Larry Hewitt
Washington State CMO

Rider Gets an Earful at Taylor Mountain

Mary Gazaway and I decided to leap frog past the first teams out, taking advantage of our 8th place start. We skipped the first two plates, and moved into our first two target areas and quickly found the plates. As we entered our third area, we wanted to avoid leaving any hoof prints in the soft dirt, so we both dismounted.

The triangulations pointed toward a large fir tree on the edge of a steep drop off. Guessing it was not over the edge, it had to be behind the tree. So I walked (on foot, remember) over to the large fir tree.

Ed and Angie Rose had shown up riding down the trail as we began to dismount. As I walked toward the tree, I wanted to see if they could see me, and turned slightly to take a look at them.

WHAM!

I HAD WALKED SMACK INTO A BROKEN BRANCH STICKING OUT FROM THE FIR TREE - AND CAUGHT IT ON MY RIGHT EAR!

I fell to my knees and grabbed my ear. No bleeding yet. So I crawled around the base of the tree and got the plate - first things first! As I stumbled back to my horse, I hit the ground again in pain, and knew I was in some trouble.

Angie and Mary took a look, and I could tell by their reaction it looked pretty bad. They bandaged me up, securing my bandana bandage with Mary's hair band. I convinced Mary to continue with the ride, and I trotted back to the finish line. It took me about an hour and a quarter to drive home, and I was getting ready to have my son-in-law take me to the hospital.

Well, he is an army Ranger - a medic, to be precise. He was adamant.

"Let me stitch it up."

"What? No way!"

"Aw, comeon, you baby! I do this all the time!"

So here I was sitting in my laundry room (better light), with the camera clicking away, having my son-in-law performing emergency surgery on my right ear, which had been ripped in half by the blow. I took a couple a good shots from the brandy bottle, and gritted my teeth...

He actually did a great job, and the healing is underway. I thought you'd like to see some of the pictures.

I want to thank Angie Rose and Mary Gazaway for administering first aid, and Angie for the funny story that helped lower the tension level!