This just in from Reuters

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

Subject: Endurance Rider Drunk in Woodside

Humane Society knocks cowboy out of saddle
WOODSIDE, Calif. (Reuters) - 

A self-styled "cowboy poet" was within spitting distance of completing his
3,500 mile (5,600 km) trek across the United States when he was knocked out
of the saddle -- by the local humane society.

Ray Piecuch and his horse, Bo, were 30 miles (48 km) short of their goal,
San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, when a concerned citizen of the town of
Woodside lodged an anonymous complaint of animal abuse against him.

"They're not used to a horse working for a living," Piecuch told Tuesday's
San Jose Mercury News after cowboy and horse were reunited at the Peninsula
Humane Society.

Piecuch, 41, began his cross-country ride last April in his native Epping,
N.H., and passed through 13 states before reaching California where he ran
afoul of the good Samaritans of Woodside March 23.

Bo, a 9-year-old former harness race horse, was examined by a veterinarian
and found to be "exhausted", meaning the pair will spend the rest of the
week resting before the final leg of their journey to San Francisco Saturday.

Piecuch conceded that Bo, named after John Wayne's horse in the movie "True
Grit", might seem skinny to the denizens of California horse country.

"Bo was a little thin, but he was an athlete," Piecuch told the San
Francisco Chronicle. "Most horse people own horses that are overweight."

Piecuch had his own brush with Woodside police, who arrested him for public
drunkenness after a day of regaling the crowd at the Pioneer Saloon. But he
said he had no beef with Woodside, which has rallied to his support.

He said he will arrange a ride home for Bo once they reach the Golden Gate
Bridge, while he will begin mulling ideas for a book. "Just give me a
typewriter and a 12-pack of beer. I'll write you two books," Piecuch said.