Burrrrr it's cold outside

I was warm and snug tucked into the corner of the local library when the call came. A frantic voice on the other end of the phone. "Where are you?" "Helping Jacob with his homework:" came my reply. "You need to get home right away, I cut my hand trying to get Aggie out of the pond, I'm freezing to death and I don't know what to do with her. Please get home as fast as you can." "I'm on my way, just calm down and talk to me.  Where is Aggie and what happen?"  I knew somehow this was the wrong thing to ask at this particular moment in time. I hurried Jacob to pack up and we headed out the door with the phone still in my hand. Burrrrr it's cold outside I thought to myself as I made it down the steps and into the cold vehicle.

The worse thing you can do is drive too fast down a country road. No telling what might pop out at you and this was no exception to the rule. I must have been flying at least 70 down a main road, yet the speed limit is 45. Didn't matter I just had to get home as quickly as I could. First to check on the cut that my grand-daughter endured during her dramatic rescue of one of the horses. Secondly to check on the horse known as Aggie. Thinking she tried to cross the not so frozen pond and perhaps fell in and got her back end drenched in ice cold water.

I made it in record time just barely escaping a couple of mishaps myself along the way. Upon arrival to the farm I went straight into the house to get some supplies then down the back road to the barn. My grand-daughter obtained a small cut that did not leave me worried, so I set my sights on Aggie. I left the car running while I went in to check on the situation. I found Aggie covered in soaking wet blankets, three of them thrown on top of one another, one heat lamp tied up to the top of the stall and pointed down on her. She was alone and shaking. My heart went out to this poor mare that had already lived through one life threatening situation. Here she looked like she might be facing another one. What I did not get was the whole story on the phone. It's like a Paul Harvey story, you get a little bit and then there is the rest of the story.

Well, this is what happen.  One of the volunteers working with her parent decided to let the horses all of them out behind the  barn. This is not uncommon in the summer for we have a huge pond that separates the pasture from the outside grounds. The problem is in the winter there is always a horse that tries to cross the water to get on the greener side of the pond.  Never fails, so we make it an exception during winter months not to use this back pasture as a holding ground. Anyway, Aggie apparently decided she was going to explore the pond and she fell through the ice. The scary thing here is that she was not missed right away.  It is estimated that she could have been in the water anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes before she was discovered. Another remarkable thing is that she managed to find the small opening in the ice and stay afloat for that long without going numb.  It was told to me that she was barely discovered with just her nostrils above water. Then a pause of not know what to do, the volunteers ran to the house to get some help. Alexandra just coming out of the shower with wet hair dressed and ran outside to see what could be done. Burrrrr it's cold outside.

Mean while the father of the volunteer took the canoe off the island in the pond and went out on the ice chopping away, breaking it around Aggie. At one point Aggie managed to get her cold tired body halfway up on the ice, but fell back in with a plunge that covered her whole head. Alexandra crawled out onto the ice to put a halter on Aggies once again merging head. She order the 4wheel drive vehicle be brought around to pull her out if need be.  The volunteers' father brought around his Jeep and used the headlights to better see the situation now that it was totally dark out. Not to mention it was Burrrrrrr cold outside.  Both Alexandra and the father began to break up the ice leading to the shore of the pond in front of the mare. Once again Alexandra with the help of the father of the volunteer in the canoe managed in the freezing cold to get a rope around the neck of Aggie.  Tying the other end of it to the Jeep Aggie was pulled to the shore, where she somehow managed to get her feet up on the edge and out of the water. Hypothermia was setting in and no one knew quiet what to do in an emergency. Getting lots of towels from the house they began trying to towel Aggies soaking body of fur.  Then at last resort they dumped three large horse blankets over her and left her in the stall.

My turn to enter into the picture .... burrrrr it's cold outside.  With no one there any longer but Alexandra, and she was too cold to continue. I ordered Jacob to go to the house and bring out three more heat lamps and all the hair dryers that he could find. I only had two, but you have to push him sometimes to get both of them at once.  He ran his little butt off as fast as he could and came back with full hands.  Mean while I removed all the soaking blankets and tossed them into the middle of the isle.  I then did something even worse I plugged in the blow dryers and blew the circuits. "Oh Jesus," I cried not knowing about the electrical I had to call my husband.  He talked me through the dark just to find out that we needed fuses that could not be found.  "Ok, whatever" I shouted: " I will run to home depot and get them."  More worried now that Aggie was not only wet but it would be another 30 to 40 minutes before I could get light to her. I decided to do something even more strange. 

My husband being a little strange put his motorcycle in the middle of our family room in the lower walkout of the house. I used candles to see and with the help of my grandson we moved the motorcycle to the hallway.  Well there about, and moved Aggie into the family room.  She was shaking so bad that the warmth of the house would keep her warmer than the cold of the barn.  Again I drove like a bat out of hell.  Hmmm I think that's a song by Meatloaf. But, true I drove like a bat out of hell to get to Home Depot and back.  Once back we managed like they say in the movies to get lights, camera, action.  Set with extra fuses if need be. I went back to the blow dryers.  It took several hours to get Aggie totally dry. My main goal was to keep her from dying and hypothermia from setting in.  I started with her belly as Jacob worked on her lower legs.  The poor mare stood there in the middle of my basement shaking but slowing thawing out. I noticed when I finished in her lower section she stopped shaking.  I decided to move her back into the barn and finish up there. From 9PM until well after 1AM I was still working on Aggie.  Once we got her completely dry, we let her loose so she could move her legs about and circulate them. She circulated them alright, right over to the hay and dropped her head never looking up. 

We between Jacob and I managed to get the other three heat lamps mounted and plugged in.  Bedded her stall with extra sawdust then took a not so heavy but warm cooler and laid it over Aggies body. She quivered a bit here and there, but over all she seem to be accepting the warmth. Giving her a half bale of hay to help keep her inners warm we shut off the main light. Looking back at the glow of the red heat lamps we could see she was buried into the hay not worried about us. Jacob and I headed up the yard toward the house. This time I openly commented my thoughts; "burrrrrr it's cold outside." "Yeah, it is grandma but, I don't care I am going to check on Aggie every hour to make sure she's ok."  I have got to tell you that the boy did what he said he would do. He went out every couple of hours and made sure she had hay in her stall at all times.

The next morning we removed the cooler and left Aggie under the heat lamps throughout the day. She did not get turned out for a couple of days, again I have to tell you this mare has defied death and will live to see a lot of tomorrows, where the grass is green and the sun shines high in the sky. But, today burrrrrrr it's cold outside