So last weekend Adam and his friend Mark Gough went for a ride (horseback) up by Gibson Reservoir with the intention of camping at Bear Lake for the night. They headed back in and got within about a mile of the lake before they had to turn around because the horses were belly deep in snow. (YIKES) They camped and goofed around for the night and intended to sleep in! Adam had been called in to work the night before they left and gotten home at 1 a.m. only to have to get up at 6 a.m. to leave. At 5:30 a.m., some bull elk started calling to their horses to see if they were cows and woke them up. (Adam swears that they must have been the dumbest elk on the face of the earth to think horses were cow elk!) All the commotion ruined their plan to sleep in, so they decided to just get up and get going, thinking that they could surprise the wives by being home before we were home from church. Not far from their camp they had to cross Bear Creek. They had crossed it on the way in and it was high but not bad The water had risen over night and now it was boiling. Adam and Mark both crossed easily but our dog Dixie was with and she couldn't make it all the way across. She was going about 3/4 of the way and then turning back and whining for Adam. He yelled at her to come but she just couldn't/wouldn't do it. He turned around and went back for her finally. Mark said it was the funniest thing to watch Adam dismount, put the dog up on the horse and then climb back up himself. Adam rode around for a minute to make sure everything was okay and then started to cross the creek. About two steps in, the horse decided it wasn't okay and started bucking. She flipped over backwards, pinning Adam in the creek with everything but his nose and mouth under water. The horse got wedged between a rock and the bank and couldn't get up. Adam couldn't move. As he lie there, he thought to himself about how much he was going to miss us. (He says that's a good thing because it means he's not afraid to die.) Mark pulled the horse up off him and got kicked in the knee in the process. The horses took off running. Adam and Mark looked for the dog for a few minutes but she was nowhere to be found. They are pretty certain that she got washed away. They had to chase down the horses and ride out. Adam got very banged up. He knew he had broken ribs as soon as he got up. He also had a bloody nose and lip and a black eye. He didn't believe Mark about how bad he looked, so he took a picture of himself just so he could see! They got phone service just as I was leaving church. Adam told me that he'd "come off Deuce and was pretty sure he'd broken a couple ribs" and asked me to come get him and take him to the ER. I was shocked at how awful he looked when I pulled into Mark and LaNeige's driveway. He was covered in dried blood, holding one arm to his chest, and slowly limping along. Not at all what I had pictured from his calm explanation that he'd "come off Deuce!" Mark and LaNeige watched our older two kids while we spent the rest of Sunday in the ER. Luckily he has no imajor injuries other than two broken ribs. He is doing as well as can be expected. I am so lucky to still have a husband. The only thing that saved him from drowning was a little scrubby willow bush that was exactly where his head landed. You can't tell me that's not a miracle. He and Mark have resolved to never again miss church to go riding. I think that's a good idea.
