HISTORY Several years ago I incurred a spinal injury in my neck that left my arms and hands virtually useless. After numerous procedures, major surgery and loads of therapy/recovery, I regained most of my original strength and maneuverability. Unfortunately, I never regained enough strength in my upper arms and shoulders to be able to pull myself up onto anything higher than 20inches. Specifically, I found it nearly impossible to get up onto the bed of my truck to do my ranch chores and, even worse, I couldn’t get up on my horse. If I used a bench or step stool to mount up and later, away from the barn, had to dismount, there was no hope of getting back on without a great deal of assistance. Not only was this an annoyance to other riders and downright embarrassing, but it was dangerous as well! I found myself in increasingly more physically precarious situations. I could use a stepladder, stool, stump, bucket or even a fence rail back at the barn, but once out on the trail, if I had to dismount, I was in trouble. I might easily find myself leading my confused horse on foot for miles before I found a convenient rock or stump on which to stand. Of course, then, there was always the hope that my horse would walk along side the ‘evil horse eating’ stump or rock in complete cooperation! It is not surprising that whenever I went to a horse show or rodeo, I noticed a relentless stream of people carrying buckets, blocks and stools around to use as mounting aids. Even young, physically able people often had trouble getting up on the taller horses! MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH My physical disability not only affected my horse mounting ability, but also my ability to perform some of the horse related duties as well. Caring for ranch animals is a never-ending chore. Whenever I had to unload feed, hay or any of the multitudes of products that go with horses from the bed of my truck, I had to crawl up on the bumper with one knee, climb over the tailgate and then open the gate from the inside and let it drop. There aren’t too many people who can reach all the way across to the middle of the truck bed to retrieve that one item that slid over to the very center in an effort to escape the human grasp! I’ll never understand the reasoning for making trucks higher off of the ground every year. Don’t they realize that trucks are for girls and other short people too? I even keep one inside the cab of my truck to help me climb into the seat when I am having difficulty. It makes it easy, because I can just pull it in after me! NOTE: Most people have little or no problem sliding down off of a horse or off of the bed or seat of a pickup, and we do not attempt to address the issues that exist for those unfortunate people who cannot. We hope that our little stool will at least help get more people onto the saddle. WE WISH YOU ALL ..HAPPYTRAILS!!!