Longtime racetrack worker and paraplegic Rodney Burnett on April 28 will begin a planned 2,500-mile cross-country trip from Williston, Fla., to the West Coast in a specially built covered wagon. Pulled by a team of Morgan horses, Burnett, paralyzed from the chest down since a 1992 motorcycle accident, estimates the trip will require six months. He plans to stop at racetracks and rehabilitation centers along the way and dreams that he will be met in California by at least 1,000 other paraplegics in wheelchairs.

Rodney Burnett in his specially built wagon pulled by his two Morgan Horses, Jonas and King Regent, stop during a practice run near their Williston, FL Home.
Photo: America of Chaplaincy Track Race Courtesy

“When I got hurt, all I heard was doctors telling me what I couldn’t do,” said Burnett, 51. “If this trip can get one person well who the doctors told would never work again, then it will be worth whatever it takes.”

Operating under the nonprofit corporation Ladder H. Farms, Burnett wants to raise awareness and funds for backstretch workers through the Race Track Chaplaincy of America, stem cell research through the Paralysis Project of America, and fund a therapeutic riding center in Ocala, Fla