Monday, November 20, 2006

In Her Own Words - Cobra's Comeback
by Pamela Doolittle

The Dream Becomes a Nighmare

My family met me at the barn to say goodbye and help me pack up to leave. I wrapped Coby’s legs in standing wraps and flannels, put on the extra halter I always use when I haul. We loaded him in the trailer, and I drove slowly out of the parking lot into the residential neighborhood framing the stable. I chatted happily with my son about our new riding arena as we drove away from the farm. My husband followed with our two little girls in our minivan.

He called my cell phone with the news. “You have to get back here right now,” he said. “Coby just fell out of the trailer.”

I didn’t believe him. I told him not to joke like that. I was insulted. But I could hear the emotion in his voice as he tried to convince me that it had really happened. I stopped the truck and ran to the back of the trailer. The door swung unapologetically on bent hinges. There was a bulge right under the rear door window silhouetting Coby’s rear end. A mark of manure stained the door. The trailer tie and a broken halter were all that remained of what we had secured inside the trailer. I returned to the farm where my husband, my two little girls and my friends waited tearfully. Coby stood in the crossties completely stunned. His knees were ripped open to reveal the carpi on both front legs. I could see bone on the fetlock of the right hind. The left hind as well as both stifles were ripped completely to reveal fragile underlying tissue. The veterinarian who responded to the emergency call did not know what to do. She went back to her truck to get advice from a veterinary hospital. We decided right then to take Coby to the Wisconsin Equine Clinic, which was about an hour away from our location.