Rescued by Wild Horses... This summer, Bureau of Land Management Wyoming Wild Horse and Burro Specialist Jay D Ewart and his family rode their horses into the Bridger-Teton Wilderness, looking forward to a peaceful day at Big Sandy Lake with friends who had hiked in earlier. The DEwarts arrived at the lake around 2 p.m. and found Alisha Schlichter, her husband and their two young children in crisis. Alisha had fallen and broken her ankle in three spots while crossing a creek; she was in excruciating pain. Luckily, two physicians were there to help. Using borrowed hiking poles for splints, they immobilized Alishas leg but knew they needed to transport her off the mountain and to a hospital before shock set in. Unfortunately, there was no cell service and no place for a helicopter to land. The only option was to transport Alisha to the trailhead on Champ, an adopted mustang and Jays strongest, tallest and most experienced horse… The trail would be difficult to follow without jostling Alishas broken leg, but Jay knew Champs height, strength and demeanor could make the two-hour journey back to the trailhead better than any other horse. Jay led Champ for five miles, taking extra care to guide him around trees, water crossings and other obstacles that could cause pain and further injury to Alishas splinted leg. Champ handled them all in a manner befitting his name, and the group finally arrived at the trailhead at 5:30 p.m. Jay and one of the doctors went in search of a signal to call emergency services. When they returned, Alisha was showing signs of shock. She was moved to the prearranged rendezvous location to wait for the ambulance. At 7:35 p.m., the Sublette County Sherriff, ambulance and fire truck arrived. The Air Med helicopter followed 10 minutes later and transported a stabilized Alisha to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City for treatment. Its pretty amazing that I was rescued on a wild horse, and what a sweet, gentle horse Champ was, Alisha said. Alisha is expected to make a full recovery thanks to Jay, the physicians on the trail and a wonderful mustang gathered from the southwest Wyoming range and gentled at the Wyoming Honor Farm in Riverton.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 17:09:23 +0000
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