[RC] Thank you everyone!!My Desert Odyssey (long) - Dawn Simas
Wow, where do I begin... The last 36 hours
seem like they were a dream, it was all so surreal. I got home late last
night, physically and emotionally exhausted. My cell phone had died, so
this is the first opportunity I have had to finally catch everyone up on my
"adventure in the desert".
Amigo was at a ranch in Las Vegas this
summer. I drove down to pick him up, rode some great trails in the area,
and we camped near Tonopah on the way back for the night. I set up my camp
the way I always have for years. Amigo was a bit anxious, I think he
thought it was an endurance ride, but where was everyone? Or maybe there
was mustangs in the distance and he caught wind of them in the dark. But
he was pacing and grabbing at his hay and looking south and neighing in that
direction as we went to bed. I have a steel portable corral, so I tried
not to worry.
At 12:30am, my mom woke up to the sound of a
winnie, but far away. She checked on him to see if it was mustangs
approaching and Amigo was gone, the corral open. We were in an overnight
area of a rest area. There was one other camper that arrived late, and I
feared that they were tired of the noise and let him out. Or he figured
out how to open it. Either way, panic set in, I couldn't believe it.
GONE into the darkness.
There was a fence surrounding the large rest
area. I tracked his prints to the fenceline near the highway and the fence
was down to about 2' off the ground, and the footprints continued on the other
side down the shoulder of the highway, a major trucking thoroughfare. I
called 911.
It was so remote, I couldn't believe that my cell
actually worked. :) But it took the deputy an hour to arrive because
he covers 2000 square miles himself. :( He and I drove up and down
the highway, the only road, and would stop every 100 yards or so and find
prints. He was galloping on the shoulder, sometimes the pavement, on a
mission. Other campers said they heard him go by them, still neighing,
they thought he was a wild horse. He was on a mission, making a beeline
for somewhere. I don't know why. I couldn't believe that nobody
called in a 911, everyone that drove by him was seeing this specter on the
highway in their lights I'm sure. Maybe they just thought he was
wild. The deputy was so comforting, helped me until about 4am, until he
took me back to my camp, horseless. There is a fence about 100 yards back
on either side of the highway to keep livestock out. He said he felt
comfortable that somehow he'd breeched it and was now on open range, but at
least was safe from traffic. That of course is his priority. As I
sat in that cruiser for hours, I was waiting for a dispatch about a horse being
struck by a semi...my head was spinning, thinking of that scene from the opening
of Horse Whisperer.
He said to call BLM in the morning and try to get
access and help to track him from where we lost the prints. My blackberry
phone battery was getting low. I didn't have a charger (it lasts for a
week, and I didn't plan on being on the phone for hours and using it up).
I could still send emails, they use much less energy on the phone. Thank
goodness for that. I typed an email to several people before I went to
bed, asking for help and to spread the word. It's not like a normal
missing horse, telling people his description, flyers, etc, really weren't the
concern, tracking him was. He was in open land with no people for hundreds
of miles. And his coloring (buckskin paint) blended right in with the sage
speckled landscape. Needle in a haystack. And the way he was clearly
"gettin' up and goin' somewhere", he could cover 50-100 miles in any direction
fast. As a SAR member, I know that the colder a trail gets, the less the
odds of finding him. I needed a way to track him. There are no
roads, even quads would have trouble with the terrain in the arroyos.
Horseback was the best. Following those tracks at a trot on horseback in
the next 24 hours really was my only chance of finding him. But if I
had to, I would start out on foot and spend a week out there!
Within 2 hours of sunrise, after 2 hours of sleep,
it was amazing the response I got. The ranch that Amigo had been at (thank
you Matt!), the ranch that ran cattle on the BLM land, my Dad's friends (he
lives in Fallon, NV), all cowboys, were willing to call in sick to their paying
jobs and load up their horses and drive 5-6 hours to me. The Western
States Trail Foundation friends were going to chip in $$ to send a plane over to
search from the air (thank you Marc and Bill!). It brought tears to my
eyes the response, many people I didn't even know. Advice was pouring in
via email from Ridecampers (thank you *all* of you!) that was helping us
immensely. I called Net Posse and started that process going. My dad
had the media involved.
You know, right about when you think people in this
culture today are getting so bad with the "me" mentality, this completely
redeemed my opinion. People are awesome, I could never do this alone, and
it was so comforting and heartwarming. I was humbled immensely.
Americans are the most generous people when someone is facing an
emergency.
My church group dropped everything they were doing
(thank you Kathie!) and were praying for me, unbeknownst to me. At
that same exact hour, we were driving to go meet up with the BLM and the sheriff
and driving past an area we'd already searched for hours, and there he
was. Like a beautiful ghost with his long mane and tail. He just
appeared out of nowhere. He was on the other side of the livestock fence,
like we suspected, and Mom spotted him as I was driving. We were 1/4 mile
away, but he heard "his" truck and started screaming like a stallion and running
across the desert to the fenceline. I was running to him with tears in my
eyes, it was like a sappy love story! I crawled through the fence to him
and he nuzzled and nickered thank yous to me, I think he'd have crawled in my
lap if he could. He had covered many miles and was covered in
blood on his chest and front legs. He must have busted through the 2nd
barbed wire fence (to get to BLM land). I could not get him back to the
trailer without cutting the fence, not knowing where he came through. I
called BLM to ask for help and started walking down the fenceline with him, my
big wounded "puppy horse". After a mile or two, I found a gate that I was
able to unlock and Mom drove the rig to us (she never drives it, thank you
Mom!).
I asked where the nearest horse vet was...175 miles
to Fallon. Off we went. When we got there, the vet was in Yerington
and wouldn't be back for hours. A dog vet dispensed treatment, but I must
say, I didn't agree with him. He said *not* to clean the wounds, just
spray with Scarlet Oil 3x a day, and he sold me antibiotics, and told me to give
him bute (I had some). Amigo was a mess, so I gave him the bute and
antibiotics and sprayed with Scarlet Oil, paid the $160 bill, and drove to Reno
for a 2nd opinion. They were *wonderful* there! They said Scarlet
Oil can promote proudflesh and recommended against it. The dosage for the
antibiotics was for too long, he sold me 400 pills, they said I
would only need 125-175. And he had prescribed double the bute dosage they
recommended, unless of course if he appeared in more pain later. They did
a complete scrub with betadine and cleaned him and the wounds up, trimmed some
of the flaps of flesh, shaved all the fur back, and dressed with triple
antibiotic cream. Amigo was so happy, he about slept through the painful
treatment for the 45 minutes inside the surgery center, I think he was exhausted
also. They didn't even need to sedate him or use any lidocaine. They
think it was mustangs that lured him. And that he may have even gotten
into a fight by some of the wounds. He would have made a mustang
blunder and come running up to the herd screaming a greeting like a dork, no
stud would have stood for that.
They charged me $50 total. I am so
disappointed in the wasted $$ at the first vet, money is very tight for
me. Of course I cannot return all these antibiotics, he had even charged
me a $36.50 "office call" and he did NOTHING to my horse, just sold me the drugs
and told me what to do. *sigh* But, I got off cheap considering how
much worse this all could have been, so I'm trying not to be bitter about
that.
If anyone needs any Tribrissen Tabs 960mg, I have
about 250 I hate to go to waste. I'll give you a deal below cost...
:)
This is his Photo Album, go to the last 6
added... None of these could be stitched because they were too old by the
time I got him there. So, I will be doctoring for a while, may have to
fight a bit of proudflesh, but people have given me many suggestions on that, so
I think he will only have a few scars and be just fine.
One note I want to share. Like I always do, I
got a health cert/coggins for the travel. I have spent tons on these over
the years and only been asked for one once, from the OR border station. On
this trip, I went through the entire state of NV in a CA rig twice, spent the
evening with a sheriff about my horse, saw two vets for treatment of my horse,
and was asked at the border station into CA where my horse was from, and NOT ONE
asked for the paperwork. Sheesh!!
It all seems like a dream. I cannot thank
everyone enough for the advice, offers to help, and just plain comfort.
Which is truly priceless when you are so devastated and scared.
