My daughter and I took my wife to a Mother’s Day tea in Lancaster County this past weekend.

It comes as no surprise that the closer we got to our destination, the amount of gas-powered vehicles on the road started to decrease and the four-legged mode of transportation became more common. Honestly, watching the money drain out of my bank account as I filled the gas tank that morning, I was a little jealous.

The thing is, however, as I went along passing Mister Ed and his friends, I found myself dodging more and more excrement and I wondered who has to clean that up. As it turns out, one of the Lancaster newspapers did a wonderful deep dive into that topic a few years ago. They interviewed a Department of Agriculture official who spoke about parasites that dog and cat droppings can leave behind, but pointed out that horse manure doesn’t pose the same dangers.

Later in the article, I read that Auburn, Kentucky, has an ordinance that requires large animals to wear collection bags to catch their droppings. Kramer could have used one of those when he fed Rusty 50 cans of Beef-a-reeno on Seinfeld. Anyhow, two Amish men from Kentucky sued that town claiming the excrement-catchers violated their religious freedoms. They dropped the lawsuit in 2017.

I thought that might be all I could find. Apparently though, the horse issue is bigger than I thought.

A town in Indiana repealed an ordinance that fined people if their horse did its thing on the road and they did not clean it up. The ordinance, which called for a $250 fine, also required horse owners to fit the animals with a “diaper-like device” when they ventured onto county roads.

A big culture clash gripped Lycoming County in 2019, once again all over requirements for manure collectors. The issue even made its way into church sermons, according to a newspaper article. Non-Amish residents quoted in the article spoke about the dangers manure along the roadway poses for motorcycles.

As I drove along Sunday, most of the manure I spotted, though in the lane of travel, was on the far side of the road. As a graduate of Elizabethtown College, also located in Lancaster County, I’m not totally foreign to the sight.

I was able to successfully navigate the droppings, preserving my freshly washed wheels and avoiding an unwanted scent for the rest of the trip. I can understand why some residents in that area may get upset, but it’s not the end of the world.

After all, if someone thinks avoiding manure is bad, I’d hate to see them take on the Forest Inn Road potholes.