March 05 --Tuesday was a tough day for Buddy.
The 30-year-old, half-blind horse was wedged on his back between a steep 6-foot embankment and the back of a garage on NW Goodin Creek Road south of Gaston.
Owner Debie Wilson was working on her property when she heard a thump at the back of the garage on her small family ranch. She though the wind that afternoon had maybe knocked down a tree branch.
Turns out, that thump was Buddy's upended legs hitting the back of the building.
"He was not freaking out, he was just laying there," she said. "He was kind of looking at me, upside down.
"And I said, 'Oh Buddy, what have you done.'"
After about 45 minutes of attempting to free Buddy on their own, Debie's husband Ken called Gaston Rural Fire District. To Debie's surprise -- she didn't expect a horse emergency to warrant a fire and rescue call -- the volunteer firefighters arrived right away.
They used a see-saw motion to get their flat, wide fire hoses underneath the horse, Wilson said. Buddy is a calm-natured Appaloosa, but Wilson stayed by his side as firefighters worked to move the hoses beneath him.
"You're dealing with 1,200 pounds of scared," Wilson said. "He was trying to be calm about it, but you can't explain anything to him."
The process took hours, she said, but eventually the firefighters used a nearby tree to wrap the hoses around and yank Buddy up to a sitting position. When it came time to pull him forward, a veterinarian tranquilized Buddy.
"Two or three 'heave-hos' and they got him turned around," Wilson said.
By about 4:30 p.m., firefighters had freed the horse.
"This went from a real disaster to an unbelievable outcome," Wilson said. "Those guys are amazing. I was embarrassed to call them, but it turns out that they are pretty good at that kind of stuff."
Wilson still isn't sure how Buddy got behind the garage -- the area is fenced, and in 17 years on the property he's never wandered into the space. But Buddy is recuperating well.
"He's doing really good," Wilson said. "He's sore because of all the pulling and maneuvering they had to do on him. He's eating, and he finally pooped this morning."
Buddy's an old horse, and Wilson knows his time may come soon. It just wasn't going to be Tuesday.
"It would have been a real undignified way to have to had put him down, for such a proud guy as he is," she said. "I'm so thankful to those (firefighters), I'm just blown away."
And it probably won't be the last Gaston fire sees of Wilson: "I hope the guys like cookies and cakes because I'm a good baker, and I'm going to be dropping stuff off for them."
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