Equestrians in the context of "Horse trail"

A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. However, it is sometimes applied to highways in North America. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. In the US, the term was historically used for a route into or through wild territory used by explorers and migrants (e.g. the Oregon Trail). In the United States, "trace" is a synonym for trail, as in Natchez Trace.

Some trails are restricted to use by only walkers, or cyclists, or equestrians, or for snowshoeing, or cross-country skiing, others, for example bridleways in the UK, are shared, and can be used by walkers, cyclists and equestrians. Although most ban motorized use, there are unpaved trails used by dirt bikes, quad bikes and other off-road vehicles, usually for extreme sports and rally races. In some places, like the Alps, trails are used by alpine agrarian communities for moving cattle and other livestock.

A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now serve a wider range of users, including equestrians, hikers, and cyclists. Such paths are either impassable for motorized vehicles, or vehicles are banned. The laws relating to allowable uses vary from country to country.

In industrialized countries, bridle paths are now primarily used for recreation. However, they are still important transportation routes in other areas. For example, they are the main method of traveling to mountain villages in Lesotho.

Equine anatomy encompasses the gross and microscopic anatomy of horses, ponies and other equids, including donkeys, mules and zebras. While all anatomical features of equids are described in the same terms as for other animals by the International Committee on Veterinary Gross Anatomical Nomenclature in the book Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria, there are many horse-specific colloquial terms used by equestrians.

The lateral clicks are a family of click consonants found only in African languages. The clicking sound used by equestrians to urge on their horses is a lateral click, although it is not a speech sound in that context. Lateral clicks are found throughout southern Africa, for example in Zulu, and in some languages in Tanzania and Namibia. The place of articulation is not known to be contrastive in any language, and typically varies from alveolar to palatal.

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents a generic lateral click is ⟨ǁ⟩, a double vertical bar. Prior to 1989, ⟨ʖ⟩ was the IPA letter for the lateral clicks, and this is still preferred by some phoneticians, as the vertical bar may be confounded with prosody marks, two dental clicks, and in some fonts, with a double lowercase L. Either letter may be combined with a second letter to indicate the manner of articulation, though this is commonly omitted for tenuis clicks with a velar rear articulation.