The July 5, 2007 article entitled “The view from above…” left me wondering. At a time when dogs of every shape and size are banned from the beach due primarily to health and environmental concerns, do we really need as many as 30 “1,000 pound hay-fed rides” doing what they will inevitably do on our beaches while adults with John Wayne fantasies (a posse?!) “cruise the beaches” searching for modern day outlaws to stop them from, ironically, smoking on the same beach Ol’ Paint has just relieved himself on? Besides, how will they catch the evildoers when they are “seen by civilians from a greater distance”?
According to the article, most of what this group actually does is “show and tell, trying to recruit, monitoring malls (in Malibu?) or handing out information about the [Sheriff’s] department.” Hopefully, a mere 40 hours of training will prevent these large animals from reacting naturally to the sights and sounds of throngs of people in close proximity to them. I say hopefully since even an accidental or inadvertent nudge from a 1,000-pound animal (plus rider) can cause serious injury or worse to an unlucky human. As the article points out, the training will only make the horse less skittish. Further, the rider’s attention must necessarily be divided between looking for Joe Camel while avoiding little Johnny digging in the sand or running in or out of the surf. The choice between the risk of secondhand smoke on the beach on the one hand and horse manure and urine on the other seems self-evident. The existing presence of lifeguards and quad-mounted deputies has been sufficient to keep the peace, hasn’t it?
It is difficult to justify this as worthwhile contribution to public safety just so that deputies and some of their friends “get to break off from [their] normal assignment,” wear cowboy hats and market the Sheriff’s Department. Let them ride the range, not the beach.
Yippee ki oh ki ay.
Gary Smith