Mr. Granger made an annual mustang drive from Miradero to Rancho Conejo. The journey involved crossing the Badlands and fording the Copperhead River, and took a full two days of riding to reach the destination.[1]
In Lucky's second autumn living back in Miradero, Mr. Granger invited Pru, Abigail, and Lucky, who were then thirteen years old, to make the drive with him. The PALs were initially attracted by the exciting promise of danger that could be encountered out on the range—"coyotes, mountain lions, brushfires"—but soon learned that the tough work of keeping the herd together was mostly boring, and at best involved rounding up stragglers and roping spooked horses that could trigger a stampede. Even the main thrill for Lucky, the inclusion of her love interest Javier as a vaquero on the drive, turned bittersweet when her misadventure in chasing a wayward mare and foal ended in a life-threatening leg injury for the boy.[1]
Vaqueros
Songs
The group sang reverse-counting songs to pass the time during the drive. Early on, Mr. Granger led the group in a rousing rendition of "A Hundred Mustangs on the Open Range", the enthusiasm for which fizzled with exhaustion by the time the singers got around to the last mustang in the song. Abigail tried to interest the group in her song, "Sweet Little Bird in the Dogwood Tree", but the group caught on quickly to its monotony and declined to join in.[1]
Number of horses on the drive
The number of mustangs being driven appears to vary throughout the drive. An early establishing shot in Miradero shows there to be twenty-six or twenty-seven mustangs ready for the drive. A later shot shows four foals that suddenly appear next to Abigail. Mid-drive shots show around twenty-five or twenty-six horses. Later, a shot shows only twenty horses. In the end, the drive resulted in the delivery of thirty-one mustangs to the ranch (twenty-nine delivered by Pru and Abigail plus the wayward mare and foal delivered by Lucky).[1]