Thank you to the angels that walk this earth

This week I received a call from a dear friend who had been traveling home from the Arabian Show in Arizona back to Colorado with her trainer and husband. It was about 3 AM Sunday when they hit black ice just before the climb up Raton Pass in New Mexico. Yes they checked the weather, yes they were going slow, yet they hit the worst feared thing black ice and high winds. The trailer jack knifed and the truck and trailer then slid off the I-25. The gooseneck detached but the chains held and the trailer went over, horse inside.

As I write it my eyes are welling up thinking I could have lost some dear friends that night. Fierce winds and windchill made it even worse. Once they exited the truck they had to check on the gelding inside. All the windows were blown out of the trailer, one in the truck, all the stall dividers unhinged and the mats flipped over the horse, who remarkedly was standing upright in the upside down trailer, covered in trailer parts. Still no one knows how he got untied, she ties with a safety knot but there he was untied, more angels we think!

What do you do? That area is spotty for cell phone service, but the angels were with them that night. It took three hours to get help to them. A truck driver stopped and gave them a flashlight (mistake #1 don’t keep all your stuff in the rig, you may not be able to get to it). They dared not remove the horse until another stock trailer was available to transport the horse to a safe haven for the night, all were worried about shock and possible injury. The owner climbed in through a broken window and soothed her beloved gelding until helped arrived using bonding techniques she had been working with, with him over the past few weeks. The tow rig drivers first thought was turn the rig upright with the horse inside (he has done many a tractor trailer), but the vote was remove the tack room and wall and try and back out the horse first. Thankfully the owner had been doing a lot of ground work with the gelding in the past months and this came in very handy to keep him calm in the trailer and in asking him to carefully back out.

Once he was out in the dark he appeared unharmed, unbelievable as it is to believe. Then another test, ask him to get in an old stock trailer filled with snow he has never been in before. Here again good ground work paid off and in the trailer in only a few minutes.

Arrangements had been made to transport the horse to a nearby ranch. The man in charge turned out to be another angel, along with the ranch owner, they provided shelter in a warm barn and looked the gelding over, he seemed unharmed. The owner spent the evening at the ranch and was welcomed by the owner the next morning. They are even transporting him back up to the front range this week.

I am so grateful no one was injured, I am so grateful for those angels that walk this earth.
Let’s also congratulate the gelding, he placed in every class in Arizona and he came back, along with his owner, a winner in so many ways! I love you my dear friend!

What am I doing to make sure I can be safer in my rig?
– getting a Spot Satellite Messenger I am not taking the chance that I will have cell service
– not traveling at night if I do not have to
– placing a bright yellow-orange bag of emergency cloths, water and food in my truck, NOT my rig

What am I doing to more with my horse?
– even though I do ground work with him, I am going to amp it up!

Linda P