I grew up on a lake in NC, and boating safety was required in school. You can.
In Arizona, you can get one on a horse, but not a bicycle. This is nice for me, to some extent, because I have a lot of bars, restaurants, and friends’ houses within riding distance, but I don’t really want to ride trashed.
If ever a D.U.I. is not an acceptable charge, a cop can always get ya for public intoxication. Best bet when drunk, is to walk…quietly.
Public intoxication is not against the law every where. In New Jersey there is no public intoxication law. As long as your behavior does not become disorderly conduct you will not be arrested. There may be some local ordinances which cover it but there is no state statute.
Or to have your horse fitted with Reeboks.
I’d be surprised if many places had laws against RUI, thinking that the horse itself has the sense to avoid most hazards. On the other hand, when National Prohibition came into force in 1920, there was still enough horse-powered traffic to include wagons and carriages among the possible conveyances, used for transporting booze, that could become subject to forfeiture if the owner was caught. Not exactly the same thing, though.
They patrol the lakes in Wisconsin to arrest drunk boat operators, and they will arrest you for being in the control of any transportation on the roadways.
Your dad was not BS-ing you. I ride horses regularly, sometimes through forests and along logging roads after dark.
Horses have excellent night vision and a keen ability to return “home”. SOP if you get disoriented while horse riding after dark is to relax, loosen the reins and let the horse do as he will. Even if he is “aimed” in the wrong direction, he’ll turn right around and head home. Just don’t get in too big of a hurry. Galloping drunk is, uh, a bad idea! (How I know this is another story.)
Dismounting and getting the tack off of a horse isn’t complicated for those who do it frequently. Being drunk wouldn’t be as much of a problem as it might seem.
You know, I really think that’s some of the best reporting I’ve seen in a long time. A thorough, dispassionate treatment of the facts of the case, without recourse to comparing unrelated events or personal opinions or characterizations.
I wish we had a few reporters like that now. . . or a few editors who would approve such a story!
My Grandmother ws a schoolteacher in a small Georgia town. She got on a horse bareback each morning, and rode it in to school. Then she gave it a slap on the haunch and the horse went back home where the housekeeper would have put out its grain. In the afternoon, before she left, the housekeeper would let him back out of the field, and give him another slap to send him back to get GrandMa.
President Pierce trampled an old lady to death while on horseback - the charges against him were later quietly dropped. A few years after leaving office he died of liver failure from years of incredibly heavy drinking.
I’m not saying he was drunk when he was on that horse, but from the sounds of it it would have been noteworthy were he sober.