I got an email...

Hello,
I just saw a video of a mountain biker chasing a herd of horses on an NSMB.com web site. Are you nuts?
We all know that youth who mountain bike are very impressionable and the media is a very powerful tool.
We have a demographic of thousands of young people who ride mountain bikes and who may now imitate this behaviour thinking what a thrill it is.

I have always known that mountain biking is destructive to the biodiversity and ecology of our coastal rainforest, I now know also just what kind of people you really are. Those horses were riding on a hillside and were obviously frightened by the mountain bikers, and could have caused an injury to a horse. Duh! When a horse breaks his leg it is euthanized.
I don't know who the rancher was, but if he did give you permission, he should be reported to the SPCA.

I have never seen such irresponsibility!
Believe me, I will be sending this one everywhere. Congratulations Mr. McCrae, you have just given mountain bikers a worse reputation in this community than they have ever had before.
Shocking!
Elise R---

Maybe she's an opponent to mountain biking who felt this was a way to make us look bad?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/woman-64-accused-of-erecting-traps-on-north-shore-bike-trails/article22346259/

Good for her. It was a cool scene and I will buy the movie right now on Google Play just to watch it again!

It's truly fascinating where some people focus their intolerance sometimes.

We have thousands of logging trucks hauling trees out of our rainforests everyday, millions of animals suffering unspeakable abuse in factory farms, yet people like this want to point fingers at people riding bicycles. Are these people so unaware of far greater evils that we look like the devil to them? I truly wonder what causes someone to ignore all that and go after something so benign.

She's a bit over the top, and her anger is potentially misdirected at NSMB as opposed to the riders and filmmakers, but I don't think her criticism is completely unfair. The video kind of bugged me for similar reasons.

She's a bit over the top, and her anger is potentially misdirected at NSMB as opposed to the riders and filmmakers, but I don't think her criticism is completely unfair. The video kind of bugged me for similar reasons.

+1 to everything there.

I could see how that could have been done humanely, but without knowing my first instinct is that they're stressed. Do those horses normally book it like that?

Id be more pissed about the helicopter than the riders.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B0ngVW0vJvQ

I think it was a pretty shitty scene too to be honest. The sort of thing a 12 year old would find amusing.

Bike movies suck in general now. Watch a current movie from any action sport and chances are it's superior in every way. I'll still buy them and support the filmmakers regardless. I just wish the first time I saw Vansteez do that 60' or whatever front flip was during my first viewing of the movie and not months before.

… but I don't think her criticism is completely unfair. The video kind of bugged me for similar reasons.

link to vid?

She's a bit over the top, and her anger is potentially misdirected at NSMB as opposed to the riders and filmmakers, but I don't think her criticism is completely unfair. The video kind of bugged me for similar reasons.

+1 to everything there.

I could see how that could have been done humanely, but without knowing my first instinct is that they're stressed. Do those horses normally book it like that?

Completely agree. To me, the best movie segments have always been the simplest formula: good riders shredding trails. That's it. Stunts like this just open the door to negative publicity. Hard to argue that that wasn't very stressful to an often skittish animal.

She's a bit over the top, and her anger is potentially misdirected at NSMB as opposed to the riders and filmmakers, but I don't think her criticism is completely unfair. The video kind of bugged me for similar reasons.

Yup. Dumb scene.

Bike movies suck in general now. Watch a current movie from any action sport and chances are it's superior in every way. I'll still buy them and support the filmmakers regardless. I just wish the first time I saw Vansteez do that 60' or whatever front flip was during my first viewing of the movie and not months before.

I agree with you that this is often the case, but UnReal is a movie I really enjoyed. And I think it stacks up well to movies from other sports.

While I don't disagree with you entirely, I think what we do to the animals we raise for food is vastly worse than this. Animals running free with a couple of bicycles riders nearby? Probably not wise, but inhumane? I'm not so sure.

Pigs and calves raised in metal pens too small for them to turn around, only to be butchered (often inhumanely) for their trouble? That makes riding bikes with horses seem like a ridiculous cause to rail against. (And I'm not saying you are railing against it - to be clear)

She's a bit over the top, and her anger is potentially misdirected at NSMB as opposed to the riders and filmmakers, but I don't think her criticism is completely unfair. The video kind of bugged me for similar reasons.