We are excited to announce a new and powerful way for you to map horse riding routes, experiment with ride mileage and elevation, and download tracks to follow… and it’s ALL FREE!
We’ve been using and recommending WaymarkedTrails.org for several years and really appreciate the view into public riding map data that it offers, but it does have limitations. We recently discovered Gpx.Studio offers powerful tools to create your own horse riding routes and custom maps using just a few clicks, using the very same map data as WaymarkedTrails.
It requires a few steps to set up for horse mapping, but we will walk you through that. It’s easy.
Example Using Gpx.Studio at Quehanna
As an example, let’s say you want to ride your horse from Yellowsnake Camping area at Quehanna Wild Area. You’ve never been there and although you read our (awesome) Quehanna Riding Guide you want to find your own route to ride.
Here’s an example of what Gpx.Studio can give you with a few clicks!
To see what the land is like, you can switch to aerial view:
There are other options too, but we will let you experiment!
Setting up Gpx.Studio for Horse Mapping
Open Gpx.Studio in your browser and select App.
Enable the Horse Riding Overlay
Go to the main title bar and choose Settings and then Map Layers.
That should give you a menu like this. Expand the Layer Selections.
You’ll get an extensive list of map layers from all over the world! Scroll down to Waymarked Trails and check the Horse Riding box.
Now that layer is enabled for mapping. You just need to turn it on.
Turn On the Horse Riding Overlay
Click on the Layers button 
Check to enable the Horse Riding overlay.
Now you are ready to horse map!
Enter a likely horse riding location in the search bar…
And now you have a lovely map showing all the public horse trails we have mapped around Yellowsnake Equestrian Campground.
Creating Custom Horse Riding Routes in Gpx.Studio
Now you are ready to create your own route map with just a few clicks.
Zoom the map to a comfortable working area.
Click on the pencil button to create or edit a route.
From the pop up window, set activity to run/hike to get access to trails. Maybe eventually they will add a “horseback” option 🙂
Click on a horse riding route close to your starting point and a dot will appear on the map.
Click again on a segment you want to ride to add it to the route. We’ll go out to the west on Erie Camp Trail.
Keep adding points along the route to indicate which segments you want to ride. With each addition, the site will calculate routing and update the distance and elevation profile at the bottom of screen.
When you are close enough to your start point you can click Back To Start.
It will automatically complete the route to your start point (if it can).
As you’d expect, you can click and drag to easily edit the route. For example you can drag the routing point at upper left onto a different segment and it will recalculate distance and elevation.
If you’d like, you can:
- Click on Settings/Distance Units to show miles and feet.
- Click on View/Distance Markers to show mileage.
- Click on View/Direction Arrows if you want them.
Now you have a pretty nice map showing distance and elevation. You can name it, add points of interest, and export it to your navigation device or print it.
Change the basemap to Mapbox Satellite if you like, and click on Edit/Appearance to change track color or width.
Other Features
Under the layers button you can turn on amenities like dining spots, food markets, restrooms, water sources, and campsites. There are a lot of useful tools to play with here!
Limitations
The only real glitch we noticed is that trail names are in very small text which is hard to read on a printed map while jogging along on horseback. If you are following a GPS track that probably doesn’t matter.
Conclusions about Gpx.Studio
We feel Gpx.Studio is an amazing resource for mapping horse riding trails! It’s free, it uses public map data available to everyone, and it doesn’t involve downloading another app to spy on your life. How can you not love all that?
Happy trails!