Business idea for long term thinking

I'm reading William K. Klingaman's book "The Darkest Year: The American Home Front 1941-1942"  and I'm up to the parts where rationing is going on: sugar, coffee, meat, tires, gas.  I found this part interesting from a permie perspective:



The cut off line was "from converting garages into stables."

Looking at the world around me right now, I can see a strong possibility that building wagons or raising horses NOW might be a good investment of time and energy for a permie who is inclined to do either of these things. The time period in the book  was very early on in car culture, there were still wagons around that could be found and cleaned up. There were still horses easy to find to pull them. Neither of those is true right now. And if things get bad enough that having that technology would be profitable, it will be late for ramping up production. Horses or mules take time to grow up, wood and any needed metal for wagons is easier to deal with if you have a truck to get it and power tools to make them. If wagons are needed, the resources to make them easily will be very limited. "No one was making new wagons in the fall of 1942, due to shortages of metal and wood."

It's a thought worth considering.  

I do not have it in front of me right now, but I know of a city/town in Texas that is essentially entirely accessible by people who ride horses. There is a TikTok influencer who posts videos of her with her horse going through town, going through fast food pickup lanes, and complaining at her horse not to eat peoples bushes.

Further more, I live in an area in the Northeast that has quite a bit of horse culture to it. We have a famous racetrack nearby (I am not supportive of the sport) as well as many facilities for boarding/training/riding all around. Something that has been starting to be noticed by myself is there are a few people that have carriage horses. We have Amish that have moved in locally and brought quite a few wagons but I have mused the ideas of where do they source them? A friend who is a blacksmith on the side managed to get his hands on some old wagon wheel tools that he is restoring and potentially putting to use. I'd love to see alternate modes of transportation come into fashion again. I however can see the cost/benefit arguments that might come out of it if your sole purpose for having a horse/mule/donkey/other is just transportation.

It is something to muse over! Thanks for sharing.

In the UK it is not unknown for people to use horse drawn carriages for special occasions (and I'm not just talking coronations here!). Weddings and funerals can have horse drawn transport for the main participants. I don't know whether this would be an option in much of the US, but might give a good income as a service there now too?

alternative wedding transport

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