I feel like my posts almost always have something tragic going on in them. Today is going to be no different unfortunately. Early this morning the eventing world lost an amazing competitor, Amy Tryon. She died in her sleep today and as far as I can tell there has been no information out about the cause of death.
I'm sure anyone who follows eventing will remember Amy who recently competed on Poggio II (in the photo), the former race and trail horse, at the Galway Downs International Horse trials two weeks ago. For those who do not she has also represented the United States in two Olympic Games and two World Equestrian Games, with team gold at the World Games in Jerez in 2002 and a team bronze from the Athens Olympics. She was also named Eventing Horseman of the Year in 2006 by The Chronicle of the Horse. Amy was also a firefighter for several years. Besides being an amazing competitor she was also a mentor and trainer for several up and coming talented students and horses.
It is with a heavy heart we say goodbye to yet another great competitor and champion for our sport. My thoughts and prayers go out to her friends and family through such a difficult time.
I came back outside last night after the horses had been fed to take the dogs out and the pasture gate was completely torn off the hinges, it looked like someone had blown it apart with a hand grenade. I grabbed Bentley and ran back inside and hollered at Shawn telling him the gate was gone.
I put on boots and a coat and ran back outside first towards the highway because I just assumed the worse and I was going to find them both out on the side of the road hit or something or they were just gone....
When I didn't see them out there I went back over to the gate and looked down towards the back of the pasture. Shawn saw her before I did and started to walk in that direction. Buck was down there with her and as we got closer I noticed she was standing funny, with all her weight in the front end and her right back leg was up, I knew this was not going to be good...
When I got down to her, her leg was broken at the ankle. I won't go into details but needless to say there was nothing anyone could do to repair it. She had torn up the backs of her legs, I assume she got sided up to the fence and got shocked by the electric fence and some how got her leg caught in the pasture gate (it was just a galvanized gate). There was nothing we could do but call the vet and have him come out and put her to sleep (it took him an hour to get there though).
When the vet finally showed I grabbed Buck and walked him back up to the top of the pasture and gave him some feed to distract him while Shawn was down with Dolly and the vet. Buck kept watching her of course and was fine for a while until she started to go down. When she laid down he got very agitated and made the strangest low whinny, I've never heard anything like it and I hope not to again. It sent chills down my spine and made me cry, I know he knew what was going on. He basically dragged me all the way down to where Dolly was laying. When we got down there he snorted really hard and flipped out and dragged me all the way back up to the top of the pasture where he proceeded to dance circles around me and holler for her.
After the vet made sure she was down we decided the best solution for Buck would be to load him up and haul him to New Spring Farm (about an hour trip with a trailer, it was almost 2 in the morning at this point). She was going have to stay out in the pasture over night until we could get someone to come bury her or something the next day and I didn't think it was right to leave him out there with her all night long, he would have been panicking all night anyway. I was really afraid he might go through the fence in the middle of the night and get hit on the highway.
Once he was comfortably in a stall we left the trailer at the barn and went home. I went to bed about 4:30 this morning. We got up this morning and spent the entire day trying to find someone to help us. Luckily we have a great neighbor who just happened to have a huge bulldozer with a bucket on the front, he took care of everything in about a half an hour, I was so grateful. There are few people out there who will still drop everything and help someone just because they can, I don't know how I'm going to repay him.
I feel so guilty for what happened to her and right now I feel like I'm not fit to have horses... This has just not been the holiday break I had been hoping for. I feel like a horrible horse parent today...
I grew up in a town most people associate with fiction, Hannibal, Missouri. Home of Mark Twain's famous Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher, not to mention the "unsinkable" Molly Brown. Tonight the quant little tourist town was devastated by the lose of one of it's iconic businesses, Grand view Nursery.
Not that Grand view was really all that iconic, but the company had been in business for over 30 years. It was Hannibal's headquarters for John Deere small equipment, small motor repairs as well as four-wheelers and other ATVs. It was one of the last places you would see as you headed out of town on Highway 61 towards St. Louis and one of the first places to greet you as you hit the Hannibal city limits.
Tonight, at approximately 5:30 pm, this Hannibal landmark went ablaze in a massive fire which as of 12:00 AM central time, was still in progress of being brought under control by at least 3 area fire departments.
The building pretty much burned to the ground by 8 PM despite the relentless fight from Hannibal, New London, Palmyra, and other area fire departments. The picture to the left is from the Quincy Harold Whig, not my own.
I guess the reason I decided to write about this tonight is because it really hit home with me. I never really payed attention to the business before unless I went in with my parents. It was always just there and I expected that. Now when I go back to visit Hannibal it will just be an empty space.
Also, I wanted to put out that stopping on the side of a 4 lane interstate to take pictures or video on your phone is just stupid. You are a danger to yourself, other drivers, the firemen and police officers trying to deal with the already highly dangerous situation. If an officer comes up to you and tells you to move on, just do it... what do you get out of arguing with them about it anyway besides the possibility of going to jail for the night?? I only say this because my husband had to work traffic control on this situation and was put in danger because people wanted to argue with him instead of letting him do his job.
It is not a good idea to walk up on a scene like this and hang around the fire trucks so you can take pictures. Again, if an officer comes up and tells you that you are in danger and you need to leave... odds are FAIRLY good that he might know what he's talking about... WALK AWAY!! Why is that so complicated?? Sorry for my soap box like rant, but from the perspective of a police officer, we are not telling you these things because we are trying to ruin your fun, we are telling you to leave because we don't want to have to send you to the hospital in an ambulance or worse to the morgue in a hearse...
My thoughts and prayers go out to Joe and Vince Howald, the owners of the nursery as well as all the employees who are now out of jobs. Thank goodness no one was injured.
I feel like my posts almost always have something tragic going on in them. Today is going to be no different unfortunately. Early this morning the eventing world lost an amazing competitor, Amy Tryon. She died in her sleep today and as far as I can tell there has been no information out about the cause of death. 
