Part 2 The Red Roan Colt

Part 2  Page 1                The Red Roan Colt
                Even Insurmountable odds can be beaten!

    It was the next spring and the roan colt was still a stallion. He ran and played with the rest of the horses. They roamed free in the bush lands and on the farm. One day a big black mare showed up with my uncle's horses. We thought she came from Jack Fish Lake area, but we didn't know for sure.Then one afternoon my uncle confronted me late in the afternoon. My uncle said " Have you seen the roan colt, I can find him no where?", "He isn't with the rest of the horses and that's not like him!" I looked at my uncle for a minute before I replied," I don't know where he is, but I seen him with that big black mare and she has mud way up high on her back and rump." I said ,"Maybe she might of been in the bog, because she had a lot of mud on her. My uncle looked worried when I said that and left to go looking for the colt. Half a hour went by, before I seen My uncle coming back.He was pretty upset and out of breath, He said," I  found the colt about 800 yards from the house bogged down really bad in the mud of the muskeg." I need Help! ,Get your mom! " I ran to get mom and my uncle ran to get some long ropes, a halter and a wire stretcher. The three of us each packed a couple boards, and the other equipment and we  headed for the bog. When we got there, mom and I saw it was pretty bad, the colt was in a big sink hole, all that was sticking out was his head, neck, withers,centre of his back and top of his rump. Mom and I couldn't walk right out to where the colt was, we were sinking in the icy water, it wanted to come up and go over our boot tops and the hole bog shook the size of a small house. My uncle put the boards down and walked on them, picking up the boards from behind himself and putting them down infront, tell he reached the horse. My uncle said," we got to put the rope and halter on him, we have to keep his head up out of the water or he's going to drown. My uncle managed to get to the colts head and got the rope and halter on him. He threw the end of the rope to me. My uncle said," take the end of the rope and fasten it to whatever tree you can reach!" The ony tree I could reach was a small twisted one about 4 feet high, I fasten on the wire stretchers first and then fasten the rope to it. My uncle stated, "Pull up the wire stretcher." I did, it took up some of the slack and help lift the horse head up from the water. My mom stated," Lets all pull on the rope, maybe with us pulling and the horse struggling to get out he'll make it!" We did this many times, but It didn't seem possible for him to get out of the mud. Mom, my uncle and I, all pulled as hard as we could, but the horse even thou he tried to struggle, couldn't free himself from the bog. All his legs and tail was consumed in the mud and we didn't have the strength to pull him free. I was just 12 years old at the time and I was so sad, because it looked like the colt was going to die in the mud. My uncle said," If we can't get him out, I'll have to go to the house and get the rifle!" I'm going to have to shoot him!" "I can't let him die like this!" My mom started saying ,"NO!, NO!, Please just wait tell Gary gets off work at the Canfor sawmill at midnight! Maybe he'll come home and if he does, he'll help us." Mom kept saying," just wait till midnight, maybe my half brother would come home." Then we'll have some help to get the colt out." My uncle was worried and so was I that he wouldn't come home after work because he liked to go partying. My mom and I didn't know, but we prayed, that my brother would come home just this once. My uncle stuck a board on it's end in the bog to hold up the colts head, so his nose was out of the water and we waited.     
                                                  By Opal Caven