SubscribeGift a Sub
Enable cache 100

Google Street View Car Spooks Horse; Moment Preserved Forever

Google Street View is my favorite time-waster. You can take a virtual walk in the center of Paris, a village in Romania, Oprah’s neighborhood or myriad other locations where you’re not likely to take an actual walk any time soon.



Originally the service only captured major cities, but it rapidly expanded to smaller towns and even quite remote areas. Now you can view rural scenes from around the globe. Unfortunately for one rider in Finland, one of those scenes was of her horse spooking, running off the road, dumping her in a field and bolting away.



 


©2016 Google

 


©2016 Google

 


©2016 Google

 


©2016 Google

 


©2016 Google

 


©2016 Google

 

This series of images was captured back in 2009 but recently discovered and posted to imgur by user ttra. Most of the media outlets that have shared the images have reported that the rider is fine, as evidenced by the far-off shot of the horse and rider walking together in the field, but I’m not so sure. The rider is in a pink coat, and the two people with the horse as the Google car drives away are in black and red. So, what happened to the rider?

In any case, credit to the driver of the street view car who did apparently stop after the rider fell, as evidenced by the change in scene and characters from one frame along Sievinmäentie to the next. I’m even willing to give the driver the benefit of the doubt as far as courtesy to the rider goes. Even a slow-moving Google car could seem pretty scary to a horse.



Google Street View Car by Gabriel Andrés Trujillo Escobedo via flickr.com/CC BY-SA 2.0

 

On the other hand, it kind of stinks to live in the world where you can’t just go for a quiet ride on a remote, dirt road in a rural part of Finland and have full expectation that any less-than-flattering moments won’t be caught on camera and posted to the Internet forever.


Leslie Potter is Managing Editor of HorseChannel.com. Follow her on Twitter: @LeslieInLex.

 

Leslie Potter

Leslie Potter is a graduate of William Woods University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Equestrian Science with a concentration in saddle seat riding and a minor in Journalism/Mass Communications. She is currently a writer and photographer in Lexington, Ky. Potter worked as a barn manager and riding instructor and was a freelance reporter and photographer for the Horsemen's Yankee Pedlar and Saddle Horse Report before moving to Lexington to join Horse Illustrated as Web Editor from 2008 to 2019. Her current equestrian pursuits include being a grown-up lesson kid at an eventing barn and trail riding with her senior Morgan gelding, Snoopy.

Recent Posts

An Overview of White Line Disease

It's often what you can’t see that leads to trouble, and that’s definitely the case with white line disease. Understanding…

7 hours ago

ASPCA Right Horse Adoptable Horse of the Week: My Man Ira

Welcome to Horse Illustrated’s weekly installment of the Right Horse Adoptable Horse of the Week, offered in partnership with the…

1 day ago

Riding Lipizzaners in Hungary

Two hours’ drive from Budapest in the picturesque Bükk National Park lies Szilvásvárad, a beautiful little village that is home…

2 days ago

How Horses Helped Two Boys with ADHD

During the height of the pandemic and racial tension around the U.S., two boys struggling with ADHD found healing through…

3 days ago

Adopting a Companion Horse

When you think of the term “companion horse,” one that is versatile with the ability to fill a variety of…

4 days ago

Emergency and Natural Disaster Preparedness with Horses

Each year, hurricanes, wildfires, and severe storms force thousands across the country to evacuate their homes. When preparing for a…

1 week ago