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As a teen I was always looking for ways to make money. At the age of 15 I went to a Mexican restaurant near my home and was trying to get the owner to hire me to buss table or wash Dishes. He didn't need anyone but was willing to give me a job anyhow. He had a Donkey cart that was more of a box with a roof on it and it had car tires Painted Red with the name of the restaurant on it. My job was to hitch up a donkey named Dusty and dressed up with a sombrero, Mexican vest toting a six shooter and drive the cart around town to advertise the Restaurant. Now Dusty was like most mules stubborn and easily spooked. By the end of the day a car horn would set him off. So on many a day all I could do was park the cart by the street with the brake set so kinda keep him from running off with the cart and me in it. He hated crossing over and water so driving him around if we had to cross water in the drain that crossed a street he would stop and refuse to cross and tried to buck. One time I had to get out of the car and using his ears as a steering devise lead him across. Another time after a hard day I unhitched him to take him to a field where i would put him on a long lead where I would hitch him to. There he would spend the night and he could graze. Well this particular day he decided that he didn't want to go where I lead him to and he started to run the opposite direction taking me with him I grabbed him by the head and finally by grabbing his ears was able to get him under control. I would go home after work covered in dust and my mother would laugh and just look at me shaking her head and ask me if Dusty had given me a hard time. My youngest sister has a picture of me driving the donkey cart. Fun times.
 
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Ryan's story about working the ranch... reminded me of an incident as a teen....when I was about 14 my dad's cousin and his family was overseeing a ranch in east Texas... they had two horses on the ranch... one was red, I guess you would call me/her a sorrel, pretty good cow pony... he/she would face down a Brahma cow and push her where she was supposed to go... the other was a big black horse about a hand taller than the sorrel... I was visiting there for a couple of weeks and my cousin, about a year older than me, and I would ride those horses all the time... usually/most of the time bare back. Loyce Ray always rode the sorrel and I got the black.
In the field without a rider that black was graceful as a deer, but once a rider got on him, he was stumble footed as all get out.... he would manage pretty regularly to "stumble" and dump me, either in the creek, or just walking down the road.... He would not cross a bridge under any circumstances. There was a wood bridge on the ranch that crossed a small creek... he would walk up to the bridge but there was no way I could get him to cross... he would cross the creek beside the bridge... the sorrel would cross no issues. More than once I crossed the creek after the horse.
 
Alan R McDaniel Jr said:
Or a team of Spanish goats. But, goats don't train well...
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Goats LEARN exceptionally well. Often it's not what you wanted them to learn though and.reckon the real difficulty is figuring out how to be smarter than the goat. A buddy had some goats for a couple years and during that time I had gotten a large bin (some 400lbs) of apples to make into cider. We had spread the pulp out and let it dry some and metered it out to the goats. By about day 3 the apples had acquired more than a hint of a vinous note and the goats were having a fine old time. Their favorite game during this period would be to wait for one to get juuuust a bit to close to the electric fence and then another would butt him into it. There would be a loud bleat from the zapped goat and then all the others would baaah back at him. I swear they were laughing. Goats are smart.

There's actually a long history of goat carts. I told a friend that if he got goats I'd make a cart for his kids. It might well be that's why he hasn't gotten goats yet.

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Chuck Ellis said:
In the field without a rider that black was graceful as a deer, but once a rider got on him, he was stumble footed as all get out....
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Could be he had a bit of a shoulder or leg problem. My first horse was fantastic with kids, but couldn't handle an adult riding him. He wasn't obviously lame and could go all day, but there was something a bit wrong in his one shoulder (he died 40 some years ago when I was six so I'm not recollecting quite what) and he just couldn't handle much weight. For such robust critters horses are remarkably delicate.
 
Ryan Mooney said:
Could be he had a bit of a shoulder or leg problem. My first horse was fantastic with kids, but couldn't handle an adult riding him. He wasn't obviously lame and could go all day, but there was something a bit wrong in his one shoulder (he died 40 some years ago when I was six so I'm not recollecting quite what) and he just couldn't handle much weight. For such robust critters horses are remarkably delicate.
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At 13 or 14 I couldn't have weighed more than 120 lbs...I was a skinny skinny kid..... I went in the navy at 19 and only weighed 133 lbs at my physical.
 
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