The Ride the Mitten Challenge is the first event of MHTA’s overall Explore the Trails Program which will focus on encouraging trail riders to experience what Michigan has to offer. We have partnered with MHTA trail organization member sponsors for this challenge. Participating associations will provide your goal locations to ride and association events to attend. Ride the Mitten T-shirts will be included in your registration fee, $30 for adults and $20 for children 12 years or younger. Participants will have the opportunity to share information about each location and will be required to upload a photo with their equine at each location and/or event. Each participant can receive: a) 1 location credit per location per year, b) 1 event credit per association per year. Please only complete the survey tracker once for each location and/or attending each association’s event. Work bees can qualify for events as long as you do ride a horse during your time at the participating location, it does not have to be during the work bee. The goal of this Challenge is to encourage riders to explore as many of the different locations and support associations by attending various events around the state. The Challenge will run April 10 – December 10.
The plan is to have challenge flyers posted along the trail or at staging area kiosks and this is what the riders will snap a photo with to prove their attendance at the location and/or event. If vandalism or park permission is an issue and the flyers are not posted, just do the best you can to show that you rode at a certain location, snapping a photo at the kiosk, park sign, etc.
Each participant will need to register one time. And then the survey tracker will be completed for each location and/or event and can be completed after. Survey data will be shared with all participating associations and may also be shared with land managers in an effort to identify information about riders experiences in Michigan.
Challenge Prize Drawings Include:
Riding 10+ locations – held after the challenge ends
3 Event Attendance drawings throughout the season
Random drawings
*Participants may only win once per random and event drawings. All eligible participants will be entered into the Location Drawing after the challenge ends.
Please click on the Trail System Directory links in the below table to find exact locations (Google Map directions) for the day staging and camping areas in the Location Box in addition to detailed description for all our riding locations. Now you have all the information you need to get out to explore and enjoy Michigan’s Trail Riding Areas! Thank you so much to all our sponsoring associations for their support of this program, all are listed below in the table and their logo’s will be displayed on the challenge T-shirts.
