Vehicles are a hobby for many men, but for 82-year-old Jim Aker, horse-drawn buggies are it.

There’s no mistaking that driving a horse and buggy in modern times will draw attention. And that’s fine with the lifetime Kalispell resident.

“You know these kids with their big, high, jacked-up trucks and big power, that’s the same thing with us — only with horse. There’s just something about it,” Aker said.

When Aker drives out in his antique 1890 black-top buggy people look, take pictures and ask questions. This particular buggy he refers to as a doctor’s buggy.

“The doctors used to rent them from the stables to go visit people,” Aker said.

He lives south of town on property that was originally bought by his father to keep their horses.

“Dad loved horses. That’s why we have this place right here. I had the horses but he finally ended up buying the piece of land here to keep them on. These foothills up here,” Aker said, pointing behind his house, “I don’t think there’s a tree up here that I haven’t been next to on a horse. I just spent all my time as a kid up there ridin’ my horse.”

His father, Jim, moved to Montana in 1907, and his mother, Vi, in 1929, “a newcomer,” Aker said with a smile.

“I was born here. I can show you the house I was born in and almost all of them since. You know the building on Second Avenue West? There’s an old church there and there was a parsonage right next to it and that used to be a maternity home. That’s the house I was born in,” Aker said.

Aker graduated from Flathead High School in 1950 and was drafted into the Army in 1952 during the Korean War.

“I didn’t like it, but I was lucky and I was shipped to Europe instead of Korea, so I had a good trip,” Aker said. “I was stationed in France but we traveled I saw England, Ireland, Denmark, Holland, Germany.”

After serving, he “came back home and settled in.”

Aker worked as a meat cutter for 30 years, but it was his job of nine and-a-half years as a telegrapher on the railroad that that still captures his interest and that of one of his grandsons.

“The main dispatcher was in Whitefish and he told the trains where to go. You know, Morse code. These telegraphers would have to take the message and hand them to the engineer and the conductor on the train so they knew where to go. This was before radio. I just loved the railroad.”

His house was built on the property next to a dairy farm in 1961. Although the dairy farm is no longer there, and there are a few more houses, he still has room for his two buggies, his 15-year-old horse Yoder and Yoder’s donkey companion, Clark.

On a drizzly morning March 31, Aker went out to the stable where he stores his buggies. Clark and Yoder were nearby. At the sight of Aker, Clark brayed — a sound that starts off like a quick honk of a car horn, turns into wheezy gasps and then the familiar “hee-haw.”

“There’s no way that you can’t smile when you hear that,” Aker said. “Hey Clark,”

Yoder, chestnut brown in color with a dash of white on his forehead, walked up. His disposition was calm and sweet.

“Oh, he’s a nice horse. He’s probably the best horse I’ve ever had and I’ve had horses since 1947,” Aker said.

Aker bought Yoder from the Amish five years ago. The Amish had bought Yoder, a solid standardbred, from a racetrack in Canada where he was being trained for harness racing but was too slow.

“Racing is not my thing. I just enjoy going down the road. Now, he’s just a beautiful, perfect, driving horse. I can’t fault him. He does everything perfect. I can drive him in town; he waits for traffic lights,” Aker said.

Behind his doctor’s buggy is what he refers to as a “competition vehicle.”

“It’s got hydraulic brakes, the wheels turn completely under it. It’s very safe. It’s all new. It’s probably the one I should be driving,” Aker said.

Inside his house, a black-and-white photo of historic downtown Kalispell shows people driving horses and buggies down a wide dirt road. Miniature buggies are on display around the living room. The oldest one he owns is an antique salesman’s sample.

Family photos completely cover another wall and are underneath the glass of his coffee table. Aker has three grown children and four grandchildren.

His youngest daughter is the reason Aker started driving in 1972-73. Before then, he rode saddle horses. One day he asked his daughter if she wanted a horse like her two siblings. She wanted a donkey instead.

“So we finally found a donkey for her and I hired a guy to break it to a cart, but she was never very interested in it,” Aker said. “That got me started then.”

He took some classes and seminars and from there bought a team of Percherons, draft horses with French origins. Aker was hooked.

“Since I’ve started driving I just gave up riding. I haven’t ridden a horse for 10 years,” Aker said.

Aker soon became the owner of a covered wagon. He joined a small group of other covered-wagon enthusiasts who would drive wagon trains in Pablo and Ronan and camp on the reservation. They also participated in plenty of parades.

“I’m about the last one around still doing anything with horses,” Aker said.

Now, Aker does what he can to help others get started in driving horses. Driving is not so simple and there are accidents.

“I have a friend down in Somers who is breaking a team of Belgians. He and I had an awful wreck here last summer — tipped the cart three quarters over. He fell on top of me and bent the metal frame. Yes, we’ve had some accidents. I’ve had accidents with my team — see the picture there,” Aker said, pointing. “That day I had a wreck just after that picture was taken. It happens, but it hasn’t killed me. I’m 82 years old.”

And he’s always up for driving people around.

“It’s just fun,” Aker said. “I’ll keep doing it as long as I can.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson can be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.