Dedication -Insane Part 2

Panic isnt pretty but there was no one to witness and if I lost it now we might lose Daybreak forever. A deep breath and I pulled the cell phone from my pocket. I called the farms owners we needed help and they needed to know where all the little logging roads and inlets went. Roused the said they were on the way to help. Next I dialed 911 and waited, "State Police state your emergency" , "Our horse is missing and he was right near Rte 3, near the exit, can somebody get out there and help look for him before he gets hit and someone gets killed!" There is a pause, Ma'am Tyngsboro police reported a horse loose awhile ago, please hold while I patch you through......" I'm on hold for a police patch through as I walk up the dark dirt road back toward our camp, Im afraid I wont hear the police on the phone my heart is pounding so loud in my ears. "Tyngsboro Police, you're calling about a horse?" "Yes! have you seen him?" " Oh Yea we chased him....for quite a ways" I interrupt, where is he, is he safe?" The police are so calm and I cant stand that they talk slow and methodically, " He was put in a field on______ street, I've never remembered the name of the street, it meant nothing to me. I had never ventured past this farm at the exit from the highway. This I explained to the matter of fact voice slowly speaking on the other end of the line. "We can send a crusier over to show you where, meet them at the pizza place". " What pizza place I've never left the farm here!" Now Im even more anxious we are so close but to what good if I can't find the field. " Wait at the end of the driveway for the crusier to pass and follow him to he location Ma'am" , " I'm going, I have a black truck." I race up the dirt road now and find Tim and my brother and the farms owners. We've got to go now, the police can show us where he is, they caught him. We need to meet them at the end of the drive. My brother looked at me and then back at the horse trailer. It was blocked by another truck whose owners had left for a hotel for the night - great! He assured me they could jockey it out in a few minutes so Tim and I grabbed a lead rope and left in my truck, I spun the gravel in the farm road getting down the hill, I think my son was impressed!

There we sat in the truck at the end of the driveway with my heart pounding and racing and I saw the flashing lights coming. The cruiser flew past and pulled in a bit up the road - it was a pizza place. I pulled up next to his window, "Yes its our horse can you show us where you put him!" Could he hear the panic in my voice, could he see the strain on our faces in the night. Just who did he think pulled out of the farm driveway and followed on his bumper anyway. Away we went taking a couple turns I cant even remember, just thinking all the while, he's this far, he's this far and finally the cruiser pulled over and we right behind him onto the grassy verge of the back road. Thank God Daybreak headed in this direction not the highway. It was very rural, only one house in sight. We jumped out of the Chevy Silverado into the night and met the police officer who sized us up for a brief second, I could almost read his thoughts, middle aged Mom tends towards drama and panic and a big boy, crazy horse people. " So where is he?", I asked scanning the night and seeing nothing that resembled the outline of a horse.

The police officer let out a soft whistle like sound, "some horse he is," and looked inquiringly, "Stallion?" I laughed, "Noooo, it's my sons horse, he's old!" The officer shook his head, like he was thinking we weren't the right people or this wasn't the right horse. He pointed to a bar-way into a field. A farm bar-way with old ageing rails and barbed wire, The border a low stone wall with a strand of barb wire over the top. Typical fencing for dairy cattle, but it was obvious none had lived here this year the grass was waist high. Barb wire is a nightmare for horses if caught they fight, they get torn up in it, there is no end to the adrenaline pumping thoughts that enter my head. " How big is the field?" My inquiry is answered only by a shrug of the shoulders, he comments he will stay there at the roadside and watch the vehicles, I tell him our other truck and trailer will be coming, the farms owner knew where the road was she was to help my brother get the trailer out and come along with him. Tim has a flashlight, I have a squeeze light, one of those little things on the key ring, we are off to find Daybreak. The first thing I notice is a foundation hole from an old barn, it's big. I feel my heart sink, did he come running into the strange field and run right off the edge and plummet to death in the bottom... breathe and look , I send Tim to start off in the other direction so if its bad he doesn't see. Empty, the October air rushes back into my lungs, it's cold. I head off into the dark field as my eyes adjust, now away from the flashing cruiser lights I see how huge the field is 20 acres, maybe more, maybe 40 it slopes down and away in the direction where Tim headed following a path trod down in the tall grass. Could have been deer, could have been horse, could have been bear, Oh God! "Daybreak, here boy, are you out here, come on fellow", I call out, somehow my voice in the night air is reassuring , probably only to me.

I'm getting soaked. This night air is damp and the dew so heavy on the grass it was like it had rained. My feet are already soaked and squishy, I hate wet feet. "Daybreak where are you boy." My mind flip flops between finding Daybreak and how I hate wet feet and being wet in general and I'm pretty much soaked. Thats when I wondered, how many squeezes does a squeeze light have, they are like tootie pops, does anybody really know. As my exhausted mind played out the scenario of the bitty ray of light dieing on me my foot catches a clump of swamp grass and into the swamp I go, wetter now, nice! Daybreak, if I ever find you UGH! That's when I hear a snap, it was quick, was it my imagination? ( click follow to get Fridays installment in your in- box thanks, should be just one more chapter maybe 2 in this true tale)

Dedication, One Step From Insane

That lump, you see it on the tailgate? Well that's me, and I ended up sleeping there. I have to say it wasnt really sleep the body just stopped functioning. It had been a long day of announcing at our cowboy mounted shooting competition. I was also cheering on my son Tim and his horse U.C. Daybreak. They were really coming into their own and it was showing at this October 21,2007 competition. This sport requires great athleticism on the part of horse and rider, add a little excellent timing and precision aim, throw in some 1880 costumes and you have a good start. Riders shoot balloons with BLANKS out of real Colt 45 type guns. There are 10 balloons and 10 blanks provided by the competition for safety. There is a pattern you must follow or strict penalties are incurred. Then there is the clock ticking away, timing your every stride and breath. Tim and Daybreak did 4 patterns or courses that day and had made some significant improvement on time. We would wait and see what day two of the Border Wars competition would bring. ( http://www.ctrenegades.com/ http://www.masixshooters.com/ )

Night fell and the riders and horses got settled into camp. Picket lines and portable corrals were set up everywhere on the grounds of the beautiful Bridge Meadow Brook Farm Tyngsboro, Ma. and the night air, that crisp autumn air of October laced with a hint of woodsmoke and barbeque settled over us. Down by the pond and river riders began to gather and share in a trailside Barbeque to rival any westward expedition. The food was incredibly good and the company the best and the music began. Later into the evening I began to share stories having worked up some good spooky tales and horse stories to share with our cowboy friends. It was everything a night at the bon fire could be and then some, for the magic of that eve lingers with me now, several years later.

Finally we all drifted toward our camping or night arrangements. My brother had come along with us hauling the horse trailer and we had set up a nice tent. It had been 30 years since I had camped out with my brother, how fun! Tim opted to put his sleeping bag in the horse trailer to stay right next to his horse. Daybreak was secured to the side of the trailer with leads clipped to his halter a huge net full of hay and buckets of water. Just a couple feet away his partner layed out a sleeping bag where he could hear the munching of his horse and the busy day was quick to claim its reward of sleep. It was near midnight when I finally had finished prep for the morning and put away gear from the damp night air and run the long zipper of the tent and sleeping bag. I lay in the absolute darkness waiting for sleep to capture me and instead my eyes were wide and I realized just what a loud eater our Daybreak was. From the rip of a mouthful of hay from the bag to the minute or two of crunch and munch to the next rip. How incredibly annoying to be this tired and have to listen to that. My brother was long since stolen by sleep and his breath came quiet and slow. There were few sounds from camp an occasional stomp of a horse or the babble of the river passing through.

The next thing I know I was waking from a deep sleep almost drugged feeling. So incredibly tired my body felt heavy and pressed into the earth beneath my sleeping bag. Glow face on my watch said it was 1 a.m. I had only been asleep less than an hour and I had to use the bathroom. I tried to forget it and go back to sleep. The lovely green port-o-let was a long walk down the dirt road, I was to tired, no I had to go now. I noted there is no quiet way to unzip a sleeping bag or a tent but neither woke my brother, he always has been able to sleep through anything, at the moment envy stole over me! Outside the tent I look into the darkness toward the road and decide to look at Daybreak first. I step around the truck and trailer and back, then jump back toward the trailer and look again in the darkness of 1 a.m. HE'S GONE!

In utter darkness I ran around the trailer to where his friend Beau is tied, no not with him, and down the dark dirt road to the workout ring, no Daybreak here either. I am standing in panic near the port-o-let and hate to waste prescious seconds but have to step inside. The plastic door closes and there is not one spec of light, this is a new level of darkness I have never experienced. Finished I race up near the house where more horses are sleepily wondering who the madman is out running around in the night and they chew on, undisturbed, none report any sign of friend Daybreak. I race back up the road to the trailer and kick at my sons feet, " wake up Daybreaks gone, get Uncle Steve up while I go down to the competition field and see if he's there."

Down a long road over the bridge and on under such deep pines the stars are obliterested and I come to the path into the field where we spent the day competing. My eyes adjust to an increase in light, no horse, just the cars whizzing by so close on Rte 3 the State highway crossing from this northeast corner of Massachussets into New Hampshire, Oh God please no ! I could not envision our beautiful boy out on that highway and a panic rose up with acidic hands and clutched my pounding heart. (C) This ends part 1 I will be posting part 2 on Wed June 16 click on follow to be notified when the second half of my story is published.