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Fanatics Taking
Action,
by Garry
Stauber
 Protesting
has long been a part of the American way of life. Issues such as Civil
Rights and the war in Vietnam sparked famous protest movements that
impacted and improved America. Those who stand up and speak out for what
they believe to be right are often singled out as "fanatics" or
"nuts." But fanatics in our past have bettered our way of life
in the present. Our country was founded by protesters. Remember the
Boston Tea Party? Now we relate that bold protest to our modern-day
freedom. It’s about “Taking Action” in what you believe to be right.
Two stories of people taking action caught my attention this week.
One involves a horse trainer and riding instructor in North
Carolina. The other is much closer to home and takes place in Morro Bay,
California.
Illustration by
Jessica Young
In
Carolina Beach, North Carolina, a man actually wants to get tickets or
citations. It appears that Carolina Beach has an ordinance against riding
a horse in town. Chris Lutterloah challenges that law on a regular basis.
When he appears for court proceedings, Chris rides his horse into town and
ties it to the courthouse pillars. He calls the local police and tells
them when he is riding into town. Sometimes they meet him and sometimes
they don’t. He has been cited over 10 times for riding his horse in town
and has won all but one case. He admits he messed up on that one and rode
his horse on the beach. But Chris states, “Riding a horse is a God-given
right that I’m not giving up easily.”
Mr. Lutterloah has been taking on his town officials since 1997. He
currently has two cases pending. Recently the local mayor asked to meet
with him to settle this thing. Chris said, “Okay, I’ll ride to
town.” But the mayor opted for coming out to Chris’ ranch instead, for
obvious reasons. Chris said, “We just couldn’t come to an
agreement that day.”
Once he rode his horse to town to challenge the City Council at an open
meeting. But he was arrested and released three hours later after, the
meeting was adjourned. He said, “Within reason a man should be able to
ride his horse anywhere it is safe. I’ll keep this up till we get our
rights back. People have sat back and gotten too lazy to fight for
our rights these days.”
In Morrow Bay, on the central California coast, the Park Services recently
closed several of the more popular trails in Monta-a de Oro and
Morro Bay State Parks. John Krueger, President of the Coast Mounted
Assistance organization, a volunteer horseback patrol group at Monta-a de
Oro with 50 members, jumped into action. Instead of just allowing the
changes in the parks to happen quietly, he and his group mounted a
signature gathering campaign. John put the word out to other groups
like the California Equestrian Trails & Land Coalition and Equestrian
Trails, Inc., who joined in this battle. Both organizations are
designed to assist in issues regarding the loss of equestrian trail
access. “What really surprised me was how this galvanized our equestrian
community and so many gathered to assist us in our fight,” stated
Krueger.
Under Krueger’s leadership, Coast Mounted Assistance gathered over 2,000
signatures, attended meetings and lobbied Ranger Management to return the
trails to equestrian usage. On May 11 they received an email from the
Superintendent of Regional Parks, Nick Franco, with a standing order
re-opening all of the closed trails. After receiving the news John said he
was very pleased and at peace, happy that this was not going to be a wedge
between equestrians and state park management. “Our intention was to
bring light to an injustice,” said Krueger. “What we want is open
dialogue and participation by representatives of all user groups of the
parks."
Land and trail restrictions in the U.S. will only increase in upcoming
years. Environmental policies and lack of funding will surely affect other
trail closures if we do not build relationships and have dialogue with
park officials. Getting involved and taking action is important now more
than ever. We may be called nuts and fanatics, but that is probably
obvious already . . . We ride horses, don’t we?
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Copyright Garry
Stauber © 2004 All rights reserved. The above article is
the property of the Author and may not be duplicated or redistributed in
any way without permission. Visit Garry on-line at Dream Adventures.
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