While most people drive cars to get around, Stormy Schwindt prefers his horse. “This is our culture, this is our land this is who and what we are,” he said. But riding a horse in his hometown of Cascade is against the law. “This is the letter that we sent out to the people who had horses in the area that stated what our ordinance was and that they were not to be having livestock in town,” said Cascade Clerk/ Treasurer Karen Morrison while holding up a letter that went out to local horse owners. The letter was sent out because some residents complained about horses making a mess on their property. Stormy got the letter. “Its hard one me I don’t want to break the rules, I don’t want to make anyone in town mad,” he said. But the high school art teacher rides on anyway. In fact, he rode right to town hall to pay the $500 dollar fine mentioned in the letter. “Without a ticket the fine cannot be collected. They have to be issued a ticket and go to our court,” said Morrison. Though the ordinance has been in place since the 70s, many residents were surprised to learn about it. “Its not like this is New York or Los Angeles, this is Cascade, Montana,” said Schwindt’s neighbor Barb Parsons. “People have ridden their horses in town for years and I can’t believe you can’t do that,” she said. Others support the law and say a teacher blatantly disregarding the rules is a bad example. Kirstin Felton, one of Schwindt’s students says, “To do it on purpose and then say ‘I want to be fined’ is just not the way to do it because teacher’s teach us to follow the rules and obey them, not to break them and try to get the rule changed.” Still Schwindt says he’s got to stand his ground. “I don’t want to be thought of in a bad way by anyone in this town, but I draw the line.” The Cascade County Sheriff’s Office is in charge of actually citing people. So far, no one has actually been cited.