On Friday, Sept. 4th, I was headed out on the trail with some friends on my trusty horse.
No helmet, (like an idiot) and so ready to enjoy a few days off, camping in the National Forest and riding Jake Mt. We decided to head for the big waterfall over by Camp Merrill . We hadn’t been there in a long time and the trails we were used to using had a lot of down fall, but after stopping for lunch and cinching up again we found a great trail and took off in anticipation of seeing the falls. We had only gone a short distance when my horse got caught in a vine. No big deal, Fancy handles everything with ease……..but one of our group got excited and started yelling and my dog, Bodhi who is usually wonderful on the trails started barking and biting at Fancy’s heels. I don’t know what happened next, she lost her footing and we went tumbling down the side of the mountain, end over end…….I was really stunned and the dog chased Fancy. Everyone was concerned about me and Fancy was so scared, she took off. Blood was running down my back from what turned out to be a small gash (concussion) and Juls was trying to stop the blood. Lynn started trying to figure out how they were going to ride double and get me out of the forest. I was well enough off to tell her that I wasn’t going anywhere. Lynn took off for the Ranger camp to get help and Juls gave me a Tylenol as I told her that my jaw felt broken. In a short time, a wonderful young man showed up and started taking charge. Bobby and I both found ourselves as we drove the gravel roads, thinking she would be standing there around every bend….she wasn’t. As I was coming down 77 for the 10th time, my phone rang. I quickly stopped so as not to lose service. This lady identified herself as Sharon . She told me I would think she was nuts, but that she helps with crime cases and gets images from murdered people and is spiritual and a horse owner. She had
Fancy’s picture up on the net and she was feeling my pain and distress and wanted to help me. She felt Fancy was communicating with her. Fancy is not a theft victim, she is okay. She assured me that I was going to find her. We talked about how the picture was confusing Sharon because Fancy has a black saddle on in the picture and Sharon was seeing a saddle with a black suede seat, but lots of silver and lighter oil tooling….she described my barrel saddle perfectly. She teased me that she was seeing a pack of Kools hidden in the bottom of my black saddle bags, the kind with the Velcro closures. She said Fancy was hurting from the cinch being so tight and sweating. I had just cinched up before the accident! She told me to look NW of the scene..she was seeing Fancy near a lake and said she wasn’t moving around and had just had a good drink of water. She was feeling distress from Daniel and all my loving concerned friends kept breaking into her images and confusing her. Who the heck is Daniel? I told her there was a lake behind Camp Merrill and thanks to my truck, I knew it was NW of the falls. I took off for the lake. I lost cell connection, but had her number. I walked all around that lake, down in gullies, roamed the woods carrying the food bucket and lead rope and halter. Nothing.
it was clouding up and getting chilly. I went back to the base of the trail to the waterfall and parked the truck and got out with my mangy old cowboy hat and rain jacket and decided to walk the trail again. I kept calling Fancy, trying to whistle and shaking the bucket. Bobby kept trying to call to ORDER me to come home. My jaw was aching, my neck hurt and I was getting shaky and cold. When I got to the waterfall, I sat down to rest and cry. I was losing hope. What was I doing listening to this woman? I was thinking about a conversation Pete and I had a few weeks ago. We talked about how people who are good with horses are most often very spiritual people. Horses are spiritual. I had a good cry, put my jacket on because it was sprinkling. The sun was shining full blast, but it was raining and thundering. The waterfall seemed to be roaring with the thunder and I needed to get back to the truck. I had a cold bit of coffee left and it sounded good.
Slowly I walked back, really down and the thoughts of how my awesome horse had given me so many good memories….she always did me up proud in the show arena on Saturday and out on the trails on Sunday. I remembered how strong and independent she had always been and how I loved to tear down the trails feeling her smooth gait under me and the exhilaration of her energy, the places she had taken me, the day I finally found her “sweet spot”, how much she is like my Poco was. The love I felt the day Bobby got her for us and how we tore around the bottoms for two weeks after I got her and had to rest before I could go any farther. It started to rain really hard and my phone suddenly rang again, I stopped in my tracks so I wouldn’t lose the call, it was Sharon again.
She asked me if there were any other lakes around, longer than wide, not man-made,
jagged edges and a field on the NW side of the lake. Not that I knew of.
Coming out of the forest, the rain was coming down sideways and the lightning was prolific and Fancy was out in it.
When I got home, Chris and Karen were at the house. We got on Google maps and found two lakes just north of the Camp gate and the aerial maps showed a field on the left side of one! Sharon said it looked like she was close to some buildings maybe on private property and the map showed rooftops near the one farthest one north! Karen got on the net and sent more pictures of Fancy out. Bobby and Chris printed the maps. I was ready to head out. Bobby blew up, no way! We decided instead to go to Fuego’s and eat and I could get some chicken soup. Their positive attitudes and hugs felt good. I was so wound up and stressed out and wet and dirty. We got home about 9:30 and it had quit raining.
Betty had called again, so had Donna, Debbe and Juls. In fact I had 18 voice mails.
Thank you for all your love y’all. I e-mailed Sharon about finding the lakes and she said she would meet me in Dawsonville on Thursday morning and we would go to work again. I offered to pay her and she was not happy with that.
Bobby went to work Thursday morning and Sharon and I met at the bank and headed for the lakes. Bobby met us at the farthest lake. It turned out to be on Hidden Lake Rd. and it was some kind of school property. We found the field, we walked, we yelled . I shook the bucket nothing. We went to the second lake, we walked, we called for her nothing.
We drove up every drive off the road and finally realized she could not be this far because we saw endless barbed wired blocking her most likely route from the camp landing strip to this area.
We went back to behind the camp and found an area where the Rangers do all kinds of training. We thought we saw prints in the dirt. We called for her. Nothing. We drove out onto the landing strip. All of a sudden Sharon said her right foot was hurting. As we drove, she said we needed to go back….the pain was easing. Fancy is hurting, her right foot is sore. Sharon was feeling Fancy’s pain. She wanted me to take her to the place it had all happened. As we started up the road, a truck was coming at us and I was worried whether there was room for both of us. The truck did make it past us and then skidded to a stop in the gravel. The driver was yelling “We found your horse!”.
They had spied the Parelli logo on my front license plate holder and knew it had to be me searching for her. A young gal dressed in Crocs and camouflage got out of the truck holding Fancy’s bridle and bit! Laura had laid out of work that day to go fishing with her Dad and a friend. They were looking for a pool at the base of the falls and looked down stream and saw her standing there! She let them take the bridle off and pet her and pull her some grass, but bolted if they tried to confine her.
Laura was leading us right back where I had been the day before…to the waterfall.
Sharon could hardly walk for the intensity of the pain in her heel, but this time it was easing as we got closer. And then there she was..standing next to a long pool of water on the northwest side of the falls. She had to have bolted in fear to get there. Lots of downfall and mountain laurel were kind of a natural barrier protecting her. She had been seriously eating a tree. There was at least 3 days of manure around her. She smelled so good and felt so soft. She buried her head in my chest, spied the bucket and sunk her head in. My saddle was soaked, but sitting straight up on her back. She had some swelling on her belly from the tight girth and the saddle bags and breast collar were still in place.
she’s got some scrapes and cuts, but nothing bad. Sharon said Fancy’s first thoughts were“What took you so long?” Getting her out of her spot was not easy. So much for the theory that she would stick to the trails. She was was way off the trail and I had in fact walked right by her the day before and didn’t see her. One of her boots was still on and her right front foot was really sore from the rubbing and wet yuk trapped in the boot. We led her down the trail and all I could do was shake and cry. It was finally over, Fancy is home.
We had cell reception in just one spot and I called Bobby. Bring the trailer!! His voice was wobbly as we told him where we were.
As we walked down the road behind the Camp, all the guys came out yelling hurrah, petting Fancy and hugging me. One young man picked me up and hugged me and I had to tell him, careful about my jaw. I thanked them all, but asked the name of my “hugger”.
You guessed it, it was Daniel. Seems he was the one that carried me out of the forest on Friday night. He said I made him feel like a hero. Cute kid, the Daniel Sharon was sensing. Robin and Mitch showed up and we loaded her up. She was ravenous after the grass. We got her home, cleaned her up, doctored her foot and turned her out in the pasture. All was well again, Fancy is home.
I learned so much from all this. Wear your helmet. Never give up. Friends are so precious. Horse people are extra special people. It’s okay to be spiritual and maybe we need to listen to those spiritual voices more often. Don’t shut them out or laugh at them.
Sharon and I were total strangers until last Wednesday. Tonight she is so much a part of me. She has a horse too. She wants to learn natural horsemanship….we gotta get her to Petes. She didn’t have to help me, she didn’t even know me.
As Sharon went to leave last night, she asked me if I knew someone by the name of Jamie and if I did, I needed to call him more often, he misses me. Jamie is my little brother . J
So many people came to be there for me. I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for all the help and love I received in these last very long days and nights.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.
Sandy Stephenson
