As the trails become more crowded with everyone growing frantic to accomplish their personal goals; encounters are going to become more frequent. Please, remember: Horses should have the right of way!

It’s a matter of safety. Horses can move in explosive fashion in any direction for no apparent reason. So, please follow the rules of etiquette when you encounter a horse.

– Speak. Don’t yell. Just say, “Hello, how you doing? Hey, what a pretty horse. I’m scared to death of horses. That animal has big teeth. Do you always abuse your animal, or are you riding upside down to show off?” Say something.

–Stop. Don’t approach and shake your fist to watch the horse jump off the cliff.

– Move to the side. It’s common knowledge that an animal which is perfectly capable of sliding through the tiniest gap to get into a feed room needs yards of space to go past a bicycle.

– Ask the rider for directions. If the horse seems to be frightened, ask the rider what to do. Most of the time, the rider won’t tell you to jump off the cliff.

– Don’t swat the horse on your way by. This can have disastrous results. Some horses may swat you right back. Don’t take any chances on a backfire.

– Have a nice day. We all want to enjoy ourselves. We all want everyone to arrive home safely after the outing. So keep a smile on your face, and have a nice day.

Oh, yeah; if you come across a riderless horse, stop, speak softly, approach slowly and avert your eyes to avoid embarrassing the person who is probably squatting in front of the animal thinking that this is an adequate screen for privacy.

RAECHEL BAILEY KOLB
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.