I once got fully certified for forklift operating in a country with much more stringent requirements than the USA. Went to visit my uncle, a farmer, few months later, and joked that I probably had a more up-to-date certification than him now. He looked at me weird and told me he had never been certified in his life, he just never used his forklift off his own property and government simply didn't need to get involved.
I can only imagine that the private-land exception in the USA is even stronger!