Outdoors - Basic Transportation

   On a farm, it is important to have transportation that will get a person around under many different circumstances. If it is muddy, deep in snow, or the creek is high, there are times a person still needs to go. Most farmers and ranchers keep a special vehicle around, just for such cases. A person would not want to use their everyday using truck or the wife’s vehicle in case they were to get stuck and not be able to get it out for a few days. Also, there is the possibility of sliding off the path into a barbed wire fence or tree, which is hard on the paint job. I have a four-wheel drive pickup truck that is used strictly on the farm. It is of the type; a person dares not drive it farther than they are willing to walk back. At any time, it may quit functioning. It has happened before, and I hate being forced to go for an unplanned walk. If something is going to go wrong, it will always be at the farthest point away.

   It is not always that one’s truck fails them. One summer day, I was clipping pastures with the tractor and brush cutter in the west pasture. My truck was parked at the North gate where I had parked the tractor the night before. There was no problem getting to where I had left off, but when I started mowing, the tractor broke a hydraulic line. I am no mechanic, but I knew it was a problem when the brakes and steering quit and a ten-foot circle around the tractor was covered with oil. I shut the equipment down and started on my long walk to the truck. I had not walked far when I saw a group of my horses grazing where I had mowed the previous day. These were brood mares, whose purpose in life was to raise colts. Most of them were not broke to ride but were mostly friendly and gentle. I decided it would be easier to ride an untrained horse back to the truck than to walk all that way. I was wrong.

   Pollyanna was a big stout quarter horse mare. She was broke to lead, but that is the only training she had. She let me walk up and catch her, never suspecting I was going to ride her, as no one had ever done that before. I took off my belt and wrapped it around her neck, hoping to use that to steer. She was somewhat startled when I jumped on her back but did not seem overly displeased. I pointed her in the direction I wanted to go and gave her a gentle tap in the ribs with the heel of my boot. We started off in that direction, but she could see no reason to continue going that way. When I became insistent with more vigorous kicks to her ribs and pulling on the belt around her neck, she became annoyed and with a couple surprisingly athletic bucks, deposited me on the ground. Lying on my back looking up at Pollyanna, I decided it might be easier to walk back to the truck than try to train a horse without saddle or bridle in the middle of nowhere. The mare was good about letting me retrieve my belt and I took off on foot.

   Whether it be a truck, tractor, or horse, it is always good to have basic transportation and a backup plan. The least desirable but most reliable back up transportation is walking.