The Story Behind The Rubber Horse

THE STORY BEHIND THE RUBBER HORSE

Let’s step back in time to the early 1940’s. Rubber tractor tires were just getting introduced to the market. Most of the farmers in our area used tractors with steel wheels to do their work in the fields. Leonard Holt (founder of HTS and great grandfather of current owners today) introduced rubber tractor tires to help farmers get better results. To win the customer over and convert the farmer’s tractor from steel wheels to rubber tires, Leonard would offer him two free gallons of gas if he agreed to run a test. Some folks called him crazy, but Leonard didn’t care. He would take a set of rubber tires and 2 gallons of gas out to a farmer working in the field with his tractor. Leonard would wait for the farmer to run his tractor out of gas, then put 1 gallon of gas in the tractor and have the farmer plow with steel wheels until it ran out of gas, then he would change the tractor to rubber tires, add another gallon of gas and have the farmer plow again. The distance the tractor plowed with rubber tires far exceeded the steel wheels. The tractor could not only go a much greater distance but also much faster, smoother and with less soil compaction because of the reduced weight of the tractor. The farmer was easily won over to switch to rubber tires!

In 1955, Leonard’s son, Albert, built a Rubber horse out of lumber and old tires as a symbol that the tractor replaced the horse-drawn farm equipment and rubber tires replaced the old steel-cleated wheels. After many years the original horse eventually retired.

Albert’s son, Doug, built the horse again, but this time out of steel and rubber tires. Look for Mr. Tread, our new Rubber Horse Mascot, at any of our Auto Service Centers today as a symbol that Hilltop Tire Service is evolving with the future of auto repair.

As we look on to the coming years, the automobile industry could change more in the next 5 years than it has over the past 90 years. Just like the tractor replaced the horse, self-driving and electric cars could replace our gasoline-powered vehicles. Here at Hilltop Tire Service, we are adapting to the next generation of cars, and as long as rubber meets the road, no matter what kind of smart car those tires are attached to – we’ll be here for you!

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