For Roy Snelson, it's the difference between buying a bag of grain or splurging on gallons of gas. At least once a week, he saddles up his horses and rides them to and from work.

“It's a four-hour ride. It gets a little old so I can't do it all the time.”

It's 13 miles each way.

“With the price of gas and what's happening to the economy, we’re going to have to do something.”

That's where Rusty and Twister (“That's what I call my spare tire.”) come in handy. Snelson’s boss made him a stable and gave him a little perk.

“The university made me my special permit so I could keep him here.”

All this helps this would-be cowboy save a few bucks on transportation costs.

“A tank of gas now is what?”

Instead of filling up his car with $4-a-gallon fuel, Snelson feeds his horses an $8 bag of grain that lasts a whole week.

“It doesn't seem like that much but you’ve got to run around too, so, if you're coming to work, at least you can ride around a little bit.”

Snelson says there are other perks to this form of horsepower: “Exercise for me and the horses.”

Snelson says it's not so much about saving money on gas as it is the principle of not wanting to pay for it.

“It's the point. If people don't watch what's happening, this is what everybody is going to be doing.”

Snelson works as a plumber for Missouri University of Science and Technology. With the four-hour commute, he has to leave at 4 a.m. to get to work on time. But, with all his vacation time stored up, he's used some of that to wake up a little later.