If you ever hike around White Pass in the North Cascades, you know the horses are bad there. It takes all of my powers to ignore them, but that’s not good enough for the horse people. They shout out orders for me to talk to their horses and get out of the way. They take away the sweet smells of lupine and conifers and make the world smell like horse shit and piss. I hate them.
One year, another hiker and I were walking down a narrow section of trail with a cliff on one side and a hillside on the other, when we came to two women riding horses.
The women were all dressed up in English riding clothes—the little hat, goofy pants, whip–the whole package.
We step off of the trail to let them pass, but one of the equestrians shouts out, “Trail regulations require you to move to the low side of the trail.”
I said, “I don’t go to low side of the trail because it’s a cliff and if your horse spooks it will knock me off the cliff.”
She kept repeating, “Trail regulations require you to move to the low side of the trail.”
The other hiker said, “So what are you going to do, arrest us? Look, we will climb up the side of the hill and sit down. Then you can pass.”
The equestrian said, “No, because if they even see a leaf rattle they will spook.â€?
Irritated, I said, “If your horses are that easily spooked, you have no business bringing them out on the trail.”
The other hiker and I, climbed up the side of the hill, sat down, and started talking to each other. The equestrians stood their ground and blocked the trail.
After about 10 minutes, the women dismount their horses and walk them past us. While they walked them past us one of the woman pleaded, “Please, say something!” The other hiker said something but I wouldn’t say anything to them.
I’m seriously thinking of buying a new tent– 
