From: neilson@osf.org (Peter Neilson)
Subject: Drivers encounter loose horses
Summary: A pleasant country drive, mostly
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 14:26:31 GMT

On Sunday the 16th we went on a ten-to-fifteen mile pleasure drive in
Hillsboro NH, with the Granite State Carriage Association.  My wife
and I each drove a Saddlebred mare to a single-horse two-wheel cart.
One cart is a Meadowbrook, the other a something else of about the
same size.  We had planned to have two friends with us, but one of
them could not come, so I drove alone.  Because the weather was poor
we had actually expected not to go at all, but changed our minds at
the last minute, loaded the carts and horses, and arrived late for the
start of the drive.  All the others had gone on before us.  We picked
up our maps, and headed out.  My wife drove ahead, because she had a
navigator.  It's hard to read a map in the rain, at a trot, while you
are busy driving.

Well, everything actually went fine until we reached the point where
the dirt road came to NH highway 31, which we were to follow for about
two tenths of a mile.  Just as we approached the highway, a frisky
pinto mare and a dusky pony came bounding across the yard of the house
on the corner.  Initially I thought they would stop at the fence.  BUT
THERE WAS NO FENCE.  Then I thought the man in the yard would catch
them.  HE THOUGHT THEY WERE OURS!  We briefly entertained thoughts
about catching them.  (Our friend would head my wife's horse so she
could jump out and grab the pinto - but then what would we do?)  BUT
THEY DIDN'T HAVE HALTERS.  Well, I suppose we could have made emergency
halters out of lead ropes.      *** Then the pinto came over and was
nose to nose with my mare! ***  Danger time!  My wife yelled for me to
move out at a trot.  (This involved getting past the pinto, and the
pony, and the traffic on Rt 31.)  So I got out there, and had to stop
because of traffic, and the pinto got in front of us and KICKED MY
MARE.  Meanwhile the pony was kicking my wife's mare.  We were all
over the highway, every which way.  I whipped my mare until I got her
attention away from the pinto, and got her to move.  (Never, ever even
think about driving without a whip!)  The motorists were all very
sensible, thank goodness.  They pulled over and stopped, and did not
try to get past until the entire fiasco had passed through.  I was
now in the lead, and my wife and her navigator were yelling directions
at me (TURN LEFT AT THE FORK!!  TROT!  PETER, MAKE HER TROT ON!!!)  We
went up the hill after the fork as fast as we could, with the two
extras still following us.  Then a car passed us, and asked us to stop
and talk.  THEY STARTED TO LECTURE US ABOUT OUR LOOSE HORSES!  We
yelled back that they weren't ours, and pressed on.  Finally we lost
our entire fan club, except for the two kids on bicycles (they were no
problem, but they didn't know who owned the horses, either).

                 *************************

Dear Horse Owners:  Please make sure that your fencing is reasonably
secure, especially if you keep only one or two horses, or if you have
animosity between sub-herds of horses that you (for some reason) turn
out together.  If you are afraid of having halters on your horses,
consider the halters with the leather breakaway band at the poll.
-- 
            >>>  Peter Neilson  --- neilson@osf.org  <<<
   "So what is this dangerous driving thing you do?"  -- A friend of HRH,
    Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh.
(Quotation changed daily.  If you've seen this one before, it's still yesterday.)