So, I’m at a red light not paying much attention to my surroundings because I am busy searching for dental floss anywhere in my car, when I hear a bunch of crashing and banging. I look up to see a truck with a trailer running a yellow light to make a left turn.
The trailer is rocking because of the high speed at which the driver is going and the wheels seem to be not so steady on the ground. As I finally focus I realize that it’s a horse trailer with two horses being bounced around and boy am I pissed.
My light turns green and I am right behind the horse trailer. The driver is going 60mph on a 40mph road, which is something that doesn’t usually bother me, generally I interpret speed sign as suggestions and I rarely follow those suggestions.
But this was horses! I drive the speed limit even when I have dogs in the back seat, for sure I think you should if you have horses in a rickety trailer. I wanted the guy to slow down so I moved over into the right lane, passed him, put my blinker on and moved back in front of him in the left lane. Then I slowed down. To 40mph. I did it slowly and gradually so they he could as well.
I watched him closely in my rear view mirror as I kept a sane pace in front of him. He followed behind for a while and then slowly started to veer into the right lane. I veered over as well, to cut him off. He veered back into the left lane and I returned to it in front of him. Nice try.
We went on this way for a while when I realized we were coming up on a light. What would I do if it were red and I had to stop? I equate horses with guns and I could imagine this guy might be pissed at me. He was driving crazy, maybe he was crazy.
Sure enough the light turned red and there were several cars in front of me so I was trapped. As I checked my rear view mirror though I saw that he had stopped about 8 car lengths behind me and it occurred to me that perhaps he thought I was crazy and had a gun. Ha!
The light turned green without mishap and we proceeded as we had been, my car setting the pace. A car got in between us and I kept them both at the speed limit until I came to the turn toward my destination.
I don’t know if I did the right thing, I don’t know from horses. Maybe they like the thrill of the bounce and the clash/bang and I spoiled their ride. I don’t know and I haven’t yet been able to find out who regulates the safety of horses being transported.
Maybe it’s one of these groups — Animal Veterinary Medical Association or the USDA. I hope someone has it covered, I can only block so many trailers.