Ridecamp: [RC] Tedd's "Frantic" ride in the mid 80's

Sue wrote:<<<<Back in the mid-80's at one of Teddy's Frantic rides, Bill
Wilson and his
horse  got washed down the river while crossing.  The Corps of Engineers had
not received the message NOT to open the flood gates.  I think Bill's horse
got caught in a submerged log or something.  Pretty scary for a while, but
both Bill and his horse came out of it OK.>>>>

I was at this ride, also.  Brian Weaver and I were on two of Wayne McMinn's
Rushcreek mares and were the first ones to the river.  Brian tried to get RC
Nancy to cross and couldn't.  I tired with RC Joan and she would start to
swim and then pull me toward a pile of brush in the middle of the creek
instead of going to the other bank.  It really wasn't too far across, but
the banks were steep and the water was over their heads in seconds. There
was no current, but it was cold and deep.

Bill Wilson came along and plunged in and his horse just flipped out and
floundered around.  Bill bailed off and ended up on the other side of the
creek and Brian jumped in and held the horse's head above water and got it
to back to the same bank we were on.  I will never forget the look on
Brian's face - it was sheer terror- and from a man who never seemed afraid
of anything...I am sure that horse would have drown if he was not there.
And mind you, this was in April in OH - it was COLD!  I had just broken a
couple ribs the week before and being in that water really hurt!

We now had Bill's horse on the first side of the creek and Bill was on the
far side, so I was going to tie him to a tree and Bill told me to let him go
and he would just go back to ridecamp - so we did, and HE did!  It never
occured to me what people would think when Bill's horse came back without
him!

Brian ended up getting Nancy across and about that time Teddy came by and
told us to go around.  I ended up catching Jeannie Miller who won the ride,
who had just jumped in and just swam across, and ended up second and BC.

I grew up on the shores of Lake Erie in NY - we swam our horses all the
time, and went to college on a swimming scholarship, so I was no stranger to
water or swimming horses, but poor RC Joan just couldn't get across that
river, and Bill's horse had NO apptitude for swimming.  I am sure he would
have drown if Brian had not jumped in and held his head up.  The funniest
part was, as we stood there at that creek, several riders came along, jumped
in and went across just as easy as pie.  Very Odd.

Laura Hayes AERC # 2741



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