We are experimenting with mapping horse riding and driving trails using OpenStreetMap, as we feel there should be a free and open solution to finding and keeping track of places to ride. We are updating the OSM database with trails in Central PA, Ohio, and Maryland to correctly reflect accessibility for equestrian use.

Unfortunately we haven’t found a great user interface to extract horse-specific maps from the OpenStreetMap data, but below are a couple things you can try.

Experiment 1: Waymarked Trails

Probably the best solution is this one from Europe:

This link should give a map as below. In Pennsylvania we have added many of the rail trails in our Horseback Riding Guide: Pennsylvania Rail Trails and quite a few trails in state parks. Those trails now show up in the route list at the right side when you click the ROUTE button at lower right.

In Ohio, we’ve added many horse trails from Cleveland Metroparks and various state parks which support horse riding, as well as some rail trails which allow equestrian use.

As you mouse over routes they are highlighted on the map. If you click on a route, you get details and can select ‘show on map’.

Here is an example of one trail:

WaymarkedTrails view of Lower Trail

Unfortunately, the site only shows horse “routes” from the OSM database. Quite a few horse trails are in the database, but if they aren’t part of a horse “route” they are not displayed. Not many horse “routes” are mapped in the USA yet…

Experiment 2: Overpass Turbo

Overpass-Turbo is a site to experiment with querying the OSM database. You can use it to query for horse features besides “routes” but the user interface is very basic.

Try it at https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/1rrV

This should give a view showing ‘designated’ horse trails in Black Moshannon park (ones that are specifically signed for horse use).

Note that if you pan to a different area, you must press the RUN button at top left to query the database again.

Contributing

Anyone can sign up and edit OpenStreetMap, so if you’d like to help the equestrian riding community document places to ride, please join in!

For example, you could:

  • upload GPS tracks of rides to document new trails
  • update marked horse trails to ‘designated’ status
  • build new “routes” from trails already in the database.

Maybe we can write up a few tips on doing so.