About

The purpose of this organization shall be:

  1. To perpetuate the common sense use and enjoyment of horses in America’s back country and wilderness.
  2. To work to ensure that public lands remain open to recreational stock use.
  3. To assist the agencies responsible for the management of public lands in meeting their goals.
  4. To educate, encourage, and solicit active participation in the wise and sustaining use of the back country resource by horsemen and the general public commensurate with our heritage.
  5. To foster and encourage the formation of new state Back Country Horsemen organizations.    

The Back Country Horsemen is a unique organization. We work with the United States Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service , Idaho State Parks and Recreation and other agencies to preserve and maintain the back country so that everyone has the freedom to enjoy it. As a service organization, we are able to offer our expertise to assist public agencies to manage continuing recreational livestock use on public lands.

We also offer our time and equipment to government agencies for such tasks a packing out trash, clearing trails, building trailhead facilities and other projects which will benefit both horsemen and non-horsemen. One of our primary purposes is to educate horsemen, and other trail users in the low impact use of the backcountry environment.

The horse has earned a noble place in our Western heritage; its usefulness and devotion have been second to none. It is our duty to see that horse-use is preserved in its rightful place. This can best be accomplished by our individual, responsible efforts to use our horses and pack stock wisely on public lands.

Link to:

Government Regulations:

S. 2283 was the first congressional act to address the use of animals in our forests.

S.2283 — 110th Congress (2007-2008) Preserving our Equine Heritage on Public Land Act – Provides for:

  • (1) the continued preservation and use of pack and saddle stock animals on public land administered by the National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, or the Forest Service on which there is a historical tradition of the use of pack and saddle stock animals; and
  • (2) defining the term “historical tradition of the use of pack and saddle stock animals” for purposes of this Act.