So once again I hook Lily up to the front of the durango. You can tell by the look in her eye that she is not convinced it will work, but she does as I ask and waits as I hook things up again.
Everything is hooked up, and once again, we try to go.
The durango moves ... about 2 feet. Then PING! The single tree then shot up and hit the back of Lily's legs. She spooked, and started to run around me. I was holding the lead rope very close, so it was easy to keep her in control. Once again my words calmed her down, and she stopped moving so I could unhitch the single tree and get it to stop dragging behind her.
Once again, my friend holds Lily, and I inspect what happened. The clevis I used to hook the chain to the single tree had bent almost 180 degrees and had just slipped off.
As I was looking at this, I noticed that the durango was sitting in pretty deep ruts at this point. Each time we've tried to go, the person in the durango had given it gas, making the wheels dig the ruts deeper and deeper.
So ... time for round 3, and time for a new strategy. I unhook the chain from the front of the durango, and hook one end of the chain to the ball/hitch on the rear of the durango. I then hook the other end of the chain to the single tree, which gets hooked to Lily.
SO I stand in front of Lily, and try to lead her. She didn't move, and looked at me as if to say "Like Hell I'm trying this again!!" So ... I decided it was time to drive her with the reigns.
So I start calling out her commands to go, and she does exactly what she's been trained to do. My friend in the durango had it in reverse to try and help. And we began moving. Lily was pulling(pushing really) sooooo hard! She was giving it her all.
After a few seconds, she had pulled the durango out of the ruts. As soon as the durango got moving, she felt the ease on the load and stopped. After that 30 second pull, she was very winded. She was gasping for air, and I could see that she was beginning to really sweat.
After a break of a few minutes, I tried to get her moving again. At this point, she just flat out refused to move. I tried talking sternly, sweetly, and even popper her on the rear with the reigns, but nothing would move her.
So I walked up to her, pet her real good, and told her what a good job she was doing. I then handed the lead rope to another friend. We decided that with some one walking in front of her, and me giving commands from behind, that she may be more willing to give it another try.
And then the amazing thing happened. It worked. She dug down, and she pushed for all she was worth. With me telling her how good she was doing, and my friend walking in front of her, we slowly began moving out of the pasture. On and on we went. We took another break when we only had a hundred or so feet to go. Then we went at it again.
SUCCESS! Lily pulled the durango the 1/2 mile out of that field. As we unhooked her from the durango I was beaming with pride. I walked her back to the feed room, tied her, took off the bridle, and rewarded her with a nice scoop of sweet feed. She was very happy.
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