Stupid dog owners

On Thursday, we had a fifteen person ride for our two hour trail.  We had three guides (Carly, Sabrina and myself).  That makes eighteen horses in total.  We were about forty five minutes into the ride, when I moved up to go on the backguiding trail.  My horse (Rocky) stepped on a log, and then he spooked, hopping, spinning, crowhopping.  I looked to the right and saw that the other horses were doing it as well.  Some were even fully rearing.  I thought "I am in big trouble for spooking all these horses"  Then movement on my left caught my attention.  There was an elk running towards us.  And there was a big husky standind there with his tongue hanging out.  As soon as he saw the horses, he ran back into the woods.  So, what happened?  The owner let his dog off leash (illegal in a national park), and the dog chased the elk right into the middle of our ride.  Thankfully only one little girl fell off, she was fine, and all fifteen guests got back on and finished the ride.  We radioed in to the stables, and she called security on the dog (this is not the first time we have seen the husky).  Security called Parks, and they came down just as we were starting the trail again.  I told him what happened, and they are on the lookout for the dog and owner.  Carly said that she saw the owner come and leash the dog, and walk away, not even caring what just happened.  The moral of this story is to keep your dog on a leash when there are wild animals, other people, and horses in the area.  

On another note, I had to ride a different horse yesterday (Friday) as Rocky was taken to the back country because they needed more horses.  They had a bunch of guests riding in , so they took Baldy, Redeye, and Rocky.  I rode Copper, who is an okay horse to ride, but has no ground manners.  he breaks ropes, spooks at everything...

Today is my day off, so I went to church, did my laundry, and am now going to watch a movie.