It's in my teeth!

Mountain bikers and horse people naturally get off on the wrong foot relationship-wise. Why? Horses poop. They poop a lot, in fact. Summer before last, my primary place of riding was the Petersburg Battlefield in Petersburg, VA. Lots of poop. Keep in mind that VA is quite humid in the summer, so said poop is not dry. What it was, was plentiful, moist, and always piled right in the middle of the trail. The great part of this is that just as horses are so skilled at pooping, bike tires are equally perfect for flinging every bit of ground they touch up at the rider. I've had poop on my bike, poop on my feet, poop up my back, poop in my eyes, poop in my hair, poop in my teeth, and poop in my mouth. If you ever hear someone exclaim "that tastes like horse shit" and they sound like they know what they are talking about, they just might have biked these trails. What is my point? Horses shouldnt poop? Good luck with that one. Certainly not. But it does put a taste in a bikers mouth concerning horse people.

So there I am with a bad taste in my mouth about horse people, and I'm riding my bike of course, as fast as I can too 'cause what fun is riding slow. This is perfectly normal and accepted behaviour, in fact, I would say anyone who wants to plod along all willy-nilly on their bike might as well walk. So I'm pinning it around this sharp blind corner and there stands a horse (with rider). Horses have the right of way. Bikes yeild to horses. Bikes yeild to hikers. Horses yeild to hikers. These are the rules of the trail and it is no secret since most trailheads have signs posted stating such. The signs do not, however, explain the differential in time between the biker stopping, dismounting, and walking past the horse and the time it takes the horse rider to completely spaz out.

Apparantly it is common in the horse community to walk slowly down trails, quite the opposite of the bike community. Strange too, since even a lard butt horse could smoke most cyclists. And this rider, who was walking slow, in a blind corner, in the woods, and mounted on a naturally cammoflaged animal, was enraged that me and my friend (who also had poop in his mouth) didn't see her and yeild in a sufficiently appropriate time for her comfort level. As we attempted to yeild to someone going slower than us, she lectured us on spooking horses and what not. It would have been amusing had I not been in shock since she was the one who was spooked and her horse seemed completely oblivious that he was supposed to be terrified.

I must say my opinion of horse people was improved the next time I encountered riders. This couple yelled out to us not to dismount and to ride by them because it was good for their horses experience. They were quite friendly too. The taste in my mouth got a little less nutty. Last weekend, I had the opportunity to ride in Greensfelder Park in St. Louis, MO (this time on a horse myself). As a group of bikers approached, I rode up to them and happily talked bike stuff while they took a breather. My horse, kindly, did not go and trample small children at the mere sight of a bike. This isnt to say that horses dont spook, but gosh, those bad apples of riders could at least be friendly. After all, we all have the same goals of trail advocacy.