My wife and I were unwinding in the kitchen after getting home from work one day last week. As we prepared our dinner, I glanced out the window and did a double-take; there were people riding horseback down the street. I quickly grabbed a camera and ran out to meet them as they passed in front of my house (click photos to enlarge).

Chris and her daughter (riding a beautiful miniature horse) were out for a ride around town. They were kind enough to pause a moment while I snapped a few shots, and laughed as they told me about accidentally forgetting the scooper kit for the horses. Apparently, the could have used it in the vicinity of Kal-Bee restaurant (the NRV’s sole Korean-American restaurant, located right in downtown Pembroke).

Kal-Bee owner Connie Kim didn’t mind though, as she knew they’d be back shortly to clean up after the horse (!)

It’s great that there are places where people ride horses down the street, which is not a site you see every day in 2008. The riders stopped so some local kids playing in their front yard could see the horses — whom were very mild-mannered — up close.

I had to laugh a bit, though, as the pervasiveness of modern life reared itself before I headed home:

John Hildreth lives in Pembroke and teaches at Radford University.
www.radford.edu/jhildret