Finding Cole

Not much going on today. I went back to work and Caleb was back at school. We left mom alone at the house. My cousin Joe came over and started tearing down the dry wall and mom finished getting everything out of the house. We are hoping to get the entire house gutted out by the weekend.

I wrote in the first posting about our adventure in saving the animals at mom's house the first night. The story of us getting Cole back is unbelievable. On Monday morning at 3:00 am we gave up in finding anymore horses. We had saved three, left one because of the danger, and missing two horses. On Tuesday, a high school friend of my moms, Teri Huffins Blunkall, called to let us know air 4 was showing a black horse in Pennington Bend. We didn't think it could possibly be our horse. Cole is a strong, young horse who loves the water and loves to go swimming in the ponds. However, Pennington Bend is 14 miles down the river.

I have been in contact with Melissa Riley who was out on Tuesday trying to save the horse. She sent me the following information.

"I got a call from Nashville Paw about a horse trapped in the Pennington Bend area. We got our equine volunteers and a boat to go out and see what could be done for him. We attempted to rescue him on Monday when we were told that the waters were projected to continue to rise and take him off the island back into the Cumberland River.

We got out to him after fighting a lot of current along where the road and guardrail were. He was extremely calm and so gentle and sweet. We could tell that whoever he belonged to loved him and took good care of him. He walked into the water with us without any trouble at all.

We got him about halfway out (back to the road where the white shed was) with water up to our chest when within a few minutes it rose without warning to over our heads. The Corps of Engineers was not supposed to be releasing water at that time, but it rose significantly without warning.

We made the decision for his safety to swim with him back to the island where we treated his wounds he had from washing downstream earlier, and then had to leave him for the night. We felt that he was safer sheltering in place than trying to swim against such a strong current as he was already very tired. Our fear was that he would be washed back into the Cumberland River. We did not want to abandon him, but it was the safest choice we were facing at the time on Monday night.

We attempted to return the next day to evacuate if the water was down or leave fresh water and hay if we still could not get him out, however, all boat operations were canceled in that area because structural engineers said that houses were about to break loose"

On Wednesday, mom began to think of how we had found one horse dead and began to get really upset about Cole. We decided we had to try and get to him. We knew the water was still up in Pennington Bend but it was worth a try. We drove out and talked the police baracade into letting us in the neighborhood. We talked with the Fire Department who was giving people boat rides into the neighborhood to get some items from their homes. They gave us a lift to the drop off point, and we had met two men that had seen the horse. Mike Bishop and his friend took off in their canoe to get a better description of him. When they got there Mike called my cell phone and described Cole. We knew it was him since he has a white mark on one of his hips. After the firemen were finished taking the last people back they took us as far as they could in the boat. There I stayed with one of the firefighters and the boat. Mom and the other fire fighter walked through the water the rest of the way. As soon as mom got to the island she hit the ground running. She was so excited. We decided there was too much current and we needed to wait until morning when the water goes down some to walk him out. On the island was a playground, Lock Two Park, and an old house with a fence around it. Mom checked out Cole and the Fireman tightened the gates on the fence. They left him in the fenced in yard just in case the water went to far down and he decided to leave.

The next morning (Thursday) Mom, Casey, Casey, and me went to get Cole. We drove as far as we could, then walked him to the trailer. We spent several hours trying to load him. All the noises had him spooked. There were helicopters flying over us constantly. Apparently we were on channel 2 during this time. We never got a chance to see it. Finally we decided to drive out and mom walked him all the way to the shore.

When we got him to dryer ground a couple of metro police officers helped and with some force he went in. We stopped by a vet on the way home to have his leg checked out. He seems to be doing great. He came to my house for a couple of days, but quickly got restless in the smaller area. Channel 4 contacted mom Thursday night to come out Friday and interview her. They had received lots of calls to see about the horse. They said some were crying on the phone. The story aired Friday night. A lot was cut out and some was exaggerated, but it was a lot of fun to watch. Mom and Cole were adorable. Saturday Cole loaded up with no problems and we brought him back home. A teacher from my school brought hay because our hay, feed, and fields all had the nasty Cumberland River muck on it. Cole ran around thrilled to be back home. Within minutes he was in the pond for a swim!

Channel 4 News story on Cole: http://www.wsmv.com/video/23480160/

Mike Bishop's note on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/note.php?note_id=387988739785&id=1413212086&ref=mf

Map of Cole's journey created by Mike Bishop and Wade.