Guest editorial

For those of you who don’t know, I was hit head-on by a drunk driver on June 12, 2016, while on my way to compete at a rodeo. I had a full load of precious cargo which included four horses, my dog and myself. I guess we all figured that the big Kodiak c4500 I was using to pull my horse trailer would take the brunt of the hit, and it did. It most likely saved all of my kids and me from a far worse outcome.

Along with the crash that morning, just doing what I normally do, what I also didn’t understand was what this was going to do to the pretty good year that my horses and I had been having. Which was a huge blessing, because last year in July, my dad died from head trauma following a motorcycle crash. We also lost a horse to kidney failure, a dummy foal (afflicted by neonatal encephalopathy), a foal to a hipbone infection and our prize broodmare and the foal she was carrying to a torn uterus. So let’s just say, last year was pretty tough.

Now that it has been several weeks since the crash, my trailer is going though the process of getting repaired. My truck was totaled, I have whiplash and nightmares about headlights and crashing, and the process of fixing my neck is excruciatingly painful. But the worst part is that the horses in my trailer, used to pushing themselves to their limits on run after run, trying their hearts out to do what we love, are going through pain and injuries they should never have had to deal with. I’m not writing about this to get sympathy, but in an effort to raise awareness.

This was an accident that should never have happened. Nobody should be allowed to get behind the wheel of a vehicle while impaired. What may have seemed like a choice that was no big deal, it was actually a selfish choice that could have impacted others for a long time, maybe even the rest of their lives. It is a very serious thing to be risking not just your own life, should you choose to drive impaired, but other innocent victims who just happen to be driving the same route you selfishly chose to take.

I am glad that I was in the big truck and that maybe that truck helped save an innocent family later on driving to church or even that impaired driver’s life. But now, as I try to make the most valuable thing in my life, my mare Sugar, feel better, I cry thinking about the pain that she and the other barrel-racing horses in my trailer are going though, both physically and mentally.

Those horses are not just four-legged vegetarians with flowing manes and tails, they are athletes – athletes trained, conditioned, fed and prepared for all different weather conditions, ground conditions and atmospheres. It takes years to make these athletes – our teammates, best friends and companions – able to compete at the levels they do. There are enough challenges in keeping them sound and performing at their peak potential without adding in the variable of a selfish person who decided one morning to drive while in no condition to drive, who we just happened to encounter while driving to do what we do.

Please think twice about drinking and driving and be responsible, because it’s not just you that your choice will effect.