colorado, last December, is to provide high-visibility horse and rider gear to prevent such horrific events. We can't prevent distraction, but “hi-vis” vests and related gear are known to be easily discernible from any background, in daylight, low light, and nighttime because of the material's reflective properties. In Colorado, laws require hi-vis clothing for specific transportation, construction, and hunting activities. This year, we are expanding the idea of using high-visibility gear for horse riding, which is very common in the United Kingdom.  Our gear includes hi-vis yellow, red, orange, and pink. 

Hi-Vis Yellow, has some important history. "In 1937, research showed that reflective yellow determined that safety yellow is the best color to be noticed by the human brain; as a result, the paint color of all United States school buses was changed from orange to safety yellow (see also school bus yellow”.

Buses weigh considerably more than our 1200 lb. four-legged equine friends. Yellow is good enough for us! 

Population density in Colorado is going to continue. Our trails and roads are indeed being loved to death. We need to take extra precautions wherever we ride to prevent tragic outcomes, whether caused by distracted driving or unawareness of trail etiquette. 

Our gear provides some "10-second tips," highlighting the right of way and yielding to horses' messages for those who may not know them. "Cyclists Announce Yourself is a version of the road cycling "On Your Left," commonly called out when road cyclists are passing each other on the road. These simple, high-visibility, and courteous communications help educate trail and road users.

This season, consider purchasing hi-vis wear for you and your horse. Let's work together to minimize the headlines of tragic horse events in 2024.