COMING AND GOING

We're not exactly LA-LA land here in northwest Riverside County, but an invention written about recently in our local newspaper made me wonder.....

Seems like a lady in Norco had invented - or perhaps "developed" is a better word - headlights for horses.

You have to understand that Norco (which really started out as north Corona) is probably one of the horsiest towns around and really fights tooth and nail to keep its horses and riders on the streets. You have to give them credit; they are bound and determined to have one piece of California left for themselves. They don't want to sell out to developers who will turn their beautiful rural area into a parking lot for million-dollar tract homes. They want to be able to ride their horses down the street whenever they want, day or night, just like in the old days.

Well, the newspaper article told about a lady who while driving down one of Norco's streets one evening rather suddenly came upon some horses being ridden in the street. It was dark, the horses were dark, the riders wore dark clothing, and although this lady did not evem come close to hitting them, she saw the potential for it to happen, so she developed a set of battery-operated lights that attach to the front part of the harness that goes across the horse's chest. These have been tested on a night trail-ride and the leader, whose horse was wearing them, said it was very helpful for her to be able to see ahead on the trail so she could lead the rest of the riders away from pitfalls.

The inventor now is working on a horse taillight so that people approaching a horse from behind will have advance warning. It will be interesting to find out how she will attach the taillight.

While I think this all is a good idea, I sure got a good chuckle over it.