LANSING — Could it be a fear of horses?

Buzz was rampant on Mackinac Island on Wednesday that Vice President Mike Pence plans to break with a century-old tradition barring motorized vehicles on Saturday and ride to the Grand Hotel aboard a Chevrolet Suburban SUV.

Pence is a scheduled speaker at this weekend's Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, held every other year on the island. He is the first sitting vice president to speak at the conference, first held in 1953.

Only one sitting president — the late Gerald Ford, who was raised in Grand Rapids — has visited Mackinac. But Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton have all gone to Mackinac either before they were elected president or after their terms in office were over. Like Ford, they got around by horse-drawn carriage.

Pence's purported break with precedent for island visitors comes just days after the vice president reportedly told House Republicans that during a 2018 visit to a Kentucky horse farm, Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh bit him so hard on the arm he "almost collapsed."

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Nobody would confirm Wednesday that the Secret Service had insisted on a motorized vehicle for Pence as a security measure. But nobody was denying it, either.

One local bar-restaurant manager, who spoke on condition he not be identified by name, said it's his understanding Pence will be using a Suburban already owned by the city and used as an emergency vehicle. Emergency vehicles, along with snowmobiles and snow plows, are about the only exceptions to the motorized vehicle ban.

"We do have them for certain purposes, and I understand why (a vice president's visit) would be one of them," the manager said.

Mackinac Island Mayor Margaret Doud did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The Michigan Republic Party, which is organizing the confab, has no information about the vice president's island transportation, party spokesman Tony Zammit said.

At the Grand Hotel, "as far as any transportation for the VP, I will have to refer you to the office of the vice president," spokeswoman Julie Rogers said.

"We don’t discuss the vice president’s security — I have to refer you to U.S. Secret Service," Darin Miller, a spokesman for Pence, said.

"For operational security reasons, the Secret Service cannot discuss specifically nor in general terms the means and methods we utilize to carry out our protective responsibilities," said Julia McMurray, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Secret Service.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.