May 22, 2000
The Case of the Disappearing Horse
by Kathy Henson, reprinted from The Mountain Times
When Debbie DeVita decided to start conditioning her Arabian
horse Tyrone for endurance riding, she had no idea what a
good choice she had made.
DeVita was out riding with a friend on Sunday, May 22 in the
wilderness around Leatherwood. It was a hot day and a long
ride, and as she started to sponge off the horse to keep him
cool, he got spooked. She dismounted and held on to him as
long as she could, but he bolted and disappeared. She and a
friend tracked him for two miles, but were caught in a
downpour and had to turn back. They went back out to search,
this time with four-wheelers, and stayed out until dark,
with no success.
Over the next week, the Leatherwood community, horse-people
and people who don’t ride, DeVita’s friends and people she
still hasn’t met, would all unite to search for Tyrone.
Raymond Hansmann, General Manager of Leatherwood, was out at
5 a.m. the next day searching and virtually the whole
Leatherwood staff joined in before the week was out. Friends
Phil and Joan Rash helped search on four-wheelers and on
horseback. Jack Apple and his search and rescue dog Sadie
went out to try to pick up the scent. Cathy and Chuck
Billings made flyers and helped search on foot. Patty and
Paul McWhirter joined the search on horseback and Joy
English even helped locate a helicopter to do an air search,
although that idea was later abandoned because the terrain
around Leatherwood is too heavily forested for that to be
successful.
The first few days yielded no hope. Since horses are herd
animals, DeVita expected him to seek out other horses, or at
least to come back to the stables. When that didn’t happen,
DeVita was afraid he had been injured or that his tack had
become entangled in the thick vegetation in the area.
Leatherwood is surrounded by 5000 acres of steep wilderness
terrain criss-crossed with trails and logging roads. On top
of all this, the weather that week was atrocious, with
numerous thunderstorms and lots of rain. The situation
looked bleak.
But finally a lead turned up. Carrie Clark of New River
Stables, and Abbie Sanders of Leatherwood Stables, were out
searching on the 25th and found some tracks just off Wildcat
Road. Unfortunately, the tracks vanished. Other leads would
turn up and then fade away. Over l00 vacationing riders who
were in the area over the Memorial Day weekend failed to
find a trace of Tyrone. At least a dozen searchers were out
looking at any given time, with no success. Everyone kept
saying, he’ll show up, he’ll poke his head out, DeVita said.
"I was trying to keep my faith, but it was hard."
By the beginning of the next week, DeVita despaired of ever
being reunited with Tyrone. "After nine days, I didn’t think
I’d ever seek that horse again, at least alive, "she said.
On Tuesday, she was at the insurance office filing a claim
on her tack. She called in to work and got the message she
had been waiting for. Tyrone was back! A horse-trainer named
Mark Williams had found him, or maybe Tyrone had found Mark.
Williams was driving down a road in Leatherwood when he saw
a horse being chased by dogs. Williams said the horse seem
to come from nowhere, "like he’d popped out of a time warp".
He couldn’t believe it was Tyrone at first because he was
fully tacked, with the reins still over his head as if he’d
just thrown a rider, amazing considering that the horse had
been in the wilderness for nine days. Williams got out of
his truck and the horse came towards him, but instead of
moving towards the horse, he turned away, so as not to spook
him. Tyrone followed him. When he felt the horse was calm
enough, Williams took the bridle and led him to the barn.
When DeVita heard the news, she said she cried on the phone
as she called friends who had supported her and helped
search. She said Williams was the perfect person to find the
horse. "He’s half horse himself. If anybody was going to
find him, Mark would be the one."
As for Tyrone, he was exhausted, but relatively unharmed. He
had a couple of saddle sores and had lost l50 to l75 pounds.
DeVita says they will feed him sparingly at first, water and
hay, and then slowly add grain back into his diet. It will
take several months for him to regain the weight, but DeVita
says Tyrone seems unharmed psychologically. "I got him with
hopes of doing endurance riding and I think he proved he’s
got a lot of endurance," she said, adding that he seems
ready to go out again.
What could Tyrone have been doing for those nine days?
DeVita jokes about an alien abduction or a romantic
adventure, but it’s more likely that he stayed wherever
there was food and water or that he was actually in the
Wildcat area where tracks were found, but just missed the
searchers.
DeVita plans to celebrate this happy ending with a "He
Showed Up" party because everyone kept reassuring her that
he would show up again. The party is also to thank everyone
who helped with the search. "The thing that amazed me was
the people who pulled together in the horse community and
even people who weren’t horse people. They kept me going,"
she explained.
 |
 |
A
beaming Debbie DeVita with Tyrone and fellow
searchers Carie Clark and Abbie Sanders
|
A
little skinnier but none the worse for wear: Tyrone
lost around 175 pounds during his ordeal |
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