Sunday, September 19, 2010

No Horsing Around..This Kid Doesn't Take the Bus to School

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Roby Burch's predawn ride to school takes him on a winding route through quiet streets with silhouetted mansions. Bicyclists with blinking lights turn their heads, startled at the sight; drivers slow down for a better look; and some people come out of their houses to take his picture.

It's not often you see a kid riding his horse to school on the Main Line.

Burch, a sophomore at the Haverford School, has been riding Jet, his big white Percheron, four miles to and from school since early this month. In his blue blazer and tie, jeans, boots, and spurs, he's an urban cowboy who's bringing the flavor - and aroma - of the West to the elite private school.

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"It's a nice way to start the day," he says as he saddles up the 12-year-old gelding in a stable at his family's Gladwyne estate. It's 6 a.m., hours before the school bell rings.

The idea was his dad's, Burch says, hatched this summer while the family was vacationing at its cattle ranch in Montana.

The two were joking about how parents like to tell their children how hard they had it growing up.

"My dad just said, 'Roby, you should ride your horse to school every day,' " says Burch, a fair-haired 16-year-old with the grit and politeness of a ranch hand.

Burch, who began riding at age 4 and loves horses more than anything, thought it a great idea, especially since his sisters, who used to drive him to school, are now at college. So when they got back home, he appealed to headmaster Joe Cox.

With liability such a worry that some schools don't allow tag at recess, cupcakes at parties, or parents into buildings without background checks, you'd think Cox might recoil at such an unconventional idea.

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The headmaster admits his first thoughts were: Is this legal? And where are you going to put the horse? The answer to the first was yes and to the second, well, Burch already had a place in mind - a plot of land right next to the headmaster's house.

"My wife's not too excited about it," Cox says, noting the increased dust and earthy smells.

But after getting the green light, Burch helped build a corral next to the house, across the street from the school's athletic fields.

Cox thinks it's great that Burch is sharing his passion for horses with the rest of the students. They've certainly taken notice. In a recent speech, the student body president said he had just gotten his first car, a 2002 PT Cruiser, a model associated with soccer moms.

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"It could be worse," he joked. "I could have a horse."

To find the best route to school, Burch and his dad trotted along narrow backstreets, his father on Jet and Roby on a smaller brown pony. But they soon realized that Roby would be safer on the Hummer-size Jet, who came from Lancaster, where he was used to traffic.

After Jet is saddled up, Burch dons a heavy work jacket and hard hat, and slings on his backpack before mounting. Then they trot off into the inky darkness.

"Careful," his mother, Susan, calls off.

His father, Bob, who works in real estate and venture capital, says Roby is an excellent horseman who can take care of himself. But his mother - well, she's a mother, so she worries.

"I always have my heart in my throat when he leaves," she says, adding that friends in the neighborhood call or e-mail her as Roby passes their houses.

The roads are mostly empty this time of morning. A group of cyclists calls out, "Horse, horse," to those in the back. "You don't see that every day," says one.

Horse and rider walk through Gladwyne's sleepy village, but when they get to Gladwyne Elementary School, Burch nudges Jet into a canter across the front lawn. Old Gulph Road is busy, but it's light out now as they carefully cross at a fast trot.

They pass a stream, a house with an airplane on the front lawn, and a woman in her robe who snaps their picture.

"What's that about?" she asks.

At Montgomery Avenue, they wait for a break in cars to cross as someone shouts a hello. "Hello, how are you?" Burch calls back.

Then Jet clip-clops on a sidewalk toward Lancaster Avenue. A quick sprint across the street and they're at school at 6:45 a.m. Burch steers Jet toward his corral at the back of the campus.

He unsaddles his mount, gives him hay and a bucket of sweet grain, and checks his water. And who cleans up the manure?

"That'd be me," says Burch, who spreads it out at the back of the corral.

A quick change into a pair of khakis and shoes that he keeps in a garage and he's ready for school.

So far, Jet has been a gentle giant, even when chaos is erupting around him. One day there was a car accident in front of the school with five flashing police cars.

"He rode right through it," Burch says proudly.

Riding is part of the Burch family DNA. Bob Burch grew up in Wayne but worked on a Montana ranch when he was 17. Susan was an equestrian. Roby's older sisters ride. His 10-week-old baby brother, well, give him time.

Burch says the first time he sat on a horse as a 4-year-old he was afraid, but now "it's what I do best."

It's no surprise that he wants to be a cowboy when he grows up.

Last summer, he worked as a ranch hand at a neighboring spread, doing chores such as building water tanks, roping cows, and cutting hay. For his 14th birthday, he got his own palomino quarter horse, which lives in Montana.

"We have a connection, a bond, just like I now have with Jet. He trusts me," Burch says.

Jet is a big hit with Haverford's younger students, who stop by to feed him carrots. Burch's friends think his four-legged ride is cool, even if they're tooling around in spiffy cars, and sometimes kid him that he smells.

"It's no mystery why," he says.

For the return trip, Burch leaves after football practice at 5:45 p.m. so he's not traveling in the dark. Even when the days grow shorter and colder, he plans to ride Jet.

"Most kids my age are trying to prove their toughness on the football field," he says. "I'm riding my horse in 30-degree weather."

It's a guy thing.

And here's another. When he turns 17, he hopes to trade in Jet for a different sort of ride.

"I want a truck," he says.

JOKE: the Rottweiler

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A lady and her dog were enjoying a stroll in the park when her dog was mounted from behind by a large Rottweiler. The Rot was really humping away and the lady was frantically trying to break them up, to no avail. A small boy walked up and stuck his finger in the Rots ass, and the action
immediately stopped.

The lady was amazed. "How did you do that?" she asked.

The little boy said, "That's my dog! He can dish it out, but he can't take it!"

�� Got Caption ?? 9/20

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Agony of the Feet? Man Stabbed For Telling Woman Her Feet Stunk

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Prosecutors say what started out as a friendly challenge ended in bloodshed when a man teased a Monroe, Washington woman about having smelly feet.
Dallas Amber Smith, 18, is accused of stabbing a man in the back at a party on Sept. 7. Smith first became upset when she was unable to do a back flip, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Janice Albert wrote in court papers filed Wednesday.
Smith and others were gathered at her ex-boyfriend’s home south of Monroe, watching a movie and drinking.
She boasted to party-goers that she was good at doing back flips and that she could do one off anything, court papers said.
A man, 19, challenged her to do a flip off the deck. Smith took off her shoes and attempted the maneuver. She couldn’t do it. That’s when the man laughed at her and told her that her feet smelled, Albert wrote.
Smith started to playfully wrestle with the man, rubbing her socks in his face. She started hitting him. After several seconds, he pushed her away, Albert wrote.
She grabbed her coat, picked up a steak knife and headed for the door. On the way, Smith walked up to the man and stabbed him in the back, court papers said.
The man and others called 911. A sheriff’s deputy found the man sitting on porch with the knife sticking out of his back, the blade buried a few inches in. His lung had collapsed from the stabbing.
The man is expected to recover from the injury.
Police arrested Smith at her parents’ home. She denied knowing about any stabbing and declined to speak with investigators.
A witness told police that Smith came to his house that night and told him that she had hurt someone and she was in trouble. She told him someone had taunted her.
Smith, who has no criminal history, is charged with second-degree assault with a deadly weapon.
She posted $50,000 bail and was released. On Wednesday a $250,000 warrant was issued for her arrest after Smith told a detective she was leaving for Australia on Saturday, and planned to be gone for several months, Albert wrote.
She surrendered her passport to a sheriff’s deputy on Thursday and the warrant was quashed.

The Funniest Joke in the World

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Chicago Man shot twice, 9 hours apart,survives

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A Chicago man is recovering from being shot - twice within nine hours, police say. The 23-year-old man, who police would not identify, was shot twice Friday morning in different neighborhoods and survived.

He told police he was shot early on Friday in the Chatham neighborhood, took a bus to the hospital, and was treated and released. About nine hours later, he was shot again in the South Shore neighborhood while sitting in a car, police spokesman Officer Robert Perez said. "Someone is trying real hard to kill this guy," a police source said.

The man said he was shot at about 12:10 a.m. near 79th and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive by a gunman on foot. He told police he was treated for a wound in his armpit and released.

At 9:39 a.m., the same victim was shot in one or both of his legs at 77th and Constance near South Shore High School, police said. His wounds are not considered life-threatening, officials said. Investigators hoping to speak to the man to verify his story said he was being uncooperative.

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