[RC] Angry in the mountains of Idaho! - Mary Orosz
I am SO angry right now! I went riding in our
“neighborhood” which is a mountainous, farm area. It is so
hard riding in all the deep, crusty snow right now that I like to ride on snow
covered roads instead of in the pastures. I have permission from a man
that lives in the area to ride on his property. He lives on a private
(although it is deeded public access) road that is a dead end. There is
one house back in the woods before you get to his house. You cannot even
see the house. His house is next and at the end of the road. He has 350 acres
with a dirt road that winds through his property that he plows. It is
great to ride on in weather like this. You see deer, elk and all sorts of
creatures. The people in the first house (a 90 year old woman and her
daughter and a man who lives there, are absolutely territorial and nutso.) They
even put up a sign after seeing me last time that said “No horses or
riders”. I have told them before that I have permission to ride on the
second property and the owner of the second property has also told them.
Today I was riding down the road and passed the woman and her daughter and gave
them a friendly hello, continued up the road and ran into Mr. Newton, the owner
of the second property. I spoke to him for about ten minutes and he
reiterated that I have permission and that if the other people say anything to
me, I should tell them I am riding up to his house. On my way back (after
one of those absolutely wonderful winter rides), riding past the crazy people’s
drive, the daughter immediately started yelling at me. I tried to
reason with her that I had permission, but she told me I was a big liar. She
grabbed my horse’s reins and I told her “not to touch
him”. I told her that I had just spoken again to Mr. Newton
and that he had again given me his permission to ride on his property. Over her
screaming I told her that I never ride on her property. I was keeping my cool,
but she was still going crazy and ended up wacking my horse on the rump with a
newspaper. Fortunately this was at the end of our ride and he was tired
and did not over react. I ended up just leaving and riding
home. On the way home a car roared up next to me and the man inside
started screaming at me. Again I said talk to Mr. Newton and see that he gave
me permission. He then told me that If I rode on that road again with my
horse that the horse would never come out of there and finished by saying
“and that’s a threat!”. After he left I was so mad I
started crying. I am so tired of the crazies around here. I watch
where I ride and I don’t take my dogs with me anymore because the lady
across the road yells about the leash law. I only like to take them with
me when I ride up into the hills because of the bears.
When I got home, I called Mr. Newton and he told me that
these people are so nutso that they even had him arrested for trespassing when
he rode 100 feet onto one of their roads with his 4 wheeler. - And he had
been plowing their drive and bringing them wood for free. When he told me
that, I decided to call the sheriff and see what I should do. Guess what
– nothing! Can’t charge them with assault since it was my
horse she hit – even though I was on him and could have been hurt.
They couldn’t even do anything about the threat since it was against my
horse and not me. I told the sheriff, that if I don’t come home
some day he will know where to look. I am so angry that I want to go
riding there every day and take my husband along although I probably
won’t go there. The sheriff told me next time I should pull out my cell
phone and call them while it is happening. But why should I bother if
they won’t do anything? This is an absolutely wonderful place to
ride and train with hills and a big meadow and I am just so angry
