Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,485348,00.html ; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/7861406.stm ; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/7861406.stm
Who’d have thought that drunk riding was so popular? You wait all year for a drunken horse-riding case and three come along at the same time!
In Cody (Wyoming), 28-year old Benjamin Daniels was charged with public intoxication after slowly riding a white horse along a street during a snowstorm. Police said he was a road hazard.
The same month, when 31-year old Maxine Wiltshire was riding her horse around Hemel Hempstead (UK), her horse lost a shoe. Unable to ride him back to the stables, Ms Wiltshire called a relative to pick her up in a trailer. While she was waiting however, she proceeded to drink two small bottles of vodka. Later that afternoon, Police were called to the Greenacres pub in the shopping centre to deal with a clearly intoxicated Ms Wiltshire. Indeed, witnesses stated that when a dog walker asked Ms Wiltshire to steer clear of his pet, she replied: “My horse will eat your dog!” In court, Ms Wiltshire accepted that it was unwise to take the horse into the shopping centre and pleaded guilty to being drunk in charge of a horse in a public place. She was fined £50 plus £50 costs.
31-year old Geoffrey Blacklin was also fined for riding while intoxicated. In this case, it was for riding bareback through the streets of Newcastle. He was charged under the 1872 Licensing Act and fined £150 and £35 costs for being caught drunk “in charge of a carriage horse, cattle or steam engine.”
On each occasion none of the horses were charged. Although I think this may have been due to their failure to blow into the breathalyzer correctly!
Kris is a Senior Lecturer, and Co-Director of the Centre for International Sports Law (CISL) at Staffordshire University, UK. He originally trained and competed as an elite gymnast until a shoulder injury at university forced him to retire as an active competitor. He now spends his spare time coaching Trampolining, Gymnastics, DMT, Cheerleading, Parkour and anything that involves throwing yourself through the air with various degrees of twist and rotation!
Jon is an Associate Professor, and Co-Director of the Centre for International Sports Law (CISL) at Thompson Rivers University, British Columbia. Jon worked as a climbing guide, trained and coordinated search and rescue, managed risk and sales in the United States with a European-based manufacturer of outdoor equipment and advised recreation programmes on their exposure to legal risk. His extra-curricular background is just as diverse and includes stints playing semi-pro volleyball in Brazil, researching wolves in the Canadian Rockies, climbing and leading expeditions from Alaska to Argentina, Tajikistan to the Tetons, and many points in between. He has been married to Wendy for 15 years and together they have 2 wonderful kids – Tegan (10) and Brock (8) – whom he continues to emotionally scar as their football coach!
March 28, 2009
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