Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

I don’t have the Hart to tackle this.

Interestingly enough, Alabama’s law specifically accounts for ridden animals:

Code of Ala. § 32-1-1.1

(81) Vehicle. Every device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, excepting devices moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks or electric personal assistive mobility devices; provided, that for the purposes of this title, a bicycle or a ridden animal shall be deemed a vehicle, except those provisions of this title, which by their very nature can have no application.

And then the DUI statute just says ‘vehicle’ instead of ‘motor vehicle’, so it’s pretty solid that they have her dead to rights. Perhaps she should consider moving to California?

Brant, BOO!  and yet, I am very amused.

I had a classmate in lawschool who got arrested for being drunk on a bicycle.  That was in Portland, Oregon.  I forget if they gave him a DUI or drunk and disorderly (hint--you want the later).  You can probably risk more people being drunk on horseback (including the horse) than you can being drunk on a bicycle.

In Ohio, there is precedent that a cow is not a motor vehicle, for the perhaps unusual reason that it has no wheels (rather than no motor).

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003030.html

It occurred to me there are other possibilities in the whole equestrian vehicular debate.  I have a horse that does occasionally enjoy a beer or two.  At 1000 pounds, she probably would never get drunk.  But if she did, and I was riding her sober, could I be cited for riding an intoxicated vehicle?  And further, is using E-85 in my Ford pick-up a similarly dangerous exposure?  Oh the things legislators can’t imagine while they are spending their per diems.