My youngest son James had his first horse show recently and I had a lesson in getting an SUV out of a sticky situation.

After James’ first few rides (he and Sonny earned three third place ribbons!), it was close to lunchtime. It was also frigid. It had been raining and sleeting lightly all morning. I decided to take him to McDonald’s.

My SUV was parked in a field. I had noticed a little strip of mud in the aisle behind us when I parked, but didn’t think much of it. I have parked in fields before.

I carefully backed out of the space. But when I tried to go forward, the wheels were stuck in the mud. I made a few tries to move the tires, but they were just spinning. So I stopped. James started screaming.

Have you ever tried thinking when your child is screaming? It does not work well.

I finally got James to settle down. A man approached us. He said not to feel bad, he’d gotten stuck there too. He went to fetch the barn owner.

So we waited. A few people left the lot, and I watched them a bit jealously. James said he wanted to get out of the car. I refused. All I needed was for him to be stuck in the mud too!

The barn owner arrived. He asked if my SUV was 4-wheel drive (nope).

Initially he suggested taking my place in the driver’s seat. Then he rethought that. Instead, he stood outside and gave me instructions. I learned the trick is to put the transmission in low gear, and to go slowly. I also learned I am not good at going slowly. Thankfully, we were soon free of the mud. I took a lot of deep breaths, and we proceeded to go to McDonald’s for lunch.

I am very happy the barn owner gave me instructions. Knowing how to get out of a bad situation is worth a dozen rescues.