Equestrian safety at Pocahontas State Park has reached a crisis point. The current "multi-use" trail model forces heavy, high-speed mountain bike traffic onto the exact same paths as horses and pedestrians. While park rules state that cyclists must yield to horses, this rule is routinely ignored due to a total lack of enforcement, insufficient signage, and unsafe speeds.

This infrastructure failure recently resulted in a catastrophic, life-altering tragedy. A local rider, Gail Meador, was thrown from her horse when a high-speed cyclist failed to yield or slow down. She suffered severe thoracic fractures and a cervical spinal cord injury, permanently ending her ability to ever ride a horse again.

This was a completely preventable tragedy. We, the undersigned members of the Virginia equestrian community and concerned citizens, refuse to wait for another rider to be paralyzed or killed before action is taken. Shared multi-use trails are no longer a safe option.

Our Demands:

We call on Pocahontas State Park leadership, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), and local elected officials to immediately implement the following safety measures:

Complete Physical Separation of Trails: Designate separate, dedicated trail networks for equestrians that completely segregate horses from high-speed mountain bike traffic corridors.
Enforceable Bicycle Speed Limits: Mandate and actively enforce strict speed limits for cyclists on any remaining shared infrastructure or multi-use connectors.
High-Visibility Yield Infrastructure: Install explicit, large-scale signage and trail-entry warnings clearly reinforcing the legal yield hierarchy at every intersection.
Sign this petition to demand that Virginia State Parks protect its riders and restore safety to our historic public trails.