Horse Rescue
Alison's incident couldn't have come at a worse time. After the new year's celebration, more and more people arrived at the Little Haulers to ride behind their narrow gauge engines, and more companies wanted them to deliver freight for them. This meant more work for Mak, who after three days, was feeling a little worn out. Mr Harrison was originally going to call on the McKenna Truck Company to help, but then remembered the previous incidents on the Freedom Railroad, so he went aganist the idea.
"From what I've been told, it'll be another month or so before Alison is ready to run again, and our third loco won't arrive till this blasted snow goes away," Mr Harrison said to Mak. "In the meantime, just keep doing your best old girl."
"Hai Sir...I mean, yes Sir," Mak corrected herself.
Luckily, no one really complained about the slower service on the line. The companies were glad to get their deliveries, even if it was late, "at least you guys deliver in one piece, not like those McKenna trucks." As for the passengers, they didn't mind waiting at the platform, or being part of the mixed freight services, "it's a great way to see unique practices on a railroad."
Only the McKenna trucks laughed at Mak, "look at the little powder-puff, all tired from work. Hey little toy, why don't you break yourself like your partner did, then we can take all your work!" Of course, Mak payed them no attention and carried on with her work.
One person who was more than happy to take a load off of Mak's couplings was Farmer Brent. After hearing about the incident with Alison, he agreed with the railroad to make his own deliveries of food and hay. To make these deliveries, instead of using a tractor like many farmers did, he used a team of strong and reliable horses.
Many often ask him why he doesn't use a tractor to make his deliveries, but his answer was always the same; "they may need less maintenance than a team of horses, but a tractor doesn't really keep you company like those horses can."
One afternoon, he pulled up to the Transfer Point where Jack was waiting for him. He was also having a small talk with Mak.
"Sorry I'm late you two," he said to the two locomotives, "I had to stop along the way and help Bad Luck Jenny out of the mud again. Her own horses decided to ignore her commands and go running off into the mud."
Mak rolled her eyes, "that sounds like Bad Luck Jenny alright, whatever will happen with her next?"
Jack though was concerned, "was it difficult to get them out of the mud?"
"Not really, it was soft enough for them to walk out, they just needed to hear someone else's commands."
Jack sighed with relief, "that's good, cause I recently heard about what happens to those who get stuck in thick sticky mud, and for animals, it's not a good news story."
"Oh you got nothing to worry about when it comes to Farmer Brent," said Kyle with confidence, "of all the farmers we know, he's the man who knows how to get out of any situation, and how to avoid them too."
Mak was quick to get her voice in, "I wouldn't say things like that if I were you Kyle. Saying it usually results in someone getting jinxed and landing in trouble."
Farmer Brent showed a sly smile, "don't worry yourself about me Mak, I know better than to go anywhere near Mud, and so do my horses."
As he climbed down to begin loading up his hay-bales into Jack's freight cars, Mr Harrison came over to speak with Mak, "Jessica will be coming by in a short while with passengers wishing to see Gilbert's Lane, can you collect some coaches and take them please?"
Mak looked back to see her ten loaded box cars and nine loaded flatbeds all ready to go. Adding coaches would only add more weight, but she couldn't let the passengers down, so she agreed.
When his work was done, Farmer Brent and his horses began making their way back home. They had a good run, and were all looking forward to a nice rest, but they wouldn't be getting home for a few hours.
Up ahead was a McKenna truck, running empty after being refused by a business in Gilbert's Lane.
"Oh sure, they rather wait for their deliveries instead of using us," snorted the truck angerily, "of all the stupid things I've heard in all my years, that's got to be the worst. I'm so mad I could shout." And he was about to, but the driver, being in a sneaky mood that night, decided to honk the horn over the shouting.
Sadly, the loud honking startled Farmer Brent's horses, who took off in a big hurry.
"Whoa boys, slow it down!" cried Farmer Brent. He tried to slow them down with the reigns, even shouting at them, but they were too scared to stop. Worse still, they were heading for trouble; a big mud puddle at a sharp bend. Seeing what was about to happen, Farmer Brent jumped off the cart while his horses went into the mud.
Farmer Brent groaned as he got up. He wasn't seriously hurt, and was able to walk over to his horses, just as the McKenna truck roared by, "useless things!" the truck shouted.
"You want to see useless, go look in the mirror you dumb piece of junk!" shouted Farmer Brent.
His horses neighed angerily as they tried to get out of the mud. Farmer Brent focused away from the truck, and instead went to attend to his horses, "easy there boys, calm down, I'll get you out of there." He stepped into the mud and one by one, he got the horses out of the mud. That was until he got to the last one. The horse tried hard to move, but it's legs were firmly stuck in the mud.
At this time, Mak was puffing down the line, but the long train was beginning to take it's toll on her.
"I need a rest, I need some rest," she panted.
Kyle and Tom agreed and slowed her to a stop. They were about to walk back to the coaches to inform the passengers of the small rest when someone ran up to their cab. It was Farmer Brent.
"Brent, what are you doing out here?" Tom asked, "shouldn't you be at home?"
"My horses got scared by a stupid McKenna truck, and now one's really stuck in the mud. Can you come and help get him out? I tried, but it's really difficult for one person alone."
The crew agreed, and once the passengers were informed of the situation, many offered to help too.
"Yikes, this stuff is worse than glue," groaned one passenger who nearly got stuck himself.
"Watch your step, we don't want you getting stuck too," called Farmer Brent.
With shovels in hand, they dug away at the mud, but they nearly broke the shovels in the process. Added to that, the more they dug, the more mud would slide in to fill the gaps. They pulled on the reigns, and pushed from behind, but the poor horse wasn't going anywhere.
Mak watched on with worry, "I wish there was something we could do to help," she said.
Kyle, who stayed to watch over the fire, thought about it, then he came up with an idea. He went over to speak with Tom and Farmer Brent.
"Maybe, if you dug some more and Mak gave the smallest and gentlest pulls, maybe we can get your horse out of the mud."
Famrer Brent sighed, "why not, we've tried everything else."
So they put a plan into motion. Farmer Brent attached one end of a rope to the horse's reign, and Kyle attached the other end to Mak. Passengers, along with Farmer Brent, dug away more of the mud until they felt it was good enough. They gave the signal and Kyle opened the reverser.
"Easy now girl, it's not like pulling freight cars, that's a living creature."
Mak pulled back slowly and gently. At first, the poor horse didn't move a bit.
"He's really stuck, I don't think we can get him out," said a passenger.
"We have to keep trying," said Tom. "Come on everyone, keep digging!"
So they did, and while it took more than half an hour, some results finally started to show. First one leg came out of the mud, then another.
"Keep going!" called Farmer Brent, "we're doing it! We're doing it!"
By now, the poor horse was running low on energy, but he summoned a last great effort, and with one more pull from Mak, the horse came up and out of the mud, back onto dry land. This was met with loud cheers from everyone, even Mak.
Farmer Brent walked up to the horse, "you did so well tonight, why don't you just ride in the cart for the journey home?"
He led the horse to the cart, where it got into a comfortable position. Farmer Brent turned to face everyone, "thank you all for your help, I'm only sorry I held you up."
But they weren't annoyed at all, they were just glad to have helped, "we were actually on our way to see some animals at the new Gilbert's Lane Zoo," said one passenger, "but it was nice to meet your fine horses, and help them out too."
"Besides, we can't leave a loyal friend stuck in the mud," added Tom.
Farmer Brent smiled, but it soon vanished, "just wait till I see that stupid McKenna truck, I'll give him and his driver a piece of my mind."
But as it turns out, he had no need to do that.
A few days later, Mak was at the transfer point when Farmer Brent arrived with another load for the Freedom Railroad. At the front was the horse she helped to rescue, "he's looking quite well today," she commented.
"Yeah, he just needed a rest, and a wash, and he's back to his old happy self," smiled Farmer Brent. "And remember what I said about giving that McKenna truck a piece of my mind? Well..." he pulled out a newspaper and showed it to Mak and her crew.
The headlines read MCKENNA TRUCK FOLLY! ANOTHER TRUCK FALLS VICTIM TO STUPIDITY. It went on to read that the truck swirved on an icy patch and crashed into Bad Luck Jenny's farm, right into the pig's mud hole.
"Karma has it's ways of kicking someone in the fenders," chuckled Mak. "Maybe next time, he'll learn to not blow that airhorn unless it's an emergency. Did they ever get him out?"
Farmer Brent smirked, "not quite."
"Why?"
"Bad Luck Jenny's bad luck is keeping him there of course." This resulted in the loudest amount of laughs anyone ever heard.
This was inspired by an actual horse rescue when a horse got stuck in thick mud. Despite all the digging, pushing and pulling, the horse didn't come out of the mud until hours after it got stuck. It was unharmed afterwords, but it did require a bath. Reasons as to why it got stuck are unknown.
