April 2010 PonyCare: A Barrel of Fun, Part 2
SOLVE THE PRINTABLE WORD SEARCH HERE
By Margaret Evans
Anita, Sandie and their families are at Horse Hair Ranch for an Easter weekend of Western clinics. But during a relaxing afternoon trail ride that takes them close to an archaeological dig site, Anita and Sandie encounter a terrifying natural event…
Emily Maguire leaned on the fence rail watching the riders in the arena intently. They were learning reining, one of her favourite Western riding disciplines. She loved its precision and how it could look so easy and effortless. She knew, though, that it was anything but.
Instructor Molly Mumford was explaining how to ride the perfect circle on both reins. Mrs. Maguire nodded in silent agreement. She had always demanded excellence of herself during her riding days and she knew the dedication, practice, and patience needed to ride circles, sliding stops, spins, and focused movement patterns at the lope and gallop, the signature moves of reining.
She and her husband Patrick owned Horse Hair Ranch. While they raised Hereford cattle, they also bred Quarter Horses and enjoyed offering riding holidays for guests. This year they had launched the riding season with a Western clinic. It had filled quickly and she had been so happy to see many riders from past years come back for an Easter holiday.
That morning, the first set of riders had enjoyed barrel racing. Some, like Anita Lee and Sandie Carey, hadn’t done it before. Mrs. Maguire couldn’t help grinning as she had watched the girls ride the barrels pattern. Anita’s pony, Penny, was excitable but obedient and Sandie’s mule, Fanny, took it characteristically in stride. Now the girls were enjoying a leisurely trail ride. Their brothers had gone mountain biking and their parents were hiking the Goat Bluff trail loop above the site where an archaeological team from Brokeville University was conducting a dig. There was evidence that the site was once an ancient settlement and everyone was excited to find out more.
With a sigh, Mrs. Maguire pushed herself away from the fence. She didn’t know why, but she had a vague sense of unease. She had some phone calls to make in the office and she needed to check the barbeque arrangements for their guests that evening. She loved these weekend clinics but they were a lot of work at a time in spring when there was already a lot to do on the ranch. Just as she walked across the courtyard her cell phone rang.
Twenty kilometres away, Anita and Sandie screamed in horror as they hung on to Penny and Fanny to stop them bolting. They had stopped at a viewpoint above the valley and dismounted for a rest. Then, horrified, they watched a rockslide cascade down the bluffs toward the scientists and helpers at the dig site. Everyone was scrambling for safety.
The girls rapidly mounted and searched for any trail that would lead down to the broad valley. As fast as they dared, they urged their animals down the hill, twisting and turning in the final switchbacks before coming to a gentle slope that led to the valley floor. They galloped to the site where it was clear that several people had been hurt. The team leader, covered in dust and with his leg clearly injured, was already on his cell phone.
Leaping off Penny, Anita ran up to him. “Are you all right? We saw what happened!”
The shock on his face was obvious. “People are hurt. I don’t know…” He pressed his phone into Anita’s hand. “Tell Mrs. Maguire to send help.”
He stumbled off, yelling to everyone to help the injured. Sandie thrust Fanny’s reins into Anita’s hands as she pitched in. Hanging on to Penny and Fanny, Anita pressed the phone to her ear as it persistently rang. She faintly heard a voice answer.
“Mrs. Maguire! It’s Anita. There’s been a rock slide at the dig site. People are hurt. They need help really fast!”
As she heard Mrs. Maguire’s gasp of horror, Anita rapidly told her what had happened just as the connection died. Fear flooded through her. How much had she heard her? Would she send the help they needed?
Securing Penny and Fanny, Anita stared at the extent of the slide. It was sheer chaos. Everything was covered in rubble or dust. People were sitting on the ground, nursing injuries. Judging from how the leader — someone had called him Rob — was hobbling around and calling out names, it was obvious he was afraid some might be missing. Grabbing first aid kits and water from the saddle bags, Anita raced to join Sandie who was on her knees clearing rubble away from a girl’s legs.
“She’s hurt,” Sandie said, not looking up.
Anita helped to gently free her. She was conscious but in shock and her leg was bent at an awkward angle. Anita wondered if it was broken.
“We might need an ambulance or something…”
“Are you all right?” The voice over her shoulder was her brother, Matt. His face was white, drained. She leapt up and hugged him as Sean held onto Sandie’s arm. They were clearly scared.
“We saw what happened from up there,” Sean’s voice wobbled, looking up. “We almost came down in the slide…”
“Help’s coming,” Anita assured them. “You’re not hurt, right?”
Just then Rob hobbled over to join them. He knelt down, assessing the student’s leg quickly. She managed to straighten it, much to the huge relief of everyone. She smiled weakly.
“I reached Mrs. Maguire…” Anita began, handing him his phone.
“Thanks love,” he managed to smile, looking at her intently. “You okay?”
Anita glanced at Penny and Fanny. “We were up the hill at the lookout. We saw what happened and managed to ride down following a deer trail. Our brothers were mountain biking…”
“The slide almost got us,” added Matt.
Rob rubbed Matt’s shoulder reassuringly. “That was a scary moment.” He glanced at his crew. “But I think everyone’s okay.”
In the distance, they could hear galloping hooves. Riders were coming and they could see a truck bouncing along. Anita let go of a long-held breath. She glanced at the extent of the rock slide. Then, above her, she saw something on the edge of the slide. It was Squirt, their Labrador dog. He had gone with Mom and Dad on their hike around the loop trail. Now he was furiously digging in the rocks. Matt followed Anita’s stare.
“What’s he doing?”
Anita gasped. “Mom! Dad!” She started to run, panic and realization hitting her. “Where are they?”
Ignoring the yells of others to stay off the rocks, Anita, Matt, and Sandie scrambled up the slope to where Squirt was whining and furiously digging. Dropping to their knees, they tore at the rocks.
“Please don’t let them be under here,” Anita sobbed, mad at herself for not being able to rip out the rocks faster.
As they yelled and screamed for their parents, Rob hobbled up to protect them from the unstable slope. Some rubble slipped and the girls instinctively flattened. Squirt paused, furiously panting, staring at the ground as the rubble exposed the belt of mom’s fanny pack. He grabbed it in his mouth, pulling frantically. Anita almost fainted with fear.
Very quickly, many hands were at work moving stones despite the danger. But as they pushed rocks aside, more tumbled into their place from further up the slope. They were so intent on their rescue work that they didn’t hear a voice calling.
“Anita! Matt!”
Anita paused, staring around. Squirt barked excitedly and then whined, wagging his tail as he loped away from the rocks toward the edge of the slope just as Mom, Dad, and Sandie’s Mom emerged through the bushes.
Screaming with relief, they fled to their parents’ arms. Rob stumbled through the rubble to warmly greet them and be sure of their safety. Anita introduced him.
“We thought…” Rob began, changing tactics mid-sentence. “We were afraid you were caught in the slide.”
“I saw Squirt digging in the rocks,” gulped Anita. “He found your fanny pack!”
“I was adjusting it when the slide happened.” Mom’s voice was close to tears. “The ground rumbled. I slipped. The pack fell and then Squirt disappeared. We were terrified. And we didn’t know where any of you were. It was a nightmare.”
“C’mon.” Dad put his arm around Betsy. “Let’s get down to the valley floor. Here Rob, I’ll give you a hand. Your leg seems pretty bad.”
“There’s others worse off,” Rob said, then grinned. “Maybe I could borrow that walking stick…”
Anita hugged Squirt and the children walked ahead of the adults to join the growing group below. Mr and Mrs. Maguire and their ranch hands were helping those who had been hurt and organizing transport for everyone not able to drive their own vehicles. Mom and Dad would get a ride back to their vehicle at the trailhead and the boys would go with them, their bikes in the back of the Maguire’s truck. Anita and Sandie ran to Penny and Fanny as they nickered eagerly to see them again. They needed to get mounted to ride back quickly before the light faded.
“Stay away from the slopes, girls,” cautioned Mrs. Maguire. “Follow the main valley trail. It leads straight to the ranch house and it cuts a more direct path than the road.”
“Be careful and get back as fast as possible,” said Mom, giving Anita a hug.
They waved as their parents drove away with the Maguires. Squirt was allowed to ride in the back of the truck with the boys’ bikes and his tail waved excitedly as they pulled away at the head of a convoy of vehicles heading back to the ranch house. Anita and Sandie checked their girths, then mounted. Something nagged at Anita. She stared at Sandie.
“Mom’s fanny pack.”
“What about it?”
“She wasn’t wearing it. She didn’t take it with her.” Anita stared at the slope. “In all that panic we just left it up there!”
Retying Penny and Fanny, they scrambled cautiously up the slope to where Squirt had been digging. The belt was still visible. Carefully they moved away a few stones and Anita lifted the fanny pack out of the rubble. They were just turning away when they felt the slope move beneath their feet.
“Get off!” Sandie yelled as she leapt to the edge of the rubble and hung onto some low fir branches. A section of the slope shifted, slid, and then settled further down. Keeping to the edge of the slide, the girls scrambled down toward the safety of the valley, making a detour around debris where some boulders had dislodged. But as they checked behind them they stared in astonishment. The dislodged boulders had revealed the entrance to a small cave.
“Don’t go in there.” Sandie knew Anita’s overwhelming curiosity.
“Look!”
A shaft of sunlight spangled on the exposed cave wall. But what had grabbed her attention at the entrance were the clearly etched drawings of horses, bison, and deer. There were smudgings and charcoal used for shading and what looked like fingerprints. Tugging at the fanny pack’s zipper she fumbled for Mom’s mini digital camera.
“Wow!” Sandie was overwhelmed by the clarity and intricate design of the drawings. She loved art. “They’re incredible!”
Anita started snapping photos, moving cautiously closer. It was as though the figures had magical powers. Gently Sandie reached out and lightly touched the image of a running horse. It sent a thrill through her. Anita moved closer still, studying an imprint that could only be a hand. She placed her own hand with a feather’s touch over it in a perfect fit.
“Someone just like me did this…” Her voice was barely a whisper. “How long ago?”
“I bet no one knows about this cave.” Sandie’s voice was full of wonder. “It’s so tiny.”
“Maybe. There could be a tunnel that leads to a bigger cavern inside.” Anita paused. “Like those caves in France. We could be the first to ever see this since…”
The enormity of the idea silenced them as they stared, mesmerized. What if they really were the first? Time tugged and as Anita took a last look they turned away reluctantly for the ride to the ranch.
They talked endlessly about their discovery of the cave. Penny and Fanny were glad to finally be on the move again and they trotted eagerly along the flat wide trail that led through cottonwood stands, then went up a rise that gave a panoramic view of the valley and the road the vehicles had taken on their return.
But in Anita’s imagination she envisioned vast herds of buffalo in the valley where the Maguire’s cattle grazed. She thought of ancient aboriginal bands that must have camped in the shelter of the trees. They would have drunk from the ice cold streams they were now splashing across and ridden horses along trails just like she was doing now. She thought of herds of wild horses that would have mingled with the game on the hills and grazed every spring on sweet young shoots of grass in the valley.
“I wonder how old those drawings are,” said Anita.
“Maybe the artefacts at the dig site will tell.”
“Maybe the drawings are a lot older. Maybe they were done thousands of years ago when the glaciers melted.”
“They’ll do carbon dating somehow.”
“I bet this site becomes really important.”
“The Maguire’s will love it.”
“Mr Maguire’s a rock hound. Like me,” grinned Anita as she urged Penny into a canter across a clear, flat stretch of trail. She breathed deeply, loving the feeling of the air on her face and the steady rhythm of Penny’s hooves. It was an ancient, stirring sound.
It was getting dark when they finally turned into the main corral at the ranch house. Matt, Sean, and Squirt raced to greet them.
“There’s a special barbeque tonight. Mom said to hurry feeding Penny.” Matt stared at the fanny pack. “We forgot that!”
“I know. We picked it up. And we found something else!”
Matt and Sean stared quizzically at the girls but they kept their secret as they rubbed down Penny and Fanny, put on coolers, shook out their bedding, measured feed and hay, and checked their water buckets. After wiping down their tack and putting it away, they ran to their cabins to shower and change for supper. Mom greeted Anita at the door and she held up the fanny pack triumphantly.
“You forgot it!”
“You went back for it?”
Rapidly Anita told her parents what had happened and what they had found. An hour later in the dining room the girls were sharing the excitement of their find with the Maguire’s, the dig team, the guest riders, and the ranch hands. Mr. Maguire managed to download the photos from Mom’s camera onto a laptop and project them for everyone to see. They were stunned and awed as to what this could mean. The shock of the rockslide quickly transformed into excitement for the days ahead at the dig. Suddenly the focus and the importance of the project took on a whole new meaning. Despite their cuts, scrapes, and bruises, everyone was ready to get back to the dig the next day.
Later, Anita lingered as she watered Penny for the night. Sandie and the other riders had finished their chores and Anita said she’d stay to turn out the barn lights. She really stayed just to sit with her pony.
The gentle sound of Penny’s rhythmic chewing as she ate her hay was soothing, calming. The day, with all its thrills and chills, had seemed to last forever. But only now did Anita carefully allow her mind to go back to that moment when Squirt pulled at the fanny pack in the rocks. She knew she had been convinced at that moment that Mom and Dad were dead. She forced her mind to slam shut. The consequences of that awfulness were unbearable. She clung to the reality of what really happened and she sensed Mom was doing the same thing. The sight of her face when she had appeared out of the bushes said everything about consequences and how life could change in a heartbeat. Anita understood.
But something beautiful happened that day too. Someone in a distant past had left a gesture of welcome etched forever in stone. Across the ancient arc of time, Anita had felt an inner tug of connectedness. A forgotten people had left a mark Anita would carry into the future.
A wet nose nudged at her hand. Squirt pushed his head closer for a scratch. Anita blinked back a tear as she drew him in for a hug, her cheek pressing against the crown of his warm head.
Somewhere she could hear music starting up for an impromptu barn dance. She kissed Penny goodnight and secured her stall door. Tomorrow would be another busy riding day with a barrel racing competition. With her beloved animals she felt grounded, secure in the moment.
Whistling for Squirt, Anita threw off the barn lights and closed the door on one extraordinary day she would never forget.