The long story of the road ride

Yesterday I decided to take Brig for a ride down the road instead of riding him in the ring. I was hoping to get as far as the dykes and to ride him on them for a while. So I tacked him up and off we went without trouble. He was a bit nervous the whole time but he didn't spook and he was really well behaved until he saw some young cows. (Of course they weren't actually cows but were either steers or heiffers but most people will understand the description 'cows' better) The cows were quite interested in Brig as we were coming up to their field. They stood at the fence with their ears perked forward watching us approach. Brig was also watching them pretty closely. I decided to stop where we were to wait until there were no cars coming down the road in either direction before trying to go past the cows. I'm very glad that I did. When I asked Brig to walk again he went several steps and then spun around and ran the other way down the road as fast as he could while I was yanking on the reins. Luckily he actually listened to me after a few seconds and I was able to stop him. But he sure was scared. He was snorting and dancing around. I decided that I would get off and deal with the problem from the ground rather than from his back. So after trying to calm him slightly I asked him to walk towards the cows again and he did the same thing again only this time I was on the ground running behind him trying desperately not to let go of the reins and let him get loose on the road. He actually kind ended up kind of running sideways a bit because I was yanking his head towards me and so he didn't end up getting loose. At this point I knew that it would be hopeless to get him to go near the cows and I didn't want him to get away from me. So we crossed the road and went past on that side. He still wouldn't walk normal and my arm was getting sore from trying to hold him back and keep him from taking off again. But we made it past. I continued hand walking him until we reached the road leading to the dykes. I rode him down the road and onto the dykes but he was still really nervous and looking for something else scary to appear. When he saw a bike way in the distance on the other dyke and was getting concerned about it I decided that maybe we should turn around and head home before we came across anything that actually might really be scary. I knew that he wouldn't mentally be able to deal with anything else that day. When we passed the cows the next time he was still pretty bad. I walked on the ground again and he ran in circles around me even though I was trying to get him to walk or trot beside me. I continued walking him down the road for a long time because there are lots of vehicles and he was still really jumpy and nervous. He spooked at a dog at one point, which is unusual for him. We had to pass some more cows further up the road but for some reason these other ones have never scared him very much. He looks at them but doesn't make a big deal about them. I was a bit concerned as there were three that were kind of hinding behind a tree. As we passed two of the younger ones jumped up and ran away. Brig just kind of jumped a bit and then continued on like it was no big deal. I don't get it. They were about the same age as the other ones and they were the same colour too. I got on again after we passed these cows and we made it home safely. Brig was drenched with sweat though. Poor guy. Today I am really sore from the ride/walk/being dragged down the road by a horse. The left side of my back and both sides of my shoulders and both arms are quite sore. I think the left side is worse because that's the arm that I was hanging on with when he took off running. The other arm is probably sore from holding him back while riding and from trying to keep him from running over me when he was supposed to be walking beside me.
Shortly after Brig and I started our ride yesterday a big dump truck passed us. Brig isn't scared of vehicles at all. I'm very glad too as there are quite a few vehicles on the road that I have to ride him on. I was very impressed with the dump truck driver though. Way before he came up to us he slowed right down. He drove very slowly past and then continued on. I waved and said thanks to him (he had his window open). At times when Brig is nervous of something I worry that he might jump onto the road in front of traffic. Most cars that pass us do not slow down and many do not even move to the other side of the road even when there is nothing coming the other way. If Brig is acting nervous I sometimes will motion to the cars to slow down. One guy just waved as he sped past. He didn't understand that he was supposed to slow down and thought that I was just being friendly. Later when Brig was freaking out and I was walking on the ground the same dump truck came passed us again. He slowed down again and moved into the far lane to give us lots of space. It was pretty obvious that Brig was upset and not completely under control. And what does someone do... they pass the dump truck in the right lane (in between me and it)! What were they thinking? Obviously they weren't thinking at all. The truck driver and I just shook our heads. People are so stupid. At other times if a car was coming too quickly but was still far enough away I would let Brig freak out on the road so that they would have to slow down. People just don't understand that horses are unpredictable and can move very quickly without warning. If I was on a really busy road with vehicles coming in both directions I can understand that it might be annoying to slow down and pass wide but while there are quite a few cars on the road there are not so many that there is one coming in each direction at the same time. At the very least people should be moving to the other lane.
I have another pet peeve. This one is about bikes. As I was driving home yesterday I had to slow down to pass a guy riding his bike. There were cars coming the other way and he was riding in my lane. The reason that I have a problem with this is because if he moved over to the right only one to two feet he would have been riding in something that is called a bike lane. They are special lanes made specifically for people would want to ride their bikes on the road. They are wider than your average road shoulder and are seperated from the car lane by a white line. They even have white bikes painted inside the lane for those people that do not know that this lane is specifically for bikes. It really, really annoys me when I see bikes riding on the road instead of in the bike lane. I don't understand why they don't use it instead of risking their lives by driving in a car lane where cars are going to be passing them really closely because there is a steady stream of cars coming the other way and they can't move into the other lane.