Accidents Will Happen
Here we are at the end of March, temperatures all over the place again. It was half-heartedly sleeting Sunday morning, and - now - outside it is rainy again. If our plans had not gone ugly, at this very moment Jen and I would be whizzing through Kentucky on the way to St. Louis, dragging a loaded trailer, on our way to rendezvous with another friend coming from Oregon, likewise with a loaded trailer.
Alas, said friend suffered a freak accident within a few hours of her farm and she had to be rescued by strangers. After seeing the photographs of the wreck, it is hard to believe that anyone survived that wreck, let alone with only minor scrapes, but that is what happened.
Her rig jackknifed while descending a steep grade on a wet and icy road. An oncoming truck struck her with enough of a glancing blow to spin her around and put her on her side, wheel pointed out, on the other side of the highway! Two of my new horses were tossed from the back of the trailer, and they landed in a snowbank. The other two horses were trapped in the front, lying on their sides.
Suddenly my friend was surrounded with helping hands. Cars and trucks stopped all along the highway. The horses in the snow were rescued and they stood quietly as the other two were cut out of the trailer. Hands please, how many of you drive around with oxyacetylene welding kits in your back seat? How lucky is it that someone with a complete set stopped and immediately got to work to free the stallion and gelding from their prison?
Another traveler stopped and just happened to have an empty four-horse trailer hooked to his truck. A professional trainer of working cow horses, he was first amazed that our brilliant Davenports were standing quietly amidst all the chaos, and further surprised to discover that he lives only 20 minutes from a source of these grand horses. He kindly offered to transport all four of them back home. Those beauties not only walked straight onto his strange trailer after nearly being turned into horseburger, but rode like the champions they are all the way back home.
Now, with a totaled truck and trailer, my friend is regrouping in Oregon. Her horses still need to come to Virginia. And the ones here at home still need to head west. What might have been a fun spring break cross-country trip for us all is slowly morphing into multiple trips. Guess I didn’t mention that a mare and stallion sitting in Illinois and a gelding here all expect to be ferried to Nebraska as well. Health papers have a funny habit of expiring just when you really need just an extra day or week, so extra trips need to be made. It just remains to be seen when and exactly how far.
This is one of the problems for us horse breeders, we always need to move them around the country. Now, with the Internet, is seems like no distance is too great to get a horse that you didn’t even know existed but that is now vital to your breeding program. Twenty years ago I never would have contemplated partnerships with other breeders on the other side of the continent. Now it seems just silly not to do it.
In a few months this will all be worked out, mares will be bred for next year, geldings will be in training and probably already sold, and we will have some interesting memories to cherish. My friend is going to be eating out on her part of this adventure for some time yet to come!
And back here, in Appomattox, the new arrivals will be settling in and making next year’s foal crop.
Hi Pamela! I LOVED this article when I read it in the paper and have told MANY people about it. I discuss it with Quelle often, and tell her what a wonderful horse she is to be a Davenport. I smooched her face when I was putting the geese to bed tonight, and she began smooching me back, until suddenly I realized her nose area stinks! I’ll have to go back in the morning and look in the light to see why. Needless to say, I washed my face when I got inside! Anyway, thanks for an interesting story. SO grateful no serious injuries. Amazing.