Feb 19, 2015 4 min read

Can hiker, runner, bicyclist and horseback rider peacefully coexist at Mingo Creek County Park?

Members of Mountain Valley Trail Riders sought assurances from the Washington County commissioners late last year that the 18 or so miles of trails at Mingo would remain open to horses and they offered to volunteer in the park to help restore steep areas that degraded into a series of ruts.

The trail group hosted two speakers from the Pennsylvania Equine Council earlier this month to talk about trail stewardship, but volunteer efforts are on hold as the commissioners continue to discuss the matter with members of Washington County’s Service Employees International Union.

“Sometimes volunteerism is the only way services can be maintained,” said Gwen Wills of Summerville, Clarion County, trail stewardship director for the Pennsylvania Equine Council, who recently, with her husband, Bud, addressed the local meeting at a barn in the Eighty Four area. “Not every township can afford a paid fire company. An organization can solicit donations or do fundraisers. Part of that trail may not be sustainable. Volunteers could at least keep a good eye on it or do what could be done to keep it from degrading.”

Two Washington County commissioners attended Wills’ speaking engagement.

“Me not being a horse person, it made me aware of the problems riders face,” Commission Chairman Larry Maggi Wednesday. He is aware, however, of the damage a 1,100-pound animal can inflict on a steep, muddy landscape.

Commissioner Harlan Shober has horses living on his Chartiers Township property, although he does not own or ride them. He said at Mingo, the trail that loops around the park takes about six hours to complete. There’s a need for a smaller loops, Shober said he learned from the talk in Eighty Four.

Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan did not attend the meeting due to a family matter.

One section of the Mingo horse trail remains closed, said Lisa Cessna, director of the Washington County Planning Commission, which oversees the parks, because it needs such extensive drainage and surface repair.

“Build a relationship with those who manage the park so they can keep the trails open,” is how Wills summed up her talk. “Horse people do not want to ride something that’s not in good shape. It’s not good for horses, either.”

A study released in 2003 quantified horses as a $10 billion industry and Wells said it has only grown over the past decade, and horse ownership is an economic driver for hay and grain sales, fence, trucks and trailers, veterinarians, farriers who shoe the horses, and those who sell tack, saddles, bridles and blankets as well as apparel.

“It’s a huge subculture all its own,” Wills said Wednesday in a phone interview.

Riders must be aware at all times of the rules governing the use of trails. Use of Mingo by equestrians is less restrictive than the regulation of state game lands.

According to the state Game Commission website, “Multi-use roads or trails are open to bicycling and horseback riding at certain times of the year, and under certain restrictions. Riding is not permitted from the last Saturday in September through the third Saturday in January and after 1 p.m. from the second Saturday in April thru the last Saturday in May, except on Sundays or on roads open to public travel.

“This does not apply to anyone lawfully engaged in hunting, trapping or fishing on state game lands,” the website states. “Designated routes are posted by the Game Commission as being open to travel by a non-motorized vehicle, conveyance or animal.”

Wills, who with her husband owns two horses and a dozen mules, opined that hunting from horseback “only makes it more difficult, but horses don’t spook the deer.”

State game lands in Washington County include a tract 5.3 miles southwest of West Alexander, which has a 2 1/2-mile trail; another tract south of Interstate 70 between Green Haven and Knox roads, home to a 3 1/2-mile trail; a game land in the vicinity of the 3,600-acre Hillman State Park in the Burgettstown area north of Steubenville Pike, which has a 2 3/4-mile trail, and a game land that straddles Washington and Greene counties at Enlow Fork.

Riders won’t travel long distances to hoof short trips, so Mingo remains an attractive destination.

“It’s just a beautiful, beautiful park,” Wills said of Mingo. “We were quite impressed. It’s quite a jewel you have down there.”