Re: I-81 runaway?

["Dyane Smith" <sunibey@sisqtel.net>]

Bobbie,
A riveting and terrifying story!  How do you secure your horses to avoid
this sort of thing?  Double tie like Teddy or something else?
Dyane
N. Ca

----- Original Message -----
From: Roberta Jo Lieberman <woik@home.com>
To: Dyane Smith <sunibey@sisqtel.net>; <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Friday, November 05, 1999 11:11 AM
Subject: Re: I-81 runaway?


> Dyane Smith wrote:
> > What was the great Rockbridge I-81 runaway?
>
> Teddy wrote:
> <<Several horses got out of their electric corrals in the night and
> ended up on
> I-81.  ALWAYS a busy highway.  Several were badly injured.  Bobbie has
better
> memories - I was lucky and had my stallion tied to trailer with a
neckrope.>>
>
> They had a 50 on Sat. and a 25 on Sunday...so as the fifties were
> wrapping up their ride, the 25s were rolling in. Some new horses had
> arrived and set up camp right next to our portable corrals. One of the
> horses seemed agitated, running around his pen chasing his friend. I
> wasn't too happy about it, but didn't speak up.
>
> We were awakened from our snug reveries at 2 a.m. by crashing
> sounds...like a war zone. The gray had apparently broken out, jumped
> over a tent and through our corrals, then headed up to the main part of
> camp, taking about a dozen or more horses with him. Gathering speed and
> volume like a tornado, the runaways headed down the road and funneled
> right onto the entrance ramp of one of the busiest truck highways in the
> East -- I-81! We took off after them on foot with a lantern, but soon
> realized from the footprints that we needed reinforcements -- they had
> gone onto the highway!
>
> One group went north and one went south...never did figure that one out!
> (50s and LDers? joke!) I hooked up with a State Trooper and we drove up
> and down a 10-mile stretch of interstate for what seemed like
> hours...there were horses everywhere -- truckers had stopped and were
> holding them by the side of the road... (fortunately, most truckers were
> alerted to the horses by their CB radios but like Teddy said, this
> highway is BUSY at all hours of the day and night)... other riders were
> out there, rounding up their horses. It was a free-for-all. One mare,
> who had just finished the 50, went the furthest -- all the way down to
> the next exit 12 miles away and then another couple miles down the road
> before she was caught. Talk about endurance! She needed stitches in one
> leg but was okay, I believe. The horse who started it all ripped open
> his stifle...it was pretty ugly.
>
> Still no sign of Fine Print!! I finally came back to camp and tried to
> sleep until dawn before resuming the search. My friends' horses had been
> quickly found near camp. I prayed...and when the sun came up, we found
> her in a grove not far from camp with two other missing horses. She
> hadn't gone onto the highway...smart girl!
>
> It was nothing short of a miracle that no horses were killed in this
> frightful episode. Sure taught me a lesson: make sure your horse is
> secure, and if you have any doubts, act on them.
>
> Bobbie in So. Calif.
>


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