{"id":354,"date":"2012-03-28T09:44:09","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T09:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/?page_id=354"},"modified":"2016-08-19T23:52:41","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T23:52:41","slug":"a-horse-named-crash","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/?page_id=354","title":{"rendered":"A horse named Crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

How I got a horse named Crash.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It all began with a Craigslist ad for a gold champagne TWH gelding in Quakertown that I saw Saturday morning.\u00a0 Now, I’m not fond of that yellow color, nor am I fond of geldings, but something about this horse struck me.\u00a0 I viewed the videos and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this little bitty horse cranking out some speed and having a high ol’ time while doing it.\u00a0 My, oh my.\u00a0 I was intrigued.<\/p>\n

The ad stated very clearly that the horse would be sold with an agreement not to be brokered or sent to auction.\u00a0 (Whatever)\u00a0 I always get a kick out of how people want to tell you what to do with your pets.\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong, I am in total agreement that a pet should be cared for but if she cared so much about where he ended up, then she certainly shouldn’t be selling him.\u00a0 The ad also stated that his price was reduced because she had found a replacement horse and was picking it up on Monday the 25th of October and needed his stall for her new horse.<\/p>\n

Okay, the negotiator in me rose to the surface and began clamoring for attention.<\/p>\n

I had some emails with her, talked about his background and why she didn’t like him (oh, for all the reasons I did like him.)\u00a0 She said he was too much to handle on trail as he just wanted to go fast and he didn’t like to slow down, and she preferred draft horses and she was a little big for him anyway.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 I made arrangements to go ride him on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Sunday comes and she sends me an email to bring my trailer with me when I come down to ride because she has decided if she doesn’t sell him today (Sunday) she is going to take him to New Holland auction tomorrow (Monday).<\/p>\n

Really?\u00a0 Didn’t your ad say you wanted a written agreement not to broker or auction this horse?<\/p>\n

So, knowing the current market prices on horses, and having been following a couple local auctions recently because I’ve been looking for a second endurance horse (now that I’m finally back into the swing of things) I made her a fair New Holland sale price offer.\u00a0 Actually, it was little higher than I felt she would get at the sale.\u00a0 I told her that even though he was pretty, he was small, not registered and hot.\u00a0 All things that would put off dealers from buying him so if a killer bid on him, he’d sell for $200 or so.\u00a0 She disagreed and said that she would get $500 for sure so she turned down my offer.<\/p>\n

Sadly, I walked away from this because 1) I really didn’t need to buy a horse right now and 2) If I did buy a horse, I had a small budget which is why I was going to auctions.<\/p>\n

All day Sunday I fretted about this horse.\u00a0 He really plucked at something in me and said, “Man, you need me.”\u00a0 That really doesn’t happen often with me.\u00a0 I see a lot of horses for sale cheap and they just don’t strike me.\u00a0 I got up several times to call this woman and just pay her $500 for the horse.\u00a0 But, each time I did, something said, “No, Dodie, just walk away.”<\/p>\n

So, I went to bed Sunday night thinking about this little hot head and his marvelous attitude going a million miles an hour down the trail, ears forward, tail up and gaited like nobody’s business.\u00a0 I tossed and turned and finally got up and sent my friend, Gail, an email begging her that if she went to New Holland the next day, please buy this little horse for me.\u00a0 I sent her pictures and video and gave her a full blown description so she’d know exactly which horse I wanted.<\/p>\n

I got up Monday morning (October 25, 2010) and knew that something bad was going to happen today.\u00a0 Whoopi has been ill for almost 2 months and I believe she had a stroke Saturday.\u00a0 My mind was filled with dread at going to the barn for morning feeding.\u00a0 She was so wobbly Saturday night, it was breaking my heart.\u00a0 Then I was reading my emails and didn’t have a reply from Gail so knew that I wouldn’t have an opportunity to pick up that gelding when he went through the sale at New Holland.\u00a0 Just a sad morning all around for me.<\/p>\n

I believe that the fates always plan things to happen for a reason.\u00a0 For two months, I have had this Monday scheduled to be at BNI training in Edgemont, PA.\u00a0 Consequently, there is nothing on my schedule for the day but that training.\u00a0 When I arrived at the barn to do feeding at 5:45 am, I knew that Whoopi was in big trouble and I was gonna have to call Walt to come home from work.\u00a0 I did some stuff to make her comfortable, went home and placed the call to excuse myself from training.\u00a0 I checked my email again in case Gail had seen the one about that gelding, but only stuff in there was typical email junk.<\/p>\n

Knowing I’d be at the barn for the better part of a day, I poked Terry in the chest and told him to wake up and come work with me at the barn.\u00a0 You know, I do not know very many people that wake up like me and Terry.\u00a0 Quickly and with a smile or joke.\u00a0 He (of course) faked a heart attack from the chest poking, got right up, grabbed a cup of coffee and was ready to go in 15 minutes.\u00a0 Amazing.<\/p>\n

We go out to Matilda and load her up with some wood I wanted to store at the barn for emergency stall repairs.\u00a0 Matilda is so happy to be out of the hospital and back at work.\u00a0 She purred on down the road to the barn, her V-10 singing.\u00a0 Terry even commented on how nicely she was running since her 3 week stay in the hospital to get an engine overhaul.<\/p>\n

I gave Terry about 90 instructions on things to get started doing while I dragged my feet down the long dirt aisle towards Whoopi’s stall.\u00a0 I knew it was bad before I got there because she wasn’t standing again.\u00a0 I ran out to get Terry and we tried to get her up but she was tired and although she gave it a great Whoopi go, she couldn’t stabilize her rear end underneath of her to stand.\u00a0 She gave me this look that I swear to you said, “Dammit!”<\/p>\n

I knew what I had to do.\u00a0 I texted Walt and told him he needed to leave work and come to the barn.\u00a0 He has been dreading that call from me for several weeks and I got a prompt reply.\u00a0 “OKAY”<\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter, I received another text from him, “I need a ride.”\u00a0 Oh yeah, Walt’s van died a week ago and he’s car-less at the moment.\u00a0 Like he needs another thing in his life to go wrong right now.<\/p>\n

I text him back that I’ll come and get him in 1\/2 hour.\u00a0 Terry fussed at me for lying to Walt.\u00a0 He said it would be closer to an hour.\u00a0 And he was right because just as he was saying that, I got a call from my teacher at the Dojo.\u00a0 This is a story for another day, needless to say I was on the phone over 1\/2 hour with him.<\/p>\n

I finished up the critical chores and hopped in Matilda to go get Walt.\u00a0 I had to stop at the Post Office and send a package and it was right on the way.\u00a0 No problem, right?<\/p>\n

Wrong!<\/p>\n

Met two people I haven’t seen in a while at the Post Office and we chit-chatted so I was there for over 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Finally, I arrive at Walt’s work to get him and I texted him I was there in the parking lot.\u00a0 It took him a couple minutes to get out to Matilda, and he was doing the Death-Row Shuffle.\u00a0 If you don’t know what that is, watch the movie “Green Mile”.<\/p>\n

I told him Whoopi was done with earthly life and he needed to make a decision.\u00a0 I also told him that Holly needed a friend of her own and I wanted to give her to him.\u00a0 We both broke down and cried on the way to the barn.\u00a0 After seeing her, he agreed with me and asked me to make the calls to Quakertown Vet.\u00a0 I did and it was the second hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.\u00a0 I’ve known Whoopi since Walt got her.\u00a0 This was the most going-est mare ever and she absolutely knew every secret that Walt and I had because she was on every ride when we talked about those secrets.\u00a0 And she never told a soul.<\/p>\n

I went outside to leave Walt alone with Whoopi while we waited on the vet, help Terry out with some chores in the pasture and burn some trash.\u00a0 Lo and behold, while I was out there my cell phone rang.\u00a0 First of all, this is a miracle in itself because when I’m at the barn, there is NEVER any signal on my phone.\u00a0 I looked down and saw it was Gail.\u00a0 I was pretty sure she was calling to tell me that she just got my email and since it’s after 11:00 am she obviously didn’t go to the sale.<\/p>\n

WRONG!<\/p>\n

She did get my email last night but was too tired to email me back.\u00a0 She used every last reserve of strength she had left from the day to call Chuck and ask him to look for that gelding at the sale and buy it for me.\u00a0 AND!\u00a0 Hang on!\u00a0 He DID IT!<\/p>\n

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW<\/p>\n

Holy crap, that’s like God reaching down and kissing me on the top of the head.\u00a0 With all the sorrow at the barn today, not only was this great news, but it made my giving away Holly to Walt all that much easier.\u00a0 (Yes, I really like Holly a lot)<\/p>\n

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW<\/p>\n

Gail says we have to go to Chuck’s barn in Lebanon and get the gelding tonight because Chuck doesn’t have any room for him.\u00a0 “I can do that!” I practically shout into the phone.\u00a0 “I don’t have a thing on my schedule today.”\u00a0 So she says she’ll get an ETA from Chuck and call me back later in the afternoon to make arrangements to meet and go get him.<\/p>\n

Okay, now I’m walking on air.<\/p>\n

Carolyn and Lindsey came out to be with Walt when the vet came.\u00a0 Sending a friend on to heaven is not something I do well so I stayed outside with Terry.\u00a0 Whoopi, rest in peace old girl, you are going to be missed by more than just your human friends.\u00a0 You taught so many horses how to hold a pace for endurance riding and that can never be replaced.<\/p>\n

I send Walt home with Roger, Carolyn and Lindsey so I could wait for the removal service to come for Whoopi.\u00a0 I ran Terry home to help Sarah’s sister change the oil in her car, caught up on some emails and started getting all excited again.<\/p>\n

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW<\/p>\n

The Ranger was scheduled for the hospital today to get a spring replaced so Marc and I ran The Ranger up to George’s for a visit.\u00a0 George asked after Matilda and I told him that she was right as rain.\u00a0 I called Gail to see if she found out anything and she told me she was almost done with her chores so she’d drive down to my barn and meet me to go with me to get the gelding.<\/p>\n

Cool!\u00a0 I haven’t had a road trip with Gail in a very long time and we had some serious catching up to do.<\/p>\n

She comes in and admires Shark and how good he looks for his age.\u00a0 Looks at some of the other horses in the barn and we head on out to get going to Lebanon.<\/p>\n

The trip there was unremarkable.\u00a0 We passed through some rain showers and that irritated us, but we were talking a mile a minute about everything so we got over it pretty quickly.\u00a0 Before I knew it, we were there.\u00a0 Now, we passed like four cops on the last two miles into his place on SR22 and I thought that awfully bizarre.\u00a0 Gail did too because she commented on it.<\/p>\n

Wow.\u00a0 That was way fast.\u00a0 I get out, walk into the barn and there he is!\u00a0 WOW.\u00a0 He’s really there for me.<\/p>\n

Of course, Gail was looking at some mini’s that Chuck picked up and asked me to hop up on the Appaloosa colored one.<\/p>\n

WHAT?\u00a0 My feet are gonna drag on the ground.<\/p>\n

She was so tiny I thought I was gonna fall off because I kept tilting side to side.\u00a0 But she rode right off, walk and trot.\u00a0 Rode her up the driveway and showed her the pumpkin people at the gate to the house and she didn’t care at all about them.\u00a0 Ride her over to the pasture and showed her the other horses and she didn’t care.\u00a0 Rode her back down the driveway and she didn’t care.\u00a0 She was a great little pony.\u00a0 Gail told me to ride her over to the trailer (grin).<\/p>\n

We load them up, do a light check on the trailer because it’s getting a little dark like another shower is coming, and say good bye to Chuck and Brian.\u00a0 Everything was good so I fired up Matilda, grinning when I heard that V-10 purr like a kitten on catnip, and we left to go home.<\/p>\n

Okay, this is when things begin to get interesting.\u00a0 I pull out onto SR22 (this is Old 22 that runs alongside I-78) and I’m doing about 45 because the speed limit said 45 and I remembered all those cops we saw earlier.\u00a0 I was asking Gail about how mini’s were selling compared to horses and because I noticed it was getting darker, I glanced at the clock to see what time it was.\u00a0 6:39 pm.\u00a0 We were almost passing under the SR72 bridge when<\/p>\n

KERRRR ACCKKKK<\/p>\n

“What the hell was that?” Gail shrieks.<\/p>\n

The loudest noise I have ever heard in my life came from behind me.\u00a0 Suddenly, Matilda bucked up under my hands and the steering wheel went limp.\u00a0 My first thought was my steering unit blew up.\u00a0 She jerked to the left and headed straight for the concrete barrier.\u00a0 She starts up the side of that barrier and I looked up to see two tractor trailers, side by side, coming straight at us.<\/p>\n

I’m begging.\u00a0 “OH MY GAWD, Matilda, don’t jump the barrier, don’t jump the barrier, don’t jump the barrier.”<\/p>\n

I see the horizon tilting through the windshield and I reached up and grabbed the “Oh, shit” bar.\u00a0 Now I know why they call them that.\u00a0 Matilda went right on her side and stopped.\u00a0 I was hanging from my arm and fell right on the gear shifter (and poor Gail) when I released my belt.<\/p>\n

“Gail?\u00a0 Are you okay?”<\/p>\n

“Yes, where is the trailer?”<\/p>\n

I look out the back window just in time to see the trailer go from tilted against the concrete barrier to flop over on it’s side right behind poor Matilda.<\/p>\n

“It’s right behind us, but we got to get out of here, I see smoke.”\u00a0 (I later determined that was from my cigarette.)<\/p>\n

“Okay.”\u00a0 She sounded very calm.<\/p>\n

“Hang on, I’ll get this door open.”<\/p>\n

Now, imagine this.\u00a0 You’re in a truck on it’s side and you don’t want to step on your friend’s head while you try to push the 900 pound door upwards.\u00a0 What do you do?\u00a0 You put your left foot on the head rest of the passenger seat and your right foot into the steering wheel and you get pissed when you see a van and two cars drive by on the burm to avoid your accident and get the hell out of Dodge.<\/p>\n

“Oh, sure, assholes.\u00a0 Don’t stop and help or nothing.” I mumble to myself.<\/p>\n

The door opened easily enough but I couldn’t hold on, not step on Gail and push upwards all at the same time.<\/p>\n

“Gail, can you get up at all to hold this door so I can get out?”<\/p>\n

Good thing we’re not fat people!\u00a0 She did actually manage to get upright.\u00a0 She wasn’t able to push the door, though, no positioning for her as I had the only two footholds taken.<\/p>\n

“Wait, there’s a guy out here.”\u00a0 I open the door and stick out my head.<\/p>\n

“Hey, could you hold this door up so I can get out.”<\/p>\n

In retrospect, Matilda was still running and I shut her off because all I could think about was fire.\u00a0 If I had just rolled down the window, it would have been a lot easier to get out.\u00a0 I guess when things are happening so fast like that,\u00a0 you forget to think outside the box.<\/p>\n

Gail is still asking me about the trailer and the horses.<\/p>\n

“Wait, we gotta get out of here first.”<\/p>\n

Now, she’s getting anxious.\u00a0 “How are the horses?\u00a0 We need to get to the horses.”<\/p>\n

As I’m climbing out of the truck I see another guy at the back of the trailer.\u00a0 I holler over to him, “Can you see the horses?”<\/p>\n

“Yep, one is standing and the other one is laying on its side.”<\/p>\n

I listen for a minute and don’t hear any thrashing from the trailer.\u00a0 Oh no, that’s not good.<\/p>\n

I climb out, turn around and reach down for Gail.\u00a0 She comes up giving orders to the bystanders (Gotta love Gail) “Find some rope, we’re gonna need to get these horses out of the trailer.\u00a0 The man holding the door told me to give him my phone so he could call 911.\u00a0 I hand it over and head for the trailer.<\/p>\n

I go around the back and see the gelding laying on the bottom, the partition on top of him, the floor mat on top of the partition and the pony standing on top of him looking around like, “Wow, an audience to see my neat trick of trailer diving.”<\/p>\n

The gelding isn’t moving.\u00a0 I climb in to untie the pony and the rope is caught under the bent partition bar.\u00a0 Gail is still giving orders but I’m not hearing her.\u00a0 All I can listen for is that gelding to make a noise or move or something.<\/p>\n

“I need a knife.”<\/p>\n

She hands me a teeny little box cutter.\u00a0 It’s so cute.\u00a0 And very very sharp.\u00a0 Slid right through that rope and the pony is free.<\/p>\n

I hand her the pony and start pulling stuff off the gelding.\u00a0 Once I get the floor mat and partition off him, he lifts his head, which is trapped under the bent partition bar, and looks at me like, “Get a move on, girl.”<\/p>\n

“ROPES!\u00a0 We need ropes!” I’m\u00a0 hollering as I move out of the trailer.<\/p>\n

I know there is about 200 lead ropes behind the seat of the truck.\u00a0 How the hell am I gonna get back in there to get them.\u00a0 None of the windows are broken so that’s not an option.\u00a0 I’m thinking and thinking and remember there is two lead ropes in the front of the trailer.<\/p>\n

Hmmm.\u00a0 Can’t open the trailer door because it’s laying on it’s side, the side that the trailer door is on.<\/p>\n

Back in I go, climbing carefully over the gelding.<\/p>\n

I grab two ropes and we tie them on his back legs.\u00a0 I hand a rope to two strong looking men and they botched it up.\u00a0 Gawd.\u00a0 They need to see strength in action.\u00a0 Now I give orders.\u00a0 “Gail, grab that rope.” I point to the man closest to her.\u00a0 She throws the pony’s lead rope at someone and grabs it while I grab the rope from the guy next to me and we pull his ass out of the trailer.<\/p>\n

Once his head was cleared from the partition barn, he came right up to his feet.\u00a0 He did not want to back out because he had no footing to speak of.\u00a0 He was standing on the fiberglass top and every time he moved it was like he was on ice, feet going every which way.\u00a0 Being as the trailer was on its side, he was barely fitting in thee with his head down and I couldn’t convince him that this was NOT the place to stay right now.<\/p>\n

Once I convinced him to move, he was trying his hardest but his front foot was hung up in the hay net.\u00a0 Never again, no more hay nets in my trailers.<\/p>\n

Gawd.<\/p>\n

Before I could get in to him to cut the hay net, he freed himself and came out of that trailer like his ass was on fire.\u00a0 Ran straight to the side of the road and dropped his head to eat grass.\u00a0 Banged up, scraped and cut, but he was walking on all four feet with no limping.\u00a0 Amazing.<\/p>\n

The little pony was frantically trying to stay right under his belly.\u00a0 This made it very interesting to hold them at the same time.\u00a0 The lead ropes kept getting messed up.<\/p>\n

Cops arrive.\u00a0 And we notice a small silver car in the ditch right where we are.\u00a0 Interesting.\u00a0 I didn’t notice him\u00a0 before.\u00a0 The old man is out of the car and staggering around so obviously he’s not dead.\u00a0 I asked a man standing near the little silver car if anyone in that car was injured and he said, “Nope, just that old man in there.”<\/p>\n

The cop does his cop stuff and I’m jonesing a cigarette.\u00a0 I look through all the stuff that fell out the window onto the road but no cigarettes.\u00a0 Dammit.\u00a0 See, if I had rolled down that window, I could have climbed back into Matilda and got my nicotine fix.\u00a0 While I’m trying to figure out how I can get into Matilda to get out my smokes, the cop comes over and tells me that he is writing up the two vehicles as separate accidents.\u00a0 My comment was, “Oh, I guess he wrecked because I wrecked.” thinking that maybe he ran off the road to avoid me as we tilted over on our side.<\/p>\n

“Well, he wrecked.”\u00a0 He made a funny face and paused for a minute before continuing.\u00a0 “I did check his car and there is no damage to it other than the tree he hit in the ditch so he wasn’t involved in your accident.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hmmm.<\/p>\n

I’m standing with the cop when the two guys in sexy tow trucks arrive to flip the truck and trailer right side up.\u00a0 The cop says, “This is a difficult procedure, getting the vehicles upright without causing more damage.”\u00a0 Being a wiseass, I respond, “Oh, now that I have experience in flipping trucks, maybe I should give them a hand.”\u00a0 That cop just looked at me.<\/p>\n

After an hour of speaking with witnesses, and reviewing the wreckage, the cop determines that I have had equipment failure.\u00a0 My hitch broke, causing the trailer to jam up into the truck and that is what caused the wreck.\u00a0 I thank him for helping us out and he laughs and says, “Well, you may not be thanking me in a minute when I cite you for the accident.”<\/p>\n

“Oh, that’s okay,” I respond.\u00a0 “I’m out and walking around so it’s all good.”<\/p>\n

The two tow truck guys were standing there and the cop laughs again and says to them, “You heard her, she’s not gonna get mad when I cite her.”\u00a0 We all laugh for a minute.\u00a0 It was a tension relieving moment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then he tells me he has determined that the hitch broke, causing the trailer to jump off the ball and ram up the back of the truck.<\/p>\n

What???<\/p>\n

I don’t know where he got his physics training, but since I have lost 3 trailers over the years, I know exactly how a trailer acts when it’s dropped off it’s truck.\u00a0 It hits the ground and starts dragging the truck to a stop<\/p>\n

BECAUSE<\/p>\n

a trailer does not have a motor in it, causing it to speed up and ram the vehicle that is towing it.<\/p>\n

Nope, that’s not how physics work.\u00a0 That trailer is traveling at the same speed as the truck and when it loses contact with the truck it slows down.\u00a0 Gravity will cause the hitch to drop to the ground (yes, what goes up must come down) not lift up in the air and shove itself into the back of the truck.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now I’m mad.\u00a0 I told that cop that there was a big metallic bang from behind me that sounded like something hit us.\u00a0 I told him that Matilda jerked up in the air and was shoved to the side.\u00a0 I told him that.\u00a0 I asked him about that car in the ditch and he said that it only had damage from hitting the tree that it was resting against.\u00a0 It didn’t hit me.\u00a0 I said, “Well maybe one of the assholes that left the scene hit me,”<\/p>\n

“Nope,” he calmly replied. “For someone to hit you hard enough to shove you off the road, there would be a bumper laying here at the very least and most likely, that car would be undrivable.”<\/p>\n

“Look at this door on this trailer.” I’m pointing and although I’ve been Miss Wiseass and cracking jokes for most this time, now I’m getting wound up and maybe a little bitchy. \u00a0 “This looks exactly like someone plowing into it with a car.”<\/p>\n

“Nope,” he calmly replies.\u00a0 That could have been done when it hit the barrier and flipped.<\/p>\n

Okay, now I’m really weirded out by this State Cop.\u00a0 If a trailer hits a concrete barrier, which – by the way – is flat, goes up the barrier on its two tires, and rolls over on its side, while it’s still attached to the truck with two chains that had to be bolt cuttered off, how did the back door get dented in like someone hit it?<\/p>\n

When Matilda is righted, I quickly scramble inside for my cigarettes.<\/p>\n

Ahhhhhh.\u00a0 Nicotine.<\/p>\n

Then I get my registration and insurance information for the cop.\u00a0 He looks at the registrations and when I hand him the insurance, he oddly responds, “Oh, thank goodness.”\u00a0 (hmmmm)\u00a0 He gave me back my registrations but kept my insurance card.\u00a0 I didn’t think about it at the time, but in writing this story I have to wonder why he did that.<\/p>\n

The car is pulled up out of the ditch and put on the roll back.\u00a0 I go to take pictures of the front of this car just as Jenny arrives to look at the front of this car.\u00a0 (Oh yeah, Jenny, who can’t see at night and hates to do anything after dark, came and rescued us!) She’s standing there asking (very loudly, I might add – gotta love Jenny) why there are square trees with white paint planted alongside the highway for motorists to hit.\u00a0 Gail is motioning the cop over to the front of this little car and vehemently requesting that he answer Jenny’s question.\u00a0 I’m screaming across the tow truck for him to get a measuring tape and measure the distance between the square trees damage and compare it to the square steel beams measurement on the back of my trailer.\u00a0 I tell him he needs a CSI unit out here to get paint samples and look for skid marks, and both Jenny and Gail look at me like I’m having some kind of fit.\u00a0 Okay, I admit it, I watch too much CSI on TV.<\/p>\n

After several minutes of listening to three screaming women, he walks to the back of the trailer and returns to the front of the car.\u00a0 He tells Gail, “Okay Ladies, I see it now and I’m on your page.\u00a0 I’ll rewrite the report.”<\/p>\n

I’m not sure what that meant, but as I have been told that he’s written up the two accidents as separate incidents, and I overheard a fireman say that the old man was drunk, and the cop wouldn’t let me talk to the old man and ask him for his information,\u00a0 feel like I’m gonna get shafted on this situation.\u00a0 I feel it very strongly.<\/p>\n

The tow trucks pull off and the cop is pulling out behind them.\u00a0 I walk to the road and flag him down.\u00a0 I lean in the window and apologize for yelling at him and ask if there is anything else he needs from me.\u00a0 He says no.\u00a0 I ask if I can have the silver car’s driver information for my insurance company and he tells me that I will be getting something in a day or two.\u00a0 (huh?)\u00a0 I ask if he is going to investigate the accident further.\u00a0 He makes a funny face and says, “That’s what we do.”\u00a0 I asked if he was changing the report from equipment failure to hit by a car and he dodged my question with his response of, “You’ll get something in a day or two.”<\/p>\n

I’m gonna get boned, I can tell.<\/p>\n

The two horses loaded up on Jenny’s trailer with no hesitation.\u00a0 We drove home with no incidents, other than sharing war stories.\u00a0 Gail said she didn’t remember anything until her shoulder was rubbing on the macadam through the passenger window.\u00a0 I joked about her rolling her window down and she seriously responded that the window was up.\u00a0 Oops, guess that window is broken.<\/p>\n

We arrived at the barn and my worried worried husband was standing there looking very forlorn.\u00a0 I was a bad wife.\u00a0 Instead of hugging him and letting him know I was okay, I handed him my purse and asked him to put it in the car while I got the gelding up into the light of the barn so I could see what was going on.\u00a0 (Oh, yes … I heard all about this later.)<\/p>\n

Gail named her pony Crash so I named the gelding Crashed Too.\u00a0 He is banged up, has abrasions and cuts al over his back and neck, but was walking fine, with no limp and as soon as I put him in the stall, he started eating and drank about half a bucket of water.\u00a0 Whew.<\/p>\n

Gail had to drive herself home, and we are pretty banged up ourselves, but she did make it home in one piece.<\/p>\n

I called in the accident and the insurance agent asked for the other driver’s info.\u00a0 I told him exactly what happened, how it happened, and that the cop did not give me the info – he said I’d get something in a day or two.\u00a0 Immediately, the insurance agent recommended I contact a lawyer because since I do not have collision on Matilda, only state required liability, they cannot file a claim with the other driver’s insurance company.\u00a0 I have to do that.<\/p>\n

WHAT????\u00a0 What the hell do I pay an insurance company for?\u00a0 Apparently, there are Federal and State Laws preventing them from this.\u00a0 I don’t understand it, but I do know a lawyer that not only has horses, but only does Personal Injury Law.<\/p>\n

First thing Tuesday morning, I call her and tell her the story – what happened, how the cop was gonna charge me with equipment failure until i started taking pictures of everything and we discovered that the silver car must have hit square trees with white paint on them and she immediately advises me and Gail.\u00a0 “Say nothing, to no-one, give them my name and number and say Good Bye.”<\/p>\n

Then she advises us to go get medical treatment.\u00a0 I have a bone bruise on my leg, a bruise on my neck, a bruise on my shoulder (yes, the one that got separated last January) and some minor abrasions.\u00a0 They gave me a list of things to watch for over the next 60 days as I have a serious bruise to the back of my neck.\u00a0 Nothing broken and the X-Rays showed everything in alignment, but they said that swelling can cause the neck bones to shift.\u00a0 They recommended that if it was still painful in a week to have a Chiropractor look at it.<\/p>\n

Really?\u00a0 A doctor recommending a chiropractor?\u00a0 Unheard of.<\/p>\n

Gail had blood.\u00a0 I didn’t get any blood.\u00a0 How’s come she gets all the really cool injuries?\u00a0 Gail’s visit to the hospital was similar to mine, bruising but keep an eye on stuff for a couple weeks.\u00a0 She has some gashes on her shoulder, her knee is already dressed up for Halloween in purple, green and yellow and she is stiff all over.<\/p>\n

We survived, the horses survived and now I hope and pray that the accident report gets filed correctly and I get Matilda fixed by this other driver.<\/p>\n

And that’s how I got a horse named Crash.<\/p>\n

UPDATES:<\/p>\n

October 27, 2010<\/strong><\/span> … do not get into an accident on a Monday because on Wednesday you will feel like a truck ran over you.\u00a0 WOW.\u00a0 Everything hurts from my head to my toes.\u00a0 I can’t walk let alone function enough to work.\u00a0 Man, ph, man this really sucks.\u00a0 I hate feeling like an invalid.<\/p>\n

My attorney came out to take photos of the truck and trailer 9still sitting on the trailer that hauled them back).\u00a0 I am tallying up bills I’m racking up and it’s killing me.\u00a0 $400 for the initial tow from the scene of the wreck.\u00a0 $300 to get the horses home from the scene of the wreck.\u00a0 $600 to get the truck and trailer from the storage place to my barn and off loaded.\u00a0 I guess I’m not paying my mortgage this month because I simply did not have $1300 laying around to burn on this nonsense.<\/p>\n

My attorney does not have any information on the crash at this time but she got good photos of my injuries and sent me to a P\/T doctor.\u00a0 He advised me to start P\/T next week (once my soreness is gone) to help with\u00a0 my lower back and neck pain.<\/p>\n

My attorney also made me remove this story from the internet until after it is all over.\u00a0 Apparently, my insurance agent did not do me very well setting up my auto insurance.\u00a0 We had several things wrong.\u00a0 Limited Tort, no stacking across the vehicles, no wage loss insurance, only a small amount of medical insurance….I can go on and on.\u00a0 I have requested my attorney to give me exactly what coverages I should have so I can forward that to my insurance agent and get my policy changed immediately.\u00a0 Of course, now I may never be involved in a wreck again (of course).\u00a0 And considering this is the first wreck I ever had, how could I even know all this stuff?<\/p>\n

Gail found an article on-line about the accident, so at least I know that the cop filed the accident correctly.\u00a0 Of course, I don’t know if the driver was drunk or fell asleep or was texting or why he hit me so freaking hard … he had to be flying down that road to shove Matilda and a trailer so much.<\/p>\n

CRASH: <\/strong>A car driven by Muhammad Kaif, 64, of Dauphin County was traveling east on Route 22 when it struck the rear of a trailer being towed by a pick-up truck driven by Dodie Sable, 48, of Berks County, just west of the Route 72 overpass at 6:34 p.m., state police said. The car came to rest in a ditch. The truck veered left and struck a concrete barrier before tipping over and blocking both eastbound lanes. Both drivers were wearing seat belts and suffered only minor scrapes, police said. Two horses inside the trailer were not harmed, except for minor scrapes. Route 22 eastbound was closed about one hour. Lickdale and Jonestown’s Perseverance fire companies and First Aid and Safety Patrol and Fort Indiantown Gap ambulances responded.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

October 28, 2010<\/strong><\/span> … I have to get a trailer on this property.\u00a0 We have too many horses, and many of them young babies, not to have transport in case of an emergency.\u00a0 I have emailed my attorney asking what I should do because I don’t want to shell out any more money.\u00a0 I simply don’t have it.\u00a0 Unless you actually care for a large number of horses, for many years, you simply can’t appreciate my state of panic at not having a trailer here for emergency hauling.\u00a0 Things can happen in two seconds.\u00a0 Ask Connie about the time Motley slid in the mud and sliced his leg to the bone, through an artery and ligaments.\u00a0 Ask Adreinne about the time her foal got kicked in the pasture and busted the eye socket and popped the eye.\u00a0 Ask Julia about the time her baby colicked.\u00a0 GAWD … I hate this.\u00a0 I am starting to get angry.\u00a0 Angry that I haven’t heard anything yet.\u00a0 Angry that my truck and trailer have been taken away from me.\u00a0 Angry that hurt from head to toe and being self-employed I have to work or I don’t get paid.\u00a0 Angry that my finances are in a bad way while I pay out money that I wouldn’t have to if this asshole hadn’t hit me.\u00a0 Angry that I give and give and give to people, even people I don’t know very well, and when I’m all fucked up and really need some help, no-one steps forwards to give me shit.\u00a0 YES, I’m very very angry.<\/strong>\u00a0 Once I’m not angry anymore, I will not remove this from the story because it is part of the story.\u00a0 I don’t often even get upset by stuff, let alone get angry and I am angry angry angry.<\/p>\n

October 29, 2010<\/strong><\/span> … back to work and my shoulder aches when I groom and for some reason, the area right over my right kidney, really hurts today.\u00a0 I guess I need to get over myself.\u00a0 What a whiner I am.<\/p>\n

Coming home from the college tonight, when I passed the New Smithville Exit, a driver (obviously impaired in some way) ran me off the road.\u00a0 Oh, now I have road rage.\u00a0 Never had that before.\u00a0 I focused my Ki and simply picked up the phone, dialed 911 and reported him and his blue truck with license plate number.\u00a0 Right after I reported him to the state police barracks at Fogelsville, he almost side swiped a little red car.\u00a0 Damn, it was a very close call.\u00a0 I sure hope the cops really get out on the road and get him off of it.<\/p>\n

About 1\/2 hour later, I heard a lot of sirens going west on I-78.\u00a0 I will check the papers to see if there was anything about him and his drunkedness involved in that.<\/p>\n

October 30, 2010<\/strong><\/span> … I still don’t know anything from the attorney and she hasn’t answered any of my emails.\u00a0 This is probably more stressful to me than being angry for losing all my stuff and paying out money I didn’t need to to get my broken toys home.\u00a0 I was tempted to ride Crash today as the swelling has gone down from his back and he’s very very playful in the field.\u00a0 I will wait, though, and be a good horse owner (chuckle).\u00a0 I have plenty of time this winter to ride him and get him into shape.\u00a0 I am DYING to ride him, though.\u00a0 That’s also driving me insane.<\/p>\n

I seem to have developed an unhealthy relationship with my rear-view mirror. I swear, nothing else about the wreck bothered me, but now I think everyone is gonna run right up my ass.\u00a0 (snicker)\u00a0 Maybe I am developing a phobia and can collect disability.\u00a0 Now, that would be a trip … Dodie with a phobia …<\/p>\n

October 31, 2010<\/strong><\/span> … my back and neck are really bothering me today.\u00a0 Marc thinks I should go to a doctor but I have a P\/T scheduled for Tuesday morning.\u00a0 I’ll tell them all about it.\u00a0 I don’t have time to have a problem, I got stuff to get done today.\u00a0 To hell with it (yep, Dodie is back – still angry, but mostly back to normal.)<\/p>\n

I will tell you this.\u00a0 If I ever have the opportunity to see Mr. Muhammed Kaif from Harrisburg, PA he is gonna get an earful about what a hell he’s made my day to day life right now.\u00a0 I am trying to keep track of everything in this story so I remember it clear enough to tell him about it.<\/p>\n

Everyone has been sending me Craigslist ads and Ebay ads for trailers.\u00a0 I have talked to 16 people since Thursday about their trailers.\u00a0 Problem is, to find one that is ready to rock-n-roll right now, I’m gonna have to lay out $1500 or better.\u00a0 Yes, there are several out there for a couple hundred, but they need several hundreds of dollars of repairs and hours of labor to make them road safe.\u00a0 Mine was already road safe.\u00a0 We had welded new floor braces, put in a new floor, replaced most the wiring and now what?\u00a0 She’s a disaster sitting in my driveway, unusable and trashed.\u00a0 Freaking asshole driver Mr. Muhammed Kaif.\u00a0 Stealing my truck and trailer from me.\u00a0 Damn, here I go getting mad again.<\/p>\n

February 8, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s never ending, this wreck has put itself into every aspect of my life and won’t let go.\u00a0 I am still having trouble with my neck and I have nerve pain through both shoulders.\u00a0 I am unable to attend Aikido class anymore because the falling part of the training hurts like no body’s business (yowza).\u00a0 The insurance company will not pay me for the grooming and haulling jobs I lost for the 6 weeks I did not have a vehicle, stating that I can’t prove I would have really done those jobs.\u00a0 WHAT???\u00a0 Crash is pretty much shunned by every rider but me and Jamie … and I think he’s half killing Jamie (grin).\u00a0 he is exactly what I thought he would be…a power house of energy and go-go juice.\u00a0 This is a 50 mile horse to be sure and maybe even a 100 mile horse.\u00a0 Now, if I can just get the pain in my neck and shoulders to go away so I can ride him.\u00a0 He’s a lot of fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How I got a horse named Crash. \u00a0 It all began with a Craigslist ad for a gold champagne TWH gelding in Quakertown that I saw Saturday morning.\u00a0 Now, I’m not fond of that yellow color, nor am I fond … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":74,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-354","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2930,"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/354\/revisions\/2930"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newpromisefarms.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}