You and me both. There's nothing much that makes my butt draw up more than riding a spooky horse on pavement. I'll do it, because if I want to ride at the barn I don't have any choice, but I don't like it.
As for dogs, I have been known to pack a BB pistol in years past. But I've wondered if a Supersoaker pistol full of ammonia might not do the trick too. I got attacked by a pit bull on day on my sister's horse and it was NOT fun. If the owner hadn't been there to call him off I don't know what would have happened. He didn't really hurt the horse, but she was spinning so much that for what seemed like an eternity, I felt like I was riding a horse in a blender. I never saw the dog coming. He never barked a time. He was just on us all of a sudden, like a brown blur. It's been my experience that dogs that bark aren't as serious as the ones who don't. Most of the time you can back down the barkers by just stopping and facing them and hollering "NO!" real loud.
ROFLOL.
Becky
I still surprise myself at what I used to do on horses when I was a kid, riding down roads with cars, overpasses, underpasses, I'd never do any of that today :~]
My old mare really disliked dogs and around here, a lot of the places had dogs that just ran loose. They would come out to chase us and Bob and I both would turn the horses on them. His gelding at the time had to be pushed but my mare loved it. The dogs eventually learned to stay their distance. Bob does however, always carry when he's riding and wouldn't have any problems making a problem dog a dead dog.