Trail Riding

I've been riding a lot with my neighbour, almost every weekend. Usually we trailer somewhere and ride and then trailer home. Dakota is getting used to getting on and off her trailer, and today just walked right in like an old pro. The goal of today's trail ride was to get Dakota across a bridge, something he's never done. The plan isfor us to go horse camping in August, and the camp has numerous bridges on its' trails, so we need to make sure he's going to cross (and if not we've got two months to teach him how). He stopped and sniffed the bridge before crossing and then walked right across, he wasn't too sure about the noise it was making (it was a wooden bridge). The ride was supposed to be "short" but ended up being 2 1/2 hours, not exactly a short ride, but got us a good taste for what's to come later this summer.

Each time we go out someone will say;" ______________ up ahead, he do ok with that?" Things that go in the blank are: lawnmowers, motorcycles, loose dogs, loud trucks, or other things like that. Each time my answer is, " I don't know, guess we'll see". And each time he plods right on by it like it's no big deal and he's Mr. Pro Trail Rider/Road Rider. Well today there was a bicycle coming down the trail, I suspected this might not go well, but wanted to make sure he saw the biker before putting my friends horse between us (That always makes him much more brave when Domino is between him and potentially scary object). I yelled up to the biker to say hello to us or at least talk so that he'd know that biker was human and not some monster. Biker dude kept coming without saying a word. Dakota FREAKED OUT, we spun around and went galloping down the trail AWAY from the biker and back where we came from. I finally got him under control and looked over my shoulder to see how far we'd come and assess getting back to where we needed to be and the biker was right behind us, coming RIGHT FOR US!!! WHAT THE HELL!!! I think that thought crossed both our minds at the same time. The oblivious biker pulled around us and kept on going, saying "sorry" right about the same time he was directly beside us. That was enough for Dakota and we galloped back to Domino. My neighbour said when he went by her she asked him to stop. We're thinking he must have had an ipod on, I can't imagine anyone being that rude. Actually, I have a hard time believing anyone could be that stupid. Who see's a horse freaking out and keeps "chasing" them? Cause that's what Dakota thought he was doing, horse eating monster chasing him down for a meal.