The Cart Before A Horse

Saturday, June 15, 2019

The photo above shows Sunni pulling my driving cart. I’ve inserted a red circle around one of its shock absorbers, a critical part not easy to highlight. The other day, as Rosie trotted and pulled my cart along a neighborhood street, I felt a jolt and heard the ping of metal hitting pavement. In the couple of steps it took Rosie to halt, my experience in the cart felt really weird.

I stepped out and saw under the cart a support strap hanging freely, and found in the road a sheared-off heavy bolt. The cart was mobile and Rosie pulled it home (my ride was high-bouncing). Finally, I stood staring at the heavy steel cart, at the sheared bolt in my hand, and felt reluctant to send the cart somewhere capable of fixing it. Because for some period I’d have no cart. Keeping a horse fit and relaxed means exercising it, and for me, this depends on driving regularly. The situation forced my emergency option of calling on Frank, my kind neighbor. His ongoing hobby is restoring from scratch a classic English (Morgan) sports convertible.

Frank grasped what needed doing and I became his go-to for tools and parts. Although replacing bolts is an easy job, not for these. This cart has a slanting stance, its offsetting pressures make it difficult to align holes. Frank found the added problem of another sheared bolt, partly jammed into its hole by the cart’s slanting weight. Although the unjamming was challenging, Frank got it done, and as a caution, he replaced the bolts holding in place a second (companion) shock absorber. Thanks to him, my cart suffered only one down-day.

It turns out that each of the cart’s shock absorbers has two holding bolts and all under enormous pressure, for the absorbers bounce over smooth and bumpy terrains alike, eventually weaking the bolts. I’d not noticed, that previously, one of the damaged shock’s bolts had sheared off, leaving a single bolt holding. That’s why I so felt it break.

Thanks to Frank, my horses promptly began pulling on the roads. And thanks to that (relatively) inconsequential accident, I’ve learned to examine regularly the components holding together the cart, and to change periodically those that receive the greatest stresses during routine use.

Dear Readers: We who like to be independent also need a community. Diana