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It was my first spring riding at Art Butler's Ranch, and we were going on a special "ride" at Birds Hill Park, for a Shriners' fund-raiser. It was a Saturday morning, we were scheduled to leave the yard at 8:30 am. The day was warm, with just a slight breeze, a beautiful spring morning, meadowlarks singing out in the pasture.
I was a very green rider at the time("green" meaning inexperienced). Fortunately, I was riding an older mare (approx. 23 yrs of age), who I knew to be "bombproof", so, I was really looking forward to this ride. As I led Arilla out of the barn, to the trough for her morning drink, I felt excited. Such a beautiful day, nothing could go wrong. (WRONG!)
We all proceeded to groom and saddle our horses. Bridles were hung on the saddle horns for trailering. There were about 20 riders and horses going from the ranch, so Art had suggested we call a professional horse hauler, as his "big" trailer will only hold about twelve horses comfortably.
Problem number one reared its ugly head as the semi-trailer rolled into the yard. His trailer was not air cushioned, and could not be lowered to "step up height". He was also lacking a ramp. Art told us not to worry, he'd get us into the trailer.
Problem number two followed quickly on the heels of problem number one. The "hill" in the "fun corral" that Art used for loading horses onto trucks without ramps, was in the middle of a sea of good old soaking wet Manitoba gumbo. (It's actually good footing when it's dry, but...) The truck driver didn't want to go there, who could blame him?
So, the driver and Art had a parley, and decided that if we built a ramp of straw bales, we could likely get the horses up into the trailer. Loading and unloading at the other end would be a breeze, as there was a cattle chute at the park.
Well, Art and some of us "got at her" and quickly had some large steps built of straw bales in the middle of the stack. Problem number three now popped up. How were we going to get the horses in to the backside of the stack, with the truck backed in there and waiting to load. Art's solution was to lead the horses through the feed room, to the backside of the stack. The horses seemed very interested in everything back there! One shied at the wheelbarrow as he was led through (like he'd never seen it come around to the corral as his lunch wagon). One shied at the stack, seen from this angle (like its not a huge salad bar for horses, what?). One refused to go down the short "feed alley". The list goes on...
When most of the horses, crowded in the barn side of the stack, refused to go "upstairs" and into that dark trailer, Art told me to try to take Arilla up. He felt that with her being a senior mare, if she'd go up, then, most of the other horses would follow. Okay, problem number 3 solved. This worked well, there were only one or two balky horses, the rest went up the "stairs" like they did it every day of their lives. So, here we were, horses loaded, all 20 of them, average weight 1000 lbs each, the man closed the back doors, and climbed into the cab of his truck.
As he eased the semi into gear, he began to roll forward, then along came problem number four. As he started to move forward, his tractor's rear wheels hit a soft spot, and sank axle deep. Now what?? There was nothing for it but to unload the horses and try to get that truck unstuck. Problem number five, anyone? Right, when he moved forward, he moved just far enough that the horses would now have to jump the five feet to the ground. Most of the horses are of the quarterhorse/western type, not one of them a grand prix jumper or cross-country eventer. (Besides, the horses would have refused that ridiculous suggestion out of hand!).
At LB Ranch, as when it was Art Butler's ranch, we use our team of Belgian mares (half-sisters), daily, to pull the manure wagon through the barn and drive them out to dump it. (They have to have something to do when they're not "working" in town or doing hay/sleigh rides). It just happened that Art had just come back into the yard with the team, ready to unhitch them and turn them out, at about the time our driver got stuck. (Stuck can't begin to describe what was going on there). Art talked to the driver and asked him if he needed help getting out. The driver, of course, said that he needed help, and would need to unload the extra 20,000 lbs weighing his hitch down, and call a highway tow truck.
Art chuckled and said, "I'll bring the girls." The transport driver was amused, he thought old Art had lost his mind, as Art walked up with the double trees attached to the "girls" by way of the traces, and asked the man where his tow hooks were. Since Art looked serious, the man thought he'd humor him. He was sure that the horses wouldn't be any help, but he knew Art's reputation with horses and his opinions of motorized VS REAL horse power, so he crawled under the truck, hooked up the tow chains and stood up.
Art asked the man to get back into the cab, put the truck into low gear, and told him that when he yelled, to let the clutch out, slowly. Art got in front of that semi, with the big girls and got them ready. Suddenly, Art yelled, both horses began to strain at their collars and harness, and, with Art standing off to one side, and driving the team, there was a loud "sucking" sound, and out popped the semi; trailer, horses and all!. I couldn't believe my eyes. Two horses to pull that amount of weight out of that mudhole! Unbelievable!
We had our ride at the park, we made some pledge money, but it was somehow anticlimactic after seeing the "Big Butts", Lady and Jess, pull that loaded semi out. It was the talk of the ride. When he came back to the park to pick us up, the man had changed trailers, and now had one that he could lower to step up and down. The horses refused to load. (Any More problems???) So, he put it into highway mode, we loaded at the cattle ramp with no problems, and when we got home, they all just stepped off that trailer like nothing.
When I talked to Art later, about the sheer power of those two mares, he told me that if the man driving the semi hadn't used his gas and clutch just right, "the girls" wouldn't have been able to accomplish the feat. Still, they are a powerful team, and now that the place is Les's and mine (now the LB Ranch), we still use those girls to pull stuck vehicles out the gumbo that happens every spring. We even have a saying at the ranch, "Don't use the mud road in the spring". But, almost everybody who rides here has first hand experience of that mudroad in the spring and the power of those two horses. The smart ones only do it once.
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