Floating Star

　
　
    Between my rides both here in Australia and in Yellowstone I have guided a fair few rides that I will never forget- one that we took out last week quite possibly takes the cake. Shaynee, Em, and I were all working at Camp Howqua that day and on our first ride that morning we had about eighteen 10-12 year old girls. I was riding drag with some of the more nervous kids and Em had just been called to the front to help Shaynee start our river swim. The horses are all used to this and will typically swim in the deeper parts of the river. Sometimes the kids will start screaming- either with unneccessary terror or out of excitement when they are knee deep in the water with the horse swimming under them. Many times the screaming sounds the same as it did this day.
    Since I was at the very back I could not see the first riders make their way into the river. I was at the back talking to Rachel, a little girl with a tendency to panic as a default whenever trying something new. The screams we heard a few seconds after the kids started making their way into the river did nothing to help the poor kid’s nerves. As I made my way to the side of the river closest to me to find out what category these screams fell under, I was greeted with the sight of poor Star, one of our little chestnut Arabians, belly up in the water and no Lori (his rider). At the sight, and without further consideration, I instinctively flew off of Combo my bay Andalusian mount of the day, and dove into the water- fully clad in boots, jeans, helmet, radio, belt, and leatherman . I was 10-15 meters down river from them and by the time I made it into the deep end of the river and into the current I was really wishing I had thought that course of action through. I proceeded to fight from sinking like a rock to the bottom with all my gear on and made it to a little island in the middle of the river and took off the radio and helmet, then dove back in and what felt like 10 minutes later I finally made it to the horse who by that time of course, Emily was already grabbing for his reigns. There were still kids in the water so as Emily got a hold of Star’s reigns and drug him to the bank (where he finally realized he wasn’t dead and could stand again) I worked on getting a very excited group of kids out of the water. My group, who had been at the back of the line with me were making their way up to me when they were supposed to stay put because they couldn’t control their horses. I went and got a hold of their horses and lead all of them out of the river and then once we were all on dry land I immediately was looking for Rachel. When I asked where she was I was told she was still frozen back on the bank where I had left her. I made my way back there and found her white and trembling. “I don’t want to go swimming, I really really don’t want to go swimming” was all she could say. I told her I had had enough swimming for one day and lead her and Combo back to the rest of the group. It was then I remembered by radio was still on the island in the middle of the river. What a day.