GOODBYE DARLING

Mark Dial and I are bonded for life over this event.  We got in a bad wreck in a creek bed at a famous crossing called “Flower Pot”.  It was a great night, but a not-so-great night.

I am pretty sure it was June 3, 2000.  I remember the next day was my birthday (June 4) and I was going to get the day off.  June 3rd I guided trail rides all day at least 6-8 hours.  This meant we probably had already ridden 25-30 miles.  We generally end the day very thirsty, very hungry, and very ready for a shower and dry clothes.

I returned with what I thought was my last ride and saw there were more horses saddled and folks were getting ready to head out again.  I would guess this is about 5 or 6 pm (still daylight).  Darolyn and Mark said, “Bobbi we are taking you out for your Birthday!  And you get to ride GOODBYE DARLING!”  This was going to be a fun ride!  This would be a ride I didn’t have to “work”.  This was going to be a ride with friends, food, and the best birthday ever!

Goodbye Darling was not a horse we guided trail rides on much.  Nobody ever really said why.  I think it is probably because she had a little more “Goodbye” than “Darling”.  The only chance I would have to ride her would be on a “fun ride” with capable riders.  My general observations about her on the way out was she was fun and she was strong.

South of Cypress Trails Ranch LLC was a beautiful forest along Cypresswood Creek.  It was so enchanting with the exposed cypress tree roots.  Light filtered through the trees in such a beautiful way.  I rode these trails all the time.  This was our “short loop” when we had folks for shorter rides.  But on this birthday ride we were not going to do the short loop.  We would exit the forest into a clearing and traverse a pretty busy road to Papasitos Cantina.  My best guess is this was about a 10-mile ride from the farm one way.

We traveled at a pretty big trot, yet along the way there were lots of stories told about this and about that.  Darolyn told stories about many times she rode this way with various horses including the famous DJB Thunder Road.  (I vaguely remember the details, but I think they ended up in a hole and she broke something.)  As we chuckle in amazement of all her adventures, we ourselves were living out our own adventure.

We get to Papasitos and tie the horses to the chain link fence.  As you can imagine how elated I was to see food and drinks.  I have been working hard all day.  I have had this great ride on Goodbye Darling and I am enjoying my new friends.  They sang for me.  They paid for me.  They made me feel so appreciated.

In Humble, TX, the sun goes down much earlier than in ND.  I think most nights it is dark by 8 pm.  It is so weird!  By the time we are leaving it is getting dark.  There are streetlights, car lights, and moonlight.  We are traveling back the way we came and cheerful stories continue.  The horses were great.

I am so blind at night.  I really can’t see a thing.  I must trust this horse and trust these people, because I am not an experienced night rider.  100-mile endurance riders start and end many races in darkness.  This is not even tricky to Darolyn.  She knows the way home like the back of her hand.  It continues getting darker as we ride away from suburbia and back to the forest.  I noticed the only thing that I can see anymore is Mark’s white shirt.

I am tired, I have a belly full of Papasitos, and I am just telling myself stay behind Mark.  Stay behind Mark.  Mark is the only rider I can see anymore.  I have to just stay right on his tail.  Once we enter the forest cover it is darker than dark.  It is even difficult to see a white shirt.  We are literally following sounds of the other horses and following the horses’ instincts as they all travel the path home they have traveled so many times before.

I hear Darolyn ahead of us talking with the other riders, then all of a sudden things didn’t sound so good.  I hear Darolyn say “Oh SHIT! Mark come over here, the creekbed is full!”  I hear splashing, instructions, others are relaying information.  Mark and I continue toward the “situation”.  I hear lots of spashing.  Darolyn found the way through and started instructing everyone to follow her voice.  I can hear horses successfully entering and exiting the water with the usual sounds.  I am alert but not panicked yet.

While we were at Papasitos, it must have rained somewhere upstream.  As a result, runoff water filled the creekbed we needed to cross to return to the farm.  It was bone dry when we rode out.  Darolyn kept giving Mark instructions, I was keeping to my plan “follow Mark”.  Then I noticed that the energy in our horses was changing.  Darolyn was saying, “NO you can’t get across Flower Pot that way, you have to turn towards my voice”.  She kept saying, “follow my voice, this way”.  I was trying to instinctively turn Goodbye Darling towards Darolyn’s voice.

We are walking through water up to our stirrups, I am still trying to follow Mark but also trying to stay aware that Darolyn is trying to give us “new instructions”.  Mark is riding DJB Raad Bey.  Raad is not having any of this.  He is hell bent in going the “way Raad knows”.  Raad is trying to go up the side of Flower Pot that is completely washed out now and it is straight up.  I can hear Mark fighting him and trying to get him to follow Darolyn.  Darolyn keeps calm and keeps repeating her instructions.  I am kinda just pacing in the water waiting and watching for the successful way out.

In one big effort Raad commits himself to the “old way” and heads straight up the embankment.  Mark either chose to slide off or fell off.  I could not see.  I take the reins hard and start pulling Darling toward Darolyn’s voice.  I am worried about Mark being in the water and I can’t see him.

Darling turned into a fire breathing dragon within about one second of Raad leaving.  She was now hell bent to follow Raad up the not so successful choice out of the creek.  Mark is in the water but I don’t know where.  I do not know if he is safe, hurt, breathing, or drowning.

Darling is really starting to thrash and fight me.  I have to get her out of the water.  She is an extreme threat to injuring Mark or killing him with her thrashing legs.  She is doing anything to get out, she is the only horse left in the water.  She is scared.  I grab the tail of my rein and I whip her as hard as I could.  Just as she committed to her “jump” out of the water I launched myself off her so that I could jump in the water and find Mark.

I don’t remember the next part.  I have noticed I tend to black out details when shit hits the fan.  I believe it was Raad that ran home.  Between Mark and I we only had one horse.  I think it was Darling that stayed.  We didn’t have to do CPR or anything crazy like that, but Mark was not ok.  He was spitting water and had broken ribs.

The only part I remember for the last leg of our journey was leading a horse.  Was I leading Darling or leading Raad?  I think Mark was up in the saddle but was he sitting? Or did we throw him over the back of the horse like a rag doll?  Or did he walk?  I really can’t remember.

It felt like a terrible western movie.  I just about killed my boss’s husband in a creek on my 21st birthday.  It was very scary, and it all happened in a lot less time than it took to tell this story.  I woke up the next morning (my day off, June 4th), and I just thought what happens?  Do I just go home now?  Do I call and get plane tickets and just leave?  How bad is he hurt?  Did he go to the hospital?  It was horrifying.

Mark was pretty good at handing out sarcastic humor when the going got tough.  I don’t really handle things the same way.  Bumps and bruises heal, but we both realize that we were both very lucky that night.  Angels protected him and I from worse.  I am so glad we just have a terrible story to tell.

Goodbye Darling was a wonderful ride.  I am so glad I got the ride.  It would have been better if she would have listened, and not run over Mark in the creek.  Uffda…