I ride roads and trails. yep, some people are idiots and some are quite nice. sometimes too nice. Yesterday we were walking our horses down the road to a neighbors property to graze and play ( my property is sloped and was too wet and slippery to play) and a nice man, waving and smiling at us apparently didn't realize how close he was to my mare my daughter was walking. If my mare hadn't been used to traffic she could have gotten hurt. But fortunately she doesn't care and my daughter walked her as close to safety as possible. The worst thing though was a kid on a motorcycle. Our horses are used to these too, but this kid saw us from far away, and when he was close to us he sneered, and reved up his bike and passed us at at least 50 or 60 mph. I wanted to kill him! I had my youngest daughter and her friend with me. If we had not been on our older horses he really could have caused something just because he was stupid and rude. I agree that these people missed that part in the DMV handbook also. Otherwise, we have had good experiences. We go by tractors, cement trucks, garbage trucks and even people "burning". We have burn days here. In fact, (chuckle) I was walking my arab/pinto Cira the other day between rains. We got to this part of road where this man always burns his leaves in long lengthly piles. I saw two smoldering piles and assumed he was done. Right as we walked by I heard a great "whooosh!" and then a line of three foot flames appeared before us!! It made me jump, but my mare didn't bad an eye. I was thankful cause I was riding her bareback (I'm not too great at that)!! Anyway, I agree the experience is good for them but there are jerks out there and one has to be really careful. I have found that I can make people slow down by two of us splitting up and one going on each side of the road. But you can only do this if the horses don't care about being separated. Otherwise I don't think it would be safe. But the cars definately slow down and have to drive between us. Works on foot too. One nice thing we used to do is ride thru the neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights. The horses seemed to like that and the families would bring out the kiddies to see the horses. They were accustomed to us riding by in the daytime so we had the chance to teach them about how you approach a horse and rider properly (ie..not letting the kids run up to them). That was sorta neat! Anyway, good luck and safe driving and riding to those going to the DVE!! Wish I was going! Merry Christmas to all and Happy Holidays!! kathie
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