March 13, 2017 

We have a snow storm rolling in this evening.  The only one we are getting this winter so everyone is going crazy stock piling bread, milk and toilet paper.   I ran my normal errands and Costco was a mad house.  The parking lot looked like it was the Sunday after church rush.    

I managed to get home, and get my outdoor storm prep (stack more wood, find snow shovel, move bales of hay to the field, etc) with enough time to get in a nice road hack.  I have a couple road loops I can do from my house, mostly gravel roads, all about 4-6 miles long.  

I outfitted Simon and I in our safety gear – bright yellow – there is no way a car coming up behind us could miss us.  Heck, we were probably visable from outer space!  Decked in yellow, we trotted on out and got in a nice ride.  We passed cows, sheep, goats, other horses, scary plastic bags, pony-eating-farm-equipment, and plenty of dogs. Simon hardly blinked.  His most challenging part was a one lane narrow section of gravel road directly between two occupied cow fields.  Both herds ran along with us in their respective field.  Simon looked at them and I didn’t want to take my hands and attention away to take a photo, but it was no big deal. On we went.  

We came upon a school bus and four different pickup trucks.  All of which were amazing examples of vehicles coming upon a horse on the road.  I did encounter them all in rather narrow sections of the road, areas that would require a car to take care to pass another car going in the opposite direction.  They all came to a stop or close to it and waved and smiled politely.   

Shortly before the end of the ride a suspected high school or college aged girl came flying up on me, I swear she was picking up speed the closer she got.  I flagged her down and asked he to please pass horses slow and wide in the future.  That even if a horse appears to be comfortable with a car passing, something could cause the hose to startle (an evil leaf, a bird, etc) that horse might then jump in front of or into her car.  

I find it’s important to explain this in terms a driver can relate to. “You could kill me and my horse” *should be all that needs to be said, but it seems that it hits home for them more when you explain that their car and life are in jeopardy.  

I finished my ride, and grabbed the mail on my way up the driveway.  I even had a little more time to get in more wood before the impending storm.