“I will always think of him as my hero.”

One of my favorite pastimes is looking out the kitchen window as my horses graze against the beautiful majestic backdrop of Mount Lassen. This day was no different. Standing at the sink, I watched my horse Casey as he rolled on the ground by the white vinyl fence.

Casey is a dark bay gelding. He’s the perfect horse; the one anyone can ride. He is gentle and very willing to please. Needless to say, I was concerned when I saw him roll and extend his leg over the bottom rail of the fence. Panic set in because I could see he was too close to stand up. I raced from the house and within seconds was at Casey’s side. Not sure what to do, I yelled for my husband who happened to be home for lunch. We tried to slip the board out from the posts but to our dismay it was locked in. The only way we were going to move it was to cut it.

Casey lay very still and I wasn’t sure if he was going into shock or dying. I tried lifting his leg. This almost worked, but then he swung it under the rail. Now we were really in deep trouble. His legs were on the other side of the fence, opposite to where his body lay. My husband ran to the barn for a saw to cut the fence.

My other two horses – a big bay gelding named Cody and a pony named Little Guy – stood nearby, looking on curiously. Suddenly, Cody came closer and bent down to smell Casey. I thought, don’t you dare bite him! But before I could do anything, Cody walked behind him, took his mane in his mouth and dragged him away from the fence. To my amazement, Casey popped up, without a mark on him.

I wish I could say this was the end of a good horse story, but a few weeks later, Cody died suddenly during the night. It was as if he needed to do this good deed before going on to his happy trails in the sky. I will always think of him as my hero for pulling Casey to safety.