Horse in the Road

Driving down one of the twisty, windy parts of Lawson Valley road, on the way home after running some errands this morning, I came around a corner to find a rearing horse in the middle of the road. By the time I stopped, it was only about 25 feet from the nose of my truck. A young girl, perhaps 13 or 14 years old, was clinging to the horse’s mane and screaming continuously — obviously terrified. The horse looked wild-eyed and frightened as well.

I’ve never been in the presence of a horse bucking and rearing like this. I was amazed how fast that horse could move up-and-down. It was a big horse, too — when it reared back, its front hooves were well over my head (and more than a little intimidating).

I put my four-way flashers on and got out of the truck, truly not at all sure what to do. I could see an older woman — presumably the girl’s mother — running up a side street, obviously upset and very overheated (it was well over 100 degrees F out). I could see that the girl had let go of the reins, so I figured grabbing them might be a good idea — but I didn’t want to make things worse by spooking the horse. So I just approached slowly and carefully — the horse didn’t even seem to see me — stayed out of range of those flailing front hooves, and I managed to catch the reins. Then when the horse came down to the pavement the next time, I pulled down hard — and that worked. In fact, it was almost like throwing a switch. The horse kind of twitched a couple times, but completely stopped trying to buck or rear up.

The girl jumped off, and ran off to her mother, who by that time had gotten close to us. I led the horse off the road, and it followed me quite docilely, as though nothing had ever happened. After tying its reins to a mailbox post, I went over to talk with the mother. She was very relieved, as you might well imagine — had some nice things to say, though I hope its true that any adult encountering such a situation would try to do the same. The girl who was riding the horse never said a word to me, or to her mother in my presence — she just clung to her mother’s leg, hard, and buried her face in her mother’s side. Poor thing — I’ll bet it’s a while before she climbs on a horse again…

Quite an adventure, compared with shopping at Home Depot! When I got home, just a few minutes later, I was still feeling the effects of the adrenaline that was pumping strong while I was near that horse — strange feeling, shaky and a bit light-headed…