Maybe it's just a Southern thing...

[Robert Prior]

I have no idea where Robert could have gotten the idea that anyone or thing has the right of way over horses on trails. That is just not true., Never has never will.

Posted by the TRCA (which owns the property) at the entrance to the trails. Horses yield to cyclists and hikers, cyclists yield to hikers.

I can't find the picture I took of the sign at the entrance, but on the trail map below it says clearly "All trails are multi-use; equestrian users must yield to pedestrians."

https://trcaca.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/app/uploads/2020/01/07110643/EDHTrailhead_2019.pdf

Maybe I'm just Mr. Grumpypants, but I don't consider "get off the trail, my horse kicks" as yielding to pedestrians. Although if the horse was bad-tempered it would be understandable, given the load he was carrying.

 

[BigAl07]

Good morning to all-
If a person claims his or her horse is bothered by a drone, then that person is not being accurate. In my experience, horses are completely indifferent and unresponsive to drones.
That's just a person blowing smoke and being a jerk- or perhaps in this case, a jerkette.

you all be safe and keep well- Ed

Good morning Ed.

I have some experience (2x to be exact) with a horse being spooked by an UAS.

First was a Real Estate shoot I did and the owner had a pair of horses in the field beside the home. For whatever reason, these two horses were crazy spooked and the home owner finally asked me to come back another day so he could get them to another field away from the property.

The second horse story was on a Search & Rescue operation for a missing hiker. We had K-9, Boots On the Ground, and a Horse Search Team. We were putting the UAS up at the Command Post to get an idea of the immediate surrounding area and 1 of the 6 horses in the group was not happy. It was very agitated and we had to land and wait until the group had left the area to resume.

One other "Animal" story with UAS. We were shooting a Real Estate shoot and the community had a "Donkey Lot". It happened to be across the road from the residence we were hired to photograph and the moment we took to the air all 5 donkeys went ballistic. They were running, bucking, making donkey noises and just Freaking out! The care taker literally came running out trying to figure out what was wrong. She finally put 2+2 together and ran over to our location and asked if we could please LAND the drone. She was concerned they were going to hurt themselves trying to get away from the "predator". Even though we were not anywhere near "Over" the Donkey Lot we landed and did the rest of the shots from the ground.

On the flip side, I've been filming events before and dozens of horses walked by and never paid the UAS any attention what so ever. Last year we were hired the the NFS to document some flood damage along certain trails etc and the clean up tasks. We went in on mountain bikes but the Clean Up team used horses and none of those 3 horses spooked. One horse kept looking around somewhat cautiously but the other 2 never even acknowledged anything was happening in the air.

So while it's not an absolute, some of us have had negative Horse (and donkey) experiences with UAS.

 

[Roaming Troll]

Good evening to all-
I have flown my drones in various places for the past couple of years, but I have only flown in the South, you know, where people speak Southernese- such as "ya'll, no 'rs' or 'g's pronounced," and nearly everyone is polite more or less.
I just got back from a trip to the North Carolina Smoky Mountains, and I flew my drone there, and every person who saw me flying smiled and some cane to see what I was doing, and they all seemed very interested.
I know that other drone pilots have faced antagonism and downright surly behavior, but I have never found it.
Maybe it's just a Southern thing to be polite to others- even when you don't know what they are doing.

You all be safe and keep well- Ed

I flew up to Michigan from Mississippi to visit family this week so I naturally brought the drone with me. Like you I have had a number of people acting friendly and interested in what I am doing. UNTIL today. Now, I don't know if this was a local yankee or a tourist but he brought his young daughter over to the walkway a few feet away from me where I was flying over the river. He deliberately said loud enough for me to hear him pointing my drone out to his daughter and saying "...it looks like the other drones I've shot down.". Triggered much Karen?

 

[dronerdave]

Good morning to all-
If a person claims his or her horse is bothered by a drone, then that person is not being accurate. In my experience, horses are completely indifferent and unresponsive to drones.
That's just a person blowing smoke and being a jerk- or perhaps in this case, a jerkette.

you all be safe and keep well- Ed

Not my buddies horse. Even at 100 feet that thing freaked out. I'm not saying all horses respond that way and maybe a different drone would have a different effect. I've also noticed cattle sometimes react to my drone and young bovine's often freak out while mom nearby usually ignores the drone. I'm just not sure it's a southern thing

 

[djwak59]

Must be a Southern thing. I live in Western KY, kinda in the South. I was flying downtown here Saturday afternoon at the Justice Center, across the street from the PD, SO and FD, no one said a word. A couple of weeks ago I was in Indiana, (just across the Ohio River) and flew in Class G Airspace and was questioned 4 time in 30 min. by the local PD and locals wanting to know what I thought I was doing? Showed the PD my Part 107 Lic. and that was good enough for them, the locals not so much. Instead of having a confrontation, I just packed up my Phantom 3 and Mini 2 and moved on.

People just seem to be sooo paranoid about it. Personally, I think the political environment has a lot to do with it. Just my opinion.
I try to fly early in the morning in an attempt to avoid these situations all together.

 

[hiflyer201]

Hiya Robert.
The horse thing has been going around since the days of the Horseless Carriage. Here is an old saying, “It's all right to do whatever you want, as long as you don't do it in the street and scare the horses.” I grew up in Sacramento in the 40's and believe or not it was rare to see horses but there were more than a few hitching posts around. I can only imagine what that mixture of backfires and snorting was like. Mr. toads wild ride I would suspect.

 

[frcaloy]

Good evening to all-
I have flown my drones in various places for the past couple of years, but I have only flown in the South, you know, where people speak Southernese- such as "ya'll, no 'rs' or 'g's pronounced," and nearly everyone is polite more or less.
I just got back from a trip to the North Carolina Smoky Mountains, and I flew my drone there, and every person who saw me flying smiled and some cane to see what I was doing, and they all seemed very interested.
I know that other drone pilots have faced antagonism and downright surly behavior, but I have never found it.
Maybe it's just a Southern thing to be polite to others- even when you don't know what they are doing.

You all be safe and keep well- Ed

Y'all be safe now!