To my horror, when I emerged from the restroom, Rosebud was gone. She had wondered off to a big stretch of grass near the volleyball net clear across the park. She had found a nice patch of grass and seemed to be enjoying herself.
I was surprised how easy it was to catch Rosebud and tossed a leg over the saddle and prepared to ride off into the sunset. That’s when a voice came over the loud speaker of a cop car: “Dismount your horse and walk over to the car”.
As I was not riding a horse, I considered just ignoring the ignorant voice on the other end of that bull horn. However, I wanted to get on with my ride so I decided to keep my mouth shut and avoid going to jail.
“What seems to be the trouble officer?” I inquired.
“Can’t you see the sign? You can’t ride that damn donkey in the park” Officer Moore replied.
I politely explained to Officer Moore that Rosebud was not a donkey and that the situation was not what it appeared to be- I had simply wanted to use the restroom and Rosebud spotted a nice patch of grass. No big deal or so I thought.
Officer Moore wrote me a ticket and a court date was set for September, 2008. The Officer explained that I could pay the fine and avoid going to court. I politely explained to the officer that Rosebud was a mule and that the sign only prohibited horses but he would have none of it.
When I got to court, the city attorney wanted me to plead guilty and pay a small fine. I refused. I wanted my day in court. I presented two defenses to the judge:
First, Rosebud was not a horse, she was a mule and the sign at the entrance of the park only prohibited the riding of horses in the park. Second, I had not intentionally taken Rosebud into the park; she did it on her own.
The ticket cost me $45.00.
J.P. McBrindle
The Ticket
Last summer, Rosebud and I were headed out on one of our usual all day trail rides. It was a hot day in August. We were going to head out of the barn, up the big hill and over the pass into the valley. There is a really nice view from the summit near Stratton’s Barn and I figured Old Rose and I could enjoy the scenery and have a snack—I brought some liverwurst for myself and molasses cookies for her.
Like I said it was hot – pushing 95 degrees at noon. I had been drinking a lot of light beer, more than usual and before long I needed to make a pit stop. So instead of going straight up to Stratton’s, I took the trail down to the park where there was a public restroom. My plan was to tie Rosebud up to a tree while I took care of business.
I had taken Rosebud by the park but never in it. I had seen signs saying that horses were forbidden but never anything about mules. Anyway, I had no plans on taking my mule into the actual park. I just needed to use the head- it would be quick. I tied Rosebud up to a sign post and went into the men’s room.
