"I will never look at a trail the same again." That's what I said after attending the Trail Master course in Glenville, West Virginia, in early April. Rarely have I finished an educational experience so "psyched."

The next time I rode local trails that I know so well, I realized why the trails had bogs and ruts and other problems. Now I know how they need to be fixed. Now the next step is to work with the local land owners and volunteers to start fixing the problems. One fact that keeps churning over in my mind is the cost of building sustainable new trails -- those that will survive for decades with just moderate maintenance. To build a new sustainable multi-use trail properly in, say, a typical Eastern forest can run $3 to $5 per foot using modern equipment. And with modern equipment, a single person can do the work of 20 to 40 volunteers. So new trails of the length needed for our sport either need "big bucks" or lots of volunteers. This fact dramatically demonstrates how important it is to maintain our current equine trails, which means we must nurture both our trails and the relationships that enable us to use those trails.

As a result of discussions with fellow class members as well as Jerry Fruth, I am challenging the Trail Masters and the Trails and Research Group of committees to work on two areas that can further AERC trails goals:

1. Use of Trail Masters as resource for ride managers to make trails sustainable. As the number of certified Trail Masters increases, we should become a resource to ride managers to show them how to make the trails they use truly sustainable. How do we make this idea happen?

2. Cooperative work among AERC members and pleasure riders to jointly maintain and construct trails. We have about 6,000 AERC members whereas the number of pleasure riders in the U.S. numbers in the millions. We are the leaders in the eyes of federal land managers in trails construction and maintenance but we need more "arms and legs." How do we work with pleasure riders, who have a strong common interest with us in trails, to increase the leverage from our relationship with land managers and our best-in-practice knowledge of trail construction and maintenance?

One of the great benefits for me of the class in Glenville was building a relationship with another attendee: the ranger who leads the work on equine and wilderness trails in the Pisgah National Forest, near where I live. We have since been in discussions on how to marshal the local equine groups to work to maintain and expand the equine and multi-use trails. Two tasks on my "to-do list": turn our ideas into actions and convert the ranger's girlfriend, an equestrian, into an endurance rider.

In closing, let me reflect on the following: Jerry Fruth has challenged all of us to work on sustaining our trails. He set a target of 20 hours a year for each of us to spend working on trails. Given their value and the absolute necessity of trails for our sport, what are you doing? Are you meeting your target?