04/06/2019
I'm so appreciative of everyone that has chosen to support me this week...my heart is so full :) I took a poll on Instagram to see what college animal job you wanted to hear about...and the winner was Horse Camp at the YMCA! Of course there's so many stories that happened over that summer, and so many friendships, but there's one story that has helped me throughout my career in animal welfare.
I was a horse wrangler for the YMCA and we frequently allowed kids from the camp to take a trail ride during their week at camp even if they weren't in the horse camp. One week I lead a group of about 10 children from another country visiting who did not speak English very well (it's been awhile forgive me for forgetting the country!) I had me leading in front on my favorite horse, and one trainee wrangler in the back to keep all the horses moving in line. Unfortunately, earlier that week I had a few broken toes from being stepped on by a horse and was riding with one foot that was just in a wrap and too swollen for a boot...but a simple trail ride was pretty easy. I had one girl who was terrified of horses, but her friends convinced her to go on the trail ride and I placed her on the most reliable, bomb-proof horse possible behind me in line. We were set to go! Halfway down the trail a tree collapsed nearby in the woods...horses are flight creatures and naturally our horses bolted forward. My horse reared off the ground and bolted forward, but I pulled him back quickly and got him to calm down enough to turn around and see the line of 10 other horses rushing towards us. The poor girl terrified of horses stayed on our reliable "Cinnamon" who stopped right behind my horse so quickly the others just slammed into his hind end...for that I will love Cinnamon forever because he was a mountain to these other horses. But fear immediately came over me when I saw at least 3 children in the dirt, and multiple horses in a nearby field. We had radios, but the woods would not transmit back to the barn. My trainee couldn't get her horse under control and froze terrified. The children didn't understand English enough to communicate what to do with their horses to get them to calm down and stop wandering off the trail. I ran my horse back to the trainee and grabbed the safety pack from her horse's saddle, immediately got off, and went to the one girl I hadn't seen move yet. The girl was conscious, I stabilized her, and thank god nothing was broken that I could see. She was in a lot of pain. I got the other children back in their saddles with minimal injuries. I went back to this girl who was crying and screaming in pain. I tried the radio so many times...if I move her and she has a severe injury to the back or neck it could be dangerous. Time is essential and I gave the girl's horse to my trainee to tie to her own horse who had calmed down. I advised the trainee to turn the other horses around. I am not strong by any means, and I already have multiple broken toes, but my goodness did I lift this girl onto my own horse because it would be the quickest way back. I walked that girl and lead the entire group back, a quarter mile away from the barn my manager came galloping down the trail on his own horse saying they could only hear parts of what I was saying in the radio, but knew I needed medical. I told him what happened and continued to walk the girl the entire way back to the barn, carried her off the horse to the nurses waiting on site, gave my horse to one of the other wranglers waiting to assist with all the children and horses. Then and only then did I let myself go to the tack room and break down. I can't really say the amount of fear that happened when I felt these children were in danger...I've been in danger with animals plenty of times. It was overwhelming, and I had to take action for those children. I learned that day what I was capable of in stressful emergency environments, the pain I could endure to help others, and of course how incredible a connection with the animal you're working with is. Without that connection with my favorite horse I couldn't have calmed him down, taken control of the situation, and been able to have him carry that injured girl to a safe place.
P.S. Horses are my favorite animal but I can get into that reason in a future post :)
