worst emergency vehicle

[Toni Jones <tjones@coinet.com>]

The worst one I ever saw used for "emergencies" at a ride was back in
the 1980's when I first visited the ridecamps of some area rides seeing
if I wanted to be involved in endurance. The cowboy who had been roped
(or volunteered) for this job had an older type stock trailer. At first
glance it was acceptable. However there were a couple holes in the floor
of over a foot or so hidden by straw. He was confronted about it by a
couple of folks who had just been delivered back to camp. The riders had
gone in to retrieve their horses and one of the riders had fallen in the
hole to the ground. The horses had made the trip fine but the rider was
very upset, to put it mildly. To all this the cowboy drawled "that the
horses knew the holes were there and he never had no problems with
them".....

This was not at an endurance ride but the worst trailer I've ever seen
used to haul horses/cows in, bar none, was a flat bed conversion. It was
so awful I had to drive around the block to see it again to really
believe what my eyes told me it was! In real life it was a 36 foot
flatbed gooseneck with the deck above the wheels/tires. But someone had
put t-posts in the stake pockets and had used a combination of flimsy
hog panels, aluminum gates (in sad condition), and scrap plywood all
baling wired and twined together to make up the "walls" which were no
more than 4 to 5 feet high. There was no roof. The horses were all wide
eyed and standing as close to the center as possible with feet splayed
and not moving an inch. And this was when the thing was PARKED. A couple
weeks later I saw/heard it coming down the road and it was a wonder the
sides stayed up at all!

Toni Jones
Central Oregon