search & rescue/kicking incident (LONG)

["Glenda R. Snodgrass" <grs@theneteffect.com>]

Lakota and I got to participate in our first search & rescue yesterday. 
Nothing nearly so dramatic as the downed airplane event that was posted
here a few months ago, but still more excitement than I wanted. 
Interestingly enough, it was a kicking incident almost identical to the
fictitious story Ramey Peticolas-Stroud wrote about in EN -- which I read
Friday night, less than 24 hrs before poor Jessica got whalloped.  Since
it is relevant to the recent discussion here, several people suggested I
post the story, so here goes: 

Saturday afternoon, three women from my barn were heading out on a trail
ride just as I arrived at the barn -- Rider1 and Rider2, very nice ladies
of intermediate skill riding obnoxious spoiled Arab geldings, and Jessica,
a sweet 16yo on a very sweet QH gelding named Chaos.  I waved them off,
and went to catch Lakota. 

About 45 minutes later, as I was crossing the road from the cotton field
to the corn field, I naturally looked both ways before crossing the road,
and saw R1 standing in the road, holding onto her horse's reins, not
heading towards the barn, rather just sort of milling about.  The other
two were not in sight.  I thought "uh-oh" and trotted over to R1 to find
out what the problem was.  She started out with "Glenda, I can't believe
this happened, he NEVER kicks!"  She said they were riding on the trails
in the woods behind the water tower, and Kicker got mad at Chaos and
kicked at him, but connected with Jessica's ankle instead.  Jessica's
ankle was hurting and so she & R2 stopped in the woods, while R1 ran out
for help.  She had flagged down a neighbor to go get help from our barn
(about 4-5 miles from where Jessica was resting). 

When I asked what I could do to help, she asked me to go tell Jessica & R2
that help was on the way, while she would wait on the road for the barn
people to arrive (since she had blown her pasture potato by running 2
miles for help, and he was now huffing pretty badly).  The trails that
they were on are really a labyrinth of 4-wheeler trails made over the last
few years, with lots of loops & twists & turns, and most of them are
impassable except by horse or 4-wheeler.  With a general idea of where
they were, Lakota and I took off at an easy canter to find the girls and
reassure them help was on the way.  When we found them, I was shocked to
see Jessica lying on the ground, pasty-white, eyes closed and barely
coherent, blood on her jeans and a bandanna tied 'round to staunch the
bleeding. She didn't just have a cut on her leg; judging by her condition
and the blood, I suspected it was broken, maybe badly.  I felt so
helpless!  So I gave her my water bottle (naturally they don't carry
things like that on the trail, even though it was 88 degrees out and this
was the hottest part of the day) and gave my police whistle to R2, in case
we had trouble finding them again.  After I saw Jessica, I realized she
would have to be carried out of there in a vehicle, and it would be tough
on those trails, impossible without a truck.  Since there were no other
trucks at my barn when I left except mine, I figured I would have to run
back to the barn and get it.  So I turned Lakota around and ran back out
of the woods.  Just as I reached the road, I saw a truck turning in.  It
was the neighbor R1 had flagged down; he'd gone to the barn for help and
there was a car coming behind him, but he had come too, since he had a
truck.  And this man was a complete stranger to us!  I was so grateful for
his help.  So I said, "Follow me, I'll lead you to them" and I turned
Lakota around again and took off running back down the same trail.  I was
so proud of him, running this rutted trail at a pretty fast canter with a
big pickup truck following 50 feet behind us -- when he had just run it
twice in the last 20 minutes -- no fussing, no spooking, just go-go-go.  I
was very proud of my no-nonsense little boy. 

So we reached the girls again, and this nice man put Jessica in the truck,
called her dad on his cellphone, and drove her to the hospital.  We
learned later that she had a "clean break" of the tibia just above the
ankle, underwent surgery to clean the wound out, and must spend 3 days in
the hospital while they monitor her for infection.  She has a full-leg cast
on, open at the bottom for treating the open wound, which she must wear at
least 6 weeks, at which point they'll put on a shorter cast and watch her
progress from there. 

I didn't see the actual incident of course, but was told that Kicker had
been acting up prior to the actual kick, pinning his ears and making bad
faces at Chaos, but his rider didn't discipline him in anyway, and was
taken by surprise when he kicked at Jessica & Chaos riding alongside on a
fairly wide part of the trail.  And this is definitely not the first time 
I've known that horse to kick out at another horse, though it's the first 
real "incident."

So, I learned several things this weekend:

1 - Watch out for those habitual kickers!  Don't even get close to them,
especially if the rider doesn't discipline them.  It's only a matter of
time before something really bad happens.  (And I'm sorry if that offends
anyone on Ridecamp, but I have to tell ya, I was pretty shaken up about
this, and really really mad that poor Jessica won't be able to ride for 2
months or more, and has to go through all this pain, and the expense and 
heartache her parents suffer, just because of an irresponsible horse owner.)

2 - Carry cellphones whenever possible, to call for help.

3 - If you have a minor riding with you, make sure you have some kind of 
medical consent form signed by minor's parents.  We had to contact 
Jessica's parents to meet her at the hospital in order to get treatment 
for her -- fortunately, they were next to a phone and could get there 
quickly.

So, that was our weekend. :(

Glenda & Lakota
Mobile, Alabama