On a summer day in 1973, my 12-year-old sister was riding her horse on the quiet streets near our house. There was a little more traffic than usual as two cars came toward her from opposite directions. Cindy rode onto the well-tended lawn of a stately two-story house to get out of the way. While she waited, her horse relieved himself. She then rode on, unknowing that her steed had left a pile of manure on the emerald zoysia grass.

Cindy was 200 ft down the road when a car sped past, then skidded to a tire-squealing halt in front of her horse. The startled horse reared up, throwing Cindy to the pavement below. A man leaped out of the car, then without asking if she was hurt, started screaming at her for allowing her horse to defecate on his lawn. Crying and in pain from bruises to her back and arms, Cindy struggled to her feet, then managed to catch her horse, who had wandered off a few feet.

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