So there I was, minding my own business, commuting home, trying out some hill intervals into the wind and rain when I heard this almighty clattering, crashing crescendo behind me. My first thought was that some unfortunate following fellow cyclist had been caught out by my sudden deceleration as another 15 second spurt was succeeded by return to barely walking pace. I looked round to see not another mamil, but a horse stricken in the middle of the road some 30 feet behind me, struggling to regain it’s feet. Now I was fairly convinced It hadn’t been staggering around a few seconds ago, but I’d had my head down counting the seconds down so it was possible, but really? Then it dawned on me that it had slid down the grassy bank by the road, through a semi-rotten fence and then down a four foot stone wall onto the tarmac below. It eventually stood up, but with the air of a drunk on a high street looking for a kebab shop. A bit disoriented, not absolutely certain of its whereabouts, but sure as hell there was somewhere it needed to be that didn’t have a white line running down the middle of it.
I leant the bike against a lamp post and approached cautiously. The first car on the scene parked up on the other side of the animal and we corralled it into a lay-by 100yards down the road. Having got it there, my co-rescuer jogged off to the closest farm while I tried to supply comfort and keep it from going back on the road. My chosen tactic of staying close to the biting end and away from the kicking end seemed to meet with approval. That and the horses buddies coming to the still intact part of the fence to exchange notes. Gradually it calmed down, allowing me to hold on to its halter and steer it away from the traffic.
To cut a rather duller end of story short, the farmer turned up (a bit reticent about claiming ownership, perhaps still worried about being sued for allowing a half ton of potential lasagne to play with the traffic), cut open a corner of fence which Dobbin cheerfully trotted through. The fence mended, I made my excuses and left.
Anybody else have an unusual commute today?

No commute stories today but I did once see an escaped horse in the retail park in Merthyr Tydfil.

Chain slipped big time, I hit the deck and now have a few square centimeters of missing skin on my hip and elbow plus some bonus random cuts elsewhere. Unusual enough for me!

Nothing as dramatic as that! Just a twonk jumping a red light as I crossed the bypass, i.e. the usual!

Cheers,
Jamie

I guess its sort of commute related…
Left work & rode to kids school as it was their School Fayre.
Had a go on a couple of things, as you do.
Kids head off with Mum in the Car, & I ride home.
Just putting the bike away & the mobile goes off…

Congratulations, you correctly guessed the weight of the cake…so the cake is yours…can you come back & collect it…

IMAG1214[1] by pten2106, on Flickr

Cue impromptu tea & cake party with the family round. 🙂
I’m feeling decidedly sick of cake now. 🙁

I saw someone riding a unicycle, whilst holding a hockey stick, on my commute home. Seemed a bit niche.

Not a commute, but a similar amnimule story.

Lined up for an evening road race, spotted the lad most likely to win and therefore the wheel to be on. Had just got new groupset with dual pivot brakes, and was loving the “get into the corner going 3-5 mph quicker than the others, then brake” thing.

First lap and I noticed a lady on a horse at the first left hand corner. Second lap, she wasn’t at the corner anymore…

She had decided to ride down the road we were racing on, thinking in some weird horsey way that she could either ride faster than we could, or that her horse wouldn’t be bothered by 50 odd cyclists passing at 25 mph.

Short version; the horse threw her off, then buggered off for 2 miles. It took about half an hour to get the horse, then another 20 minutes for her to walk the horse off the race course, then another 15 minutes to re-start the race by which time I rode one lap and then went home.

Anyone at the Cupar 5 road (running) race a couple of years ago? Nearly back, last mile and half probably. I heard a horse behind us, thought to myself this is a bloody stupid place to be riding. Noise got louder then a horse sans rider cantered past and off up the road towards the leaders. No saddle or anything so it just didn’t have one, rather than thrown him off.
Despite the massive headstart we had had the horse won the race, but was then shooed into a nearby field by the guys at the finish. None of the runners wanted to interupt the race to deal with it. The horse didn’t seem that bothered, like a dog who just runs alongside for the fun of it..

I had a chap walk out from between 2 parked cars with a 12ft ladder under his arm. A yell stopped him in his tracks, thankfully.

Not a commute nor a horse story, but on one ride I did return one of Sir Alec Guinness’s sheep that had escaped. sadly there was none of the ‘this is not the sheep you are looking for’ banter that in hindsight would have improved the episode.

I had a huge goose land right in front of me on the high street in rush hour. I missed it but white van man didn’t. It got up looking very confused and wandered off, looking in various shop windows wait went, like it was trying to choose a present for a friend.