Scary Incident

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Nina Bomar caballos@att.net
My horse Spider, dog Butch and I went out for an 
early morning ride one weekend.  Our trail access 
is about a 1/2 mile from my house and unfortunately
it's all city streets with concrete sidewalks.  We were
approaching the freeway underpass when I noticed the 
homeless guy (who is a local landmark) and his dog had 
parked themselves on the sidwalk.  Since I didn't want
to startle them, I began making noises as we got closer 
to them.  I had my dog on a leash on my one side and I led
Spider on the other side.  Well, the homeless guy's dog 
lunged at us and was growling ferociously, so I calmly 
put my hand up and said to the dog "stay there, it's okay".
For some unknown reason, this infuriated the homeless guy 
and he then got up while screaming profanities and came towards 
us with a vengence.  Spider who is my magnificent and beloved 15'3 dapple grey gelding, charged at the guy with his ears pinned back and with such bravery even I was stunned.  The homeless guy backed down real quick and his dog cowardly hunkered down in submission.  I jumped on my horse and after we passed him, the idiot began yelling more obscene gestures and threatened to kill me upon my return.  Needless to say, I rode to a nearby ranch and asked to borrow a phone to call 911.  The police came and escorted us home with their patrol car.  They were unable to arrest this guy because he did not physically touch me (can you believe that?)  I never did get to ride that day and my nerves were shattered from the whole experience.  The real pissy of it all is that this same guy continues to loiter in the same place and has created a following of local supporters that give him money, pet supplies, clothes and food.  He buys his liquor from the local liquor store and pays with one hundred dollar bills.  He has made his home on the trail where I used to ride and it is now completely unpassable due to all his trash, bedding, sacks upon sacks of dog food and other donated goods.  Sometimes I wish I could take the city folks that feel such pitty on him and show them where their money goes.  I have to seriously control my own urges not to run the bastard down each day as I pass him by, only instead of by horse, it's by car.