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.