Friday, June 15, 2001
FLOOD & HORSE UPDATE:
First let me tell everyone A HUGE THANKS that has called, come over TO
HELP, picked up “stinky flood laundry”, donated equipment, $$, food,
supplies, etc. We feel very loved and nurtured at this point. Total
strangers and friends alike have been wonderful to us in this stressful
time.
The first and saddest news is that Jedi’s body was sighted Wednesday. He
had floated about 8 miles downstream to just under the San Jacinto Bridge.
He was probably washed there late Friday nite, but was underwater until
sometime Tuesday or Wed. morning. Friends had harassed & beleaguered the
news media to keep up the search & that was what finally worked. Early
Thursday AM a fisherman called that had seen the number given on TV &
described what seemed to be Jedi there on the bank.
Another construction worker soon called & verified that report. I went to
the bank, but the Highway dept. had already removed the body. Sadly his
mane & tail remained & some body hair. As I was examining it, and still in
denial of perhaps it was another bay horse, I found his back hooves where
they had sloughed near by. Having been the one that trimmed this horse and
recently going over his passport markings, which included a striated hoof,
there was no more denying that this had been Jedi.
With great sadness this chapter of searching and a great horse’s life has
come to an end. Ironically, I had missed spotting him by air by less than
two hours on Wednesday. Stephanie & Lawrence Maynard had rented a
helicopter for me to do an air search on Wednesday aft. We flew over this
exact place & would have seen him at about 5:00, but the Hiway dept had
removed him sometime around 3:00. Perhaps it was better that way…. As quite
a bit of decomposition had occurred being under water all that time, & now
my memory is only of a beautiful, vibrant and spirited horse. His spirit
and fear of water contributed to his demise unfortunately. I just wonder if
he didn’t have a premonition his whole life that water would be his end. He
spooked at the shallowest of puddles, and almost killed me about a year ago
in a creek mishap where he exploded & thru himself sideways in the water,
kicking me in the forehead in the bargain.
As some of you probably already know, he was being led to safety by the
friends who were evacuating in Mark’s & my absence, (I was speaking at the
TETRA Convention in Belton TX). He was almost thru the deep water, but
spooked, jerked free & ran/swam back to our front driveway. There he found
a place slightly out of the current for around 1 hour or so. Finally the
waters raised and the current became stronger, and he was swept from the
west side under the bridge to the East side… lookers saw him appear briefly
and thought he might follow the path of another horse that was also swept
under the bridge but was able to make it to the East Frontage road and was
saved. However, he ended up in the wooded area just East of the bridge &
from there I’m assuming the current from another small creek swept him back
into the main current where he went downstream to the East to the bridge
where it eddied back to the south and he came to rest.
They actually were not sure which horse it was and did not tell me when I
arrived at 2:30 AM from Belton. It was not until late Saturday after a head
count over at Bridle Creek stables, (where we evacuate to) that it was
determined that he was the missing horse for sure.
Tilly, Plato and another 4 year old Arab, Whitefyre, had been left up in the
stalls under the house, but when the Fire Dept. made the volunteers evacuate
our home, they turned them out so they wud not be trapped in a stall if the
water came way up. Plato & Whitefyre stayed by the house, but for some
reason Tilly tried to go back to her pen in the East end of the big Arena.
There she was caught in that same bad current that goes under the bridge &
penned against the fence for several hours. She was still there when I
arrived & found out that there were horses at the house. Mark & I both
started swimming out to the house, but Mark’s bulk & shoulder injuries
forced him to turn back. I barely made it to the house, found Plato and
Whitefyre huddling on the N. side (out of the current), but there was no way
I cud reach Tilly because of the current between her & me. Eventually the
height of the water & current freed her from the fence, but we still don’t
know if she survived as her nor her body has been accounted for as of yet.
For the rest of the nite I brought all of our saddles, (close to 40) up on
our deck. This was done two at a time by floating them in a tub from the
tack room, thru the bunk house & out thru a window as all but one door was
jammed shut by the current. When the rising water started threatening Plato
(the pony), about 7:30 Sat. AM, I moved both of them to the first landing on
our front deck. There they were a great spectacle for the bridge crowd &
the news media & were a leader for the news casts for almost a day.
Jedi will be sorely missed, by not only our immediate family, but also many,
many riders who chose him as their favorite mount during their trail rides
out here. After racking up over 2000 competition miles, the bridesmaid had
finally risen to the top, as he was on the long list for the Pan American
Championship this coming August. His registered name was Bronze Star, and
besides Jedi, was also known as Hoppi in Missouri. Karen Beason, after
tiring of numerous spook/buck offs, had sent him to us back in 1994 I
believe. She and Doc Baldwin (who was a special fan of his), always
delighted in my stories of how he NEVER QUIT bucking or spooking, and were
happy that he was making such a great endurance mount.
Now, the cleaning, power washing, sand moving, rearranging & arranging goes
on. I should be doing that now, but I knew everyone was waiting for some
kind of word on this great little horse.
Anyone that is close, is obviously welcome to come join in this clean up
fun, and once again, thanks to all of you for your support and comfort
during this time.
WE AIN”T down yet….. just feeling like drown rats.
Darolyn Butler-Dial & Mark Dial (COWBOY)
CYPRESS TRAILS EQUESTRIAN CENTER & HORSEMAN VIDEO SHOWCASE
Proven Endurance Horses for Sale or Lease.
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