Yesterday, I thought I was going to have to return a horse to its owner. The trail I run on (when I run, which has not been all that often lately) is paved, but there’s a gravel path that runs along a lot of it. It has more ups and downs, and I don’t usually run on it, but you can see it and the people on it for the most part. Yesterday, I was running along a stretch where there’s an animal hospital on the far side of the gravel path. I glanced over to check for horses (they have a small fenced arena), and hey – I saw one. Outside the fence. It was on the gravel path. BY ITSELF. No bridle, no saddle, just a horse, happily munching on some grass. There was a woman heading in to the animal hospital when I got there, so I checked with her.
“Excuse me – did you know there’s a horse loose over there?”
“Yeah, he belongs to the neighbors. They do that sometimes.”
“Do we need to tell them?”
“Nah. They probably know.”
Okay, then. I guess the neighbors felt the horse could be trusted not to wander off… He certainly paid no attention to me as I went by. It’s still weird. I live in suburbia, not farm country. This horse was not far off from standing on a sidewalk in front of a house in some development. I wouldn’t mind living in farm or horse country, but horses don’t exactly roam free out there, either. Fences, people.