Accidental Snake Slayers

Lake Perris

Split Stop

Diane&Scotchelo

lots of rocks

 It all started out so innocently.  Another perfect, sunshiny day, riding horses around Lake Perris.  Because our horses are gaited, we had no problem riding around the entire lake in a few short hours.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather and soon found our perfect split stop at a picnic table under shady trees.  We watched the sun sparkling on the lake while our horses munched grass and we clinked our plastic glasses filled with bubbly.  Champagne and granola bars...lunch of champions, or snake slayers, but more on that later.  We passed by another picnic spot where two people and a dog sat at the table.  Wait, what?  We had to do a double take at what appeared to be a dog sitting at the table between a man and a woman.  It was so cute and we should have taken a picture.  

The next attraction was a person climbing a sheer rock wall.  At first I thought some parent was not doing their job very well because the person looked like a small child.  You know how  things look much smaller in the distance?  This person was pretty high up on the wall with nothing holding him there but his shoes and a rope he was clinging to.  His friends were standing below, urging him on.   He looked like a fly stuck on a wall and my palms started to sweat just watching his attempt to pull himself up the smooth and very vertical rock face.  We continued climbing up a narrow trail that brought us out on top of the dam, then down the other side and back in the direction of our trailer. We were laughing and talking, enjoying the day, when Peggy suddenly halted her horse and turned to me saying there was a big, giant rattler in the road.  It was impressive looking, quite large, and a pretty reddish brown color.  It was stretched about halfway across the trail with no intention of budging.  “Should I throw a rock at it?” Peggy whispered.  

"I'm looking at you!"

 “Yeah” was my intelligent response.  I should have said, “No, throw daisy petals at it” or “lets sing it a song” but my horse has been known to climb boulders, hop sideways across a meadow and has broken my hand in his attempts to flee rattlers.  I just wanted it to go away.  Peggy got off her horse, picked up a rock and heaved it in the snake’s general direction.  To our great surprise and horror, the rock landed on the snake and it rattled, hissed, writhed, and looked a tad uncomfy.  Peggy and I sat there with our mouths open, not believing what had just happened.  We never meant to hurt it, just wanted it to move.  Peggy said she had the worst aim ever which I guess is why she hit it, because she wasn’t aiming at it.  We both felt horrible and kept apologizing to it.  I wanted to give it a hug, kiss it better and say sorry, (no hard feelings?), but decided this wasn’t the best idea and he probably wouldn’t understand anyway. And that’s how we became the reluctant, unwilling, accidental snake slayers.  At this point we decided it would be a good idea to forge through the bushes and up to the street, making a wide arc around our unfortunate victim, just in case retaliation was on his mind.  We yelled out, “Sorry Dude!” over and over again as we rode and hoped he would be OK.  I don’t like to see anything getting hurt and this put a real damper on the rest of our day.  My sincere apologies, Mr. Snake, once again, if you are reading this.  We promise not to throw stones at you ever again.

Sincerely,

D&P

A.S.S. (Accidental, oh, you know)

Photos by Peggy Jones
Snake photo from internet