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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

Gene, driving a horse is not pertinent.  She could just as easily have hit a 
person in a car with the same results.  Happens all the time but no one 
warns folks off the road with their car.

You can't ride/drive horses on 101 in Sonoma County but we road/drove them 
all over 12, Bodega Hwy, Gravenstein Hwy and other roads in Windsor, 
Petaluma and Santa Rosa.  The amount and type of traffic dictated whether we 
road or drove.

We've ridden/driven them on 101 in Humboldt County because it goes back to 
being a highway and is no longer considered a freeway (they are legal on 
highways, illegal on freeways).  Of course, the drivers are used to 
bicycles, walkers and horses, well, and elk since there is even an elk 
crossing <g>, up there and a couple of the bridges even have special 
stoplights to stop the traffic until the non-car traffic is off the bridges.

However, car or horse or bicycle doesn't make much difference when other 
people do dangerous things when behind the wheel.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gene GeRue" <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
> When the grandsons were visiting two years ago we were returning from
> a day at Branson. Suddenly the traffic stopped. A few cars ahead and
> off to the side I could see the demolished wagon. A horse was standing
> there, favoring one leg. Men were huddled in a small group, apparently
> making a decision. I had mixed feelings having the grandsons watching
> as a man walked over to the horse and shot it.
>
> Checking the news the next day I learned that an elderly woman had
> dozed off while driving and her car swerved and hit the wagon. The
> article stated that the driver of the wagon was in critical condition.
>
> All of this is to say that I am very empathetic to those who seek to
> diminish motor vehicle use, but would urge all--as James has done
> above--to seriously consider the very real danger of driving horses
> along a highway. A wagon offers zero protection from a one-to-three-
> ton car or truck moving at legal speeds and above, the drivers in
> various conditions of skill and wakefulness.