TRIGGER WARNING: There are stories shared here of accidents with horses. They may be beautiful animals, but these cautionary tales will remind you of just how powerful horses can be. When Callie was 13, she was attacked by her father’s stallion. At the same age, Andrea was badly injured when she hit a brick wall while falling from her horse.
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Transcript
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Callie King 00:00
Someone caught him and just said, Callie's been in an accident with a horse the helicopters on its way. From the bite on the back of my neck, I had blood like all kind of around my neck and coming out of my ears. I think my body like my nervous system said, "This is it. I'm going to die." -
Andrea Wady 00:21
Oh my god. Jump in with both feet. -
Callie King 00:26
Go Big. -
Andrea Wady 00:27
Follow your dreams -
Callie King 00:28
grab life by the reins. -
Andrea Wady 00:30
This is how we live, we're Callie King and Andrea Wadey, two horse trainers always looking for adventure and -
Callie King 00:37
finding it. Join us for stories of dangerous travels wild animals, new challenges, and in the end, always learning alongside our magnificent horses. So saddle up and follow along, you're listening to grab life by the reins. -
Andrea Wady 01:05
We love connections with animals. It's something that I think we both relied on a lot in our early years in life, and even now, we tend to find more peace with animals than we do with humans, I think. But we're also talking about how it doesn't always go to plan. And that with the best will in the world. Sometimes an animal will attack or not want to be with us. We were thinking about that a little bit this week about how things can go wrong, and it can change the direction of our life even. And I know that you have a pretty phenomenal story about a horse. And it just kind of blows me away that after this, which you'll hear about in a minute. You still are completely in love with horses. And that's pretty phenomenal. So you had an incident? I can't think how old you were, 13, when you got attacked by a stallion? Yes. -
Callie King 02:16
It it changed the course of my life. Because before that, I wanted to be a professional rider in the sense of I wanted to be a competition rider. And I had all these big dreams for what I was going to do. And that event changed. It changed me personally. But it also changed, like what my drives and interests were. Because basically I just for a long time ask the question of why would he do that? And what happened to me? Why couldn't I react? Why? What actually happened? When I went unconscious? Why did I have the thoughts I did during it? -
Andrea Wady 03:04
So just talk us through how it happened? Where did it all start? -
Callie King 03:12
Well, the backstory was, we'd had horses. I got my first horse when I was nine scotch. And I had been riding for a few years even before that. started riding when I was six. Got my first horse when I was nine. My parents, both my mom and my dad started riding a little bit when I was around 12. And then we were coming home from Colorado back to Pennsylvania driving well we drove and we came through Kentucky to see a friend of my dad's and through a random course of events. He ended up purchasing a stallion literally someone rode by with a stallion, and my dad was just like, we'll take him home put him on the trailer. But we didn't have the facilities for a stallion. For anyone that doesn't know the stallions can be quite dangerous, especially when they're in domestic situations when they don't have the socialization that they wouldn't herd. A stallion in a natural herd situation is essentially the protector of the herd. So they do have that aggression that's needed to sometimes attack predators, you know, horses will attack in the wild, they're not just a flight animal. So they have that to attack predators. They also will, you know, the males the stallions will will fight over females. So they have a certain amount of natural aggression. Absolutely. And then when they're kept in domestic situations and they don't have enough exercise, they don't have the outlet. They don't have the socialization that can often really increase that they just have more and more of this kind of pent up energy and pent up aggression, so we didn't have the facilities to correctly care for our house this stallion I was 13 so I didn't even know I was already quite good with horses at this age. I still didn't have near the skills that were needed for handling stallion and handling an aggressive stallion at that. And he was his name was hide. He was a beautiful, really dark in his breed. He was a rocky mountain horse and they call it a dark chocolate with flax domain and taro stunning. So he had this rich like literally the color of dark chocolate coat with this bright blonde mane and tail beautiful horse. And he was small he only stood horses are measured in hands, he only stood 14 One. So he was he was a smaller horse. And he just had so much fire. And I had written him maybe one or two times so I didn't normally ride him. But I did care for all of the horses that we had we just had I think we had four horses at that time. And our two mares were kept at the other side of the farm. But they were just coming out of their last season for the year. And with HUD he would stay in the stall for most of the day. But I would put him out for several hours in a paddock that we had a small paddock. When I took him out to the paddock that morning. He was really lively. And me being my 13 year old also very lively, very opinionated itself, I would say we had an I had a bit of a fight that morning like he was pulling. And I was yanking on his lead and trying to control him to get him out to the field. And long story short, got him out to the field that morning I went on about my day. And like six hours later, it's the afternoon, I was going to ride my bicycle over to my grandmother's house, I needed to bring him in and do a few other chores before I left. So I was in a hurry. I go into his field, put his halter on, walk out the gate. And we have a short stone driveway that goes from this paddock he was in into the barn. And I just moved to start running. So kind of made just like that little jump that you do when you're about to break into a run. And the next thing I know I was on the ground. Oh my God and he was on top of me. -
Andrea Wady 07:25
Like down on his knees on top of you. Yeah, she's a very, very, very dominant move of a stallion, isn't it once they've got something pinned to the ground? -
Callie King 07:34
Yeah, it's it's actually what horses when they have a and typically they would do this with what they're perceiving as a threat threat. Yeah, like I have seen photos. Never seen it in person. But I've seen photos of horses actually killing coyotes killing mountain lions, and snakes and all sorts. Yes, what they do with the larger, larger animals that they want to kill is they have a very, very powerful byte for us. But of course, they're a grazing species so they don't have sharp teeth. So they will they will grab and they will pin to the ground. And then they actually roll their weight on to crush so if it's a smaller thing like a snake, they can beat it with their front legs and strike. But something larger, they push it to the ground and then they just roll their weight on and crush it. So he had me when he first grabbed me he had beat my the arm. And then he was like throwing me to the ground. And then he would go to his knees and push his chest into me. -
Andrea Wady 08:33
Oh, how terrifying. -
Callie King 08:35
And I remember thinking because this is happening in this stone driveway. There's two fences. And I remember thinking I'll get under the fence roll -
Andrea Wady 08:46
under the fence. That's sensible. Yeah, -
Callie King 08:48
but he'd never let go me there. I mean, he let go for such a split second when he would have me down because he had me the first by the arm. And then second he had me by the back of the neck because I remember my face just getting crushed down into the stones and so like that feeling of so much weight on top of me that I could like see the fence but really there was no even chance no even chance to try to and -
Andrea Wady 09:15
no one's around. No you know you're on your own. Yeah. Wow. -
Callie King 09:21
I still to this day. I don't know actually how long it was going on. -
Andrea Wady 09:26
I was gonna say yeah, was it 10 seconds or 10 minutes? Hard to know. -
Callie King 09:30
Yeah. Because what I the next thing that I remember how to get by the arm he had me by the back of the head -
Andrea Wady 09:37
with his teeth with his teeth and his body on you? Yes. Oh, I feel sick. -
Callie King 09:42
Then he grabbed me by my lower leg like by my calf. And at this point, I started having having that experience where I think my body like my nervous system said this is it I'm gonna die. Yeah. And that's what I was then thinking consciously to So I went into that state of reviewing like, Okay, well, I'm never going to be a professional writer, I'm not going to see my dog again. What are my parents gonna think when they find out? Like I went through reviewing all of those things -
Andrea Wady 10:13
that people talk about that, you know, they say your life flashes in front of your eyes, but it literally is that feeling of taking stock? -
Callie King 10:21
Yes. Wow. Yeah, taking stock and it happened quite slow. Like, for me, it wasn't a life flashing before my eyes. It was it. Yeah, it doesn't match with normal time. But it was quite a slow process. -
Andrea Wady 10:35
And he's still attacking all at the same time. Yes. Yeah. -
Callie King 10:39
Oh, and then by this point, we were out of the stone driveway and on the, the blacktop the paved road, he's dragged you, essentially, yes. Yeah, he dragged me quite a distance of like, 100 feet, from where I know, it started to back out to the road. And then at this point, I could feel my head hitting the road because he had my leg and was just like, swinging me. -
Andrea Wady 11:03
So you're now on the public road? Yes. Oh, my gosh. And -
Callie King 11:07
that's where I don't know if I lost consciousness, just from my body just shutting off. Or if I lost consciousness from a concussion, I think it was concussion, because the symptoms that I had after may be very concussion like, but yeah, it could have been both. So the next thing I remember because then I lost consciousness was laying on my back on the road, and waking up and two people overtop of me. What scared me the most was, I couldn't move anything in my body. And I thought I was paralyzed. Which, because of my dad and seeing him live with paralysis, even from a young child, my greatest fear in life was paralysis. I'm sure so that that's what I thought had happened. Yeah, cuz -
Andrea Wady 11:56
I mean, your father is in a wheelchair. Yeah. Terrifying. -
Callie King 12:00
So, flipping that story to the other perspective, what had happened was, this couple this man and his girlfriend, they were driving up the road. And they saw the horse in the middle of the road. And the the woman said, Oh, look at that horse. He's playing with his blanket. -
Andrea Wady 12:20
But it was you -
Callie King 12:21
it was me. Oh, -
Andrea Wady 12:23
my God, I've got goose bumps all over me. Not good ones. -
Callie King 12:27
So the I, the ironies of life are pretty wild. Because this person who his name was Lonnie Dell. He saved my life. Yeah, absolutely saved my life. He was not the most favorite person in town. And him and my father had a history of being enemies since the time that they were wild children. Wow. Yeah. But he saw when they as they continue driving up the road. And he saw what was happening. He threw the car to a stop, ran over because my my parents did woodworking. They had a carpentry business. So there was always a lot of like, lumber and like scraps of wood laying around. And he found a two by four, a lawn two by four. And he ran back over. And he describes it as he had to beat the horse. -
Andrea Wady 13:23
Well, the main the horse was killing you. There was no and I mean, he's lucky and himself that the horse, you know, clearly the horse had had some kind of mental break, you know, or something. Maybe in hindsight, that horse had a tumor in its brain or something, you know. So he put himself on the line too, because that horse could easily have turned. He was in full predator mode. He could have turned on to this guy. But he managed to stop the horse. And the horse dropped you. -
Callie King 13:54
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So the horse dropped me and left. And then that's what I remember is is waking up. And it was him and his girlfriend, and I never knew his girlfriend's name. But they were both there. And they were leaning over me. And they called the ambulance. And they knew because they knew my family. You know, I think one of them stayed with me. I don't remember who and the other one. went first to my parents house because they knew that that's where I lived. My parents weren't home. So then they went up the road. And my, my grandfather was home. So they went there. They put me in the car and took me up there because they were they even said in hindsight, they were scared they knew because they I was laying there and couldn't even talk at this point. Like couldn't form words couldn't move anything. So they were scared to move me but they were scared. They didn't know horses. They were fighting to come back which to be fair he could have done so they they loaded me in the back of the car, drove up to my grandparents place and then waited up there for the ambulance to come? Wow. So this shows the actually the statistics of when there are injuries with horses, at least in the state of Pennsylvania. If a call comes in to 911, as an equestrian accident, the helicopter is immediately dispatched immediately. Yeah. So my father was hunting in a rural area in northern Pennsylvania. And he just got a call. I don't know if it was family or who but someone called -
Andrea Wady 15:32
Well, it's a small community. So word would get around. Yes. Quick. -
Callie King 15:36
Yeah, word guy, we're gonna round really quick, because it's also the kind of community that a lot of people have the dispatch, you know, they can do, a lot of people are involved with the fire company. So they hear all those calls come in. So someone caught him and just said, Kelly's been in an accident with a horse, the helicopters on its way. And then as he started driving, he lost service. So that was the last that he heard for about two to three hours of driving, oh, my goodness. So even when they first got there, they from the bite on the back of my neck, I had blood, like all kind of around my neck and coming out of my ears, and they thought had injury. So it wasn't until a little bit later, they started cleaning that and you know, like the EMTs just doing first exam before they even would pull me out of the back of the car, depending on the injury. And they canceled the helicopter because it wasn't severe head injury. It was just the blood was coming from that that superficial injury. But they took me to the hospital. And I was very, very lucky that the physical injuries that I had were all muscle damage. -
Andrea Wady 16:47
Amazing. Yeah. I think probably being a child helped save you in that you're probably more flexible, your bones less, you know, stiff and brittle. That probably went in your favor. But I flexible, your bones less, you know, stiff and brittle. That probably went in your favor. But I mean, absolutely terrifying. And, you know, a long slow heal, I should think in mentally and physically. What strikes me it's such a testament to you and your personalities that you came through that and still have immense love for horses and made it your life. What good came out of it. I know you're a person, you know, I know you well. And whilst I knew some of that story, I never really knew the whole story. And it's, it's even worse than I'd imagined to be fair. But I've noticed with you in life, you always look for the good in things. Always. And we were talking the other day about the Chinese proverb of the the man who had a son, who had a horse, and his horse ran away. And all the neighbors were going, Oh, no, what bad luck and he was like, good luck. Bad luck. Who knows? Then the horse comes back with another wild horse and the neighbors are like, wow, how lucky. Good luck. Bad luck. Who knows? Anyway, the story goes on, as I'm sure most of you know, this proverb that the horse then broke the son's leg and everyone was like, know what bad luck and the man was like, good luck. Bad luck. Who knows? Then the army draft comes, he doesn't have to go to war, because his legs broken. So it just shows you know, don't always think that something's bad. It's kind of hard to see a lot of good in being nearly killed by a stallion. But it has shaped your life. But tell us how what good came out of that? -
Callie King 18:47
Yeah, as a 13 year old, I didn't yet have the majority to see good. Yeah. But I also didn't think of it as only a bad thing. You know, even at that age, I had a lot of struggle that came out of it. Not only physically I had to wear a brace on my leg for a year at night because the muscle at night would as it was it was still healing. It would it would tie into the point where in the morning I could barely walk on it. So I had to wear this brace that would that would flex it during the night. -
Andrea Wady 19:21
So nothing was actually broken but your muscles were shredded. Yes, tendons, ligaments torn, etc. -
Callie King 19:28
Just mass my muscles were basically crushed horses have such a bite force that it just crushed in the places where he had actually had his mouth around me -
Andrea Wady 19:36
and where he was laying on you. You somehow got away with that which it truly is nothing short of a miracle because you weren't in mud. You were on a stone. It's It's unbelievable that you survived that. Yeah, -
Callie King 19:50
yeah. Yeah, but the super, super lucky in that the physical healing was less than that. emotional healing. I did have a lot of terrors in the night, you know nightmares where I would relive it again and again. That continued for a few years afterwards. Were you scared of horses? After that? Never being scared of a horse never crossed my mind never entered my psyche. Unbelievable. Yes. -
Andrea Wady 20:23
I think that's the testament of a child as well. I don't know. But that's pretty incredible that you will never scared. super interesting. I'm really glad we had time to sit down and and for me to hear that story. But I for 1am Glad you are still here. -
Callie King 20:40
I am, too. Yeah. Yeah. All those other stories wouldn't be possible. No. That's right. So we both had major accidents at age 13. Yeah. -
Andrea Wady 20:52
How weird is that? Well, I guess we realize things aren't so weird really, -
Callie King 20:57
is 13 one of those ages like you know, 27 to 28 is Saturn Return is what? Saturn Return. You never heard that. In astrology. Now, I know very little about astrology. But I know that like 27 to 28. They call it Saturn Return. And it's typically when there's big changes. There's a big change in life. -
Andrea Wady 21:20
Oh, I can relate to that. I think that we do tend to sort our shit out each quite often. Yeah, -
Callie King 21:27
I had a huge change at that age. But I'm wondering if 13 might have some kind of significance. I wonder? -
Andrea Wady 21:33
I'm sure we could find out. We'll have to do some research into that. Yeah. Well, you are changing from oftentimes charted for women anyway, childhood to to women and boys to I guess, you know, changing. So a lot of change around that age. -
Callie King 21:51
So when you were 13? Yeah. You had an accident also with a horse? Yeah. That you fell. And on the landing, you broke your back. But you didn't know it until the time that you were 40? Yeah. So -
Andrea Wady 22:05
I was having a chiropractic treatment. Were in, you know, in my 40s, I think around the age of 40. And, you know, amazing body worker. And he said, So when did you break your back? And I was like, I didn't break my back. I didn't know what you're talking about. And he said you did? Well, I mean, they say break my back. I didn't like sever anything, thank God. But I had a significant sort of fracture to that lower area of my spine, and oh, everything just fell into place. It made perfect sense to me that that's what had happened. I remember it so well, I was riding a pony called bobbin. With the lady that had taught me to ride when I was very little, I started riding lessons, I think when I was like three or something for my grandmother rode, my mother rode, my father rode, everyone did. And he was pretty full on this pony. But I was a gung ho rider and I was riding alongside her. And we'd gone up through the lanes, and I'm assuming that we'd done a canter or something, and then the pony bolted. And there's a hill near our village that is so steep. It I don't know what gradient it is. But you're going down in a very low gear. It's an incredibly steep hill. And there's a T junction at the bottom. And it's a tiny village, we're not talking a main road. These are roads that have no markings on them or anything. And he bolted down there. And I stayed with him. And then he did a very sharp right turn on the T junction to go home. And I went straight over his head or over his shoulder. And in Cornwall, we have what are called Cornerstone hedges, and they're very old, and they're stacked rock and they come to often come to some what have a point at the top. And it's still there actually drive past it sometimes and think oh, yeah, I know that will well. And my head hit the ground. I was wearing a helmet but my head hit the ground and my back went backwards over the top of the stone wall just ricocheted. And I hit the floor, and I landed in a heap, I could remember the noise of the ponies who's clattering away. And the lady I was riding with she was on foot and she was way back. And the first person to the scene was a man called Sandy. He's actually recently passed away but he was one of the firefighters from the village. And he was first to the scene and the first thing he did was pick me up in my memory. It probably didn't happen like this, but this seems to be my memory. I mean, in this day and age they you wouldn't be moved as the same with you with your accident unlikely to be moved, although different when you've got a predatory horse near you. And they were like can you move your toe Can you stand up? Yeah. Okay, you're fine. You're okay. No one checked for anything else. And I can still remember the pain when I was standing up. But I was quite stoic as a child. Mum always said, you know, you were quite a serious child. And I just kept quiet. So I had to walk about two miles home. She caught me up by now. And we walked home. And I got taken straight to the doctor's and I had a big hole and my back. -
Callie King 25:34
So you had, it wasn't just internal, like you had? -
Andrea Wady 25:38
Yeah, I still have a scar now, where it healed over and quite a significant scar. And they had to pack it, pack the hole in my back. I really should have got x rayed. But it's like someone else said in a way, maybe it's better that you didn't, because they may have wanted to operate on you. And back then spinal injuries in the 80s would have been the operations would have been sketchy, I suspect. So maybe more damage would have been caused. And yeah, I remember having I didn't go to school for ages, and I couldn't walk at all well, and all I could do was slide my feet, it was so painful to lift my feet because I damaged my spinal cord. Shortly after the accident, I was being taken to the doctor's surgery every day. I mean, in England, then, you know, there was a little Doctor surgery in every village and I would be taken to have all of the whole cleaned out in my back. And they were pulling out bone fragments. And but yeah, because I could move my legs and my feet. I was fine. But I can remember I could only slide my feet for six to eight weeks. And it affected things in me going forward. Like as a woman coming into womanhood, it affected all of that because I think the nerve endings had all been tugged and pulled and smacked. And it definitely wasn't a good thing. And I can remember, about eight weeks after it happened. I was running to keep up with a group of my friends at school. And I was running up the stairs. And whatever happened, it kind of repeated itself. And I just fell to the floor. And the pain in my back was horrendous, horrendous. So I had to start the healing process again. But I was okay, I came out of it. And it didn't make me scared of riding it didn't do any of those things. But it definitely made me more mindful of being in connection with your horse so that those things don't happen. -
Callie King 27:41
And how long was it until you were back to riding again? -
Andrea Wady 27:45
And how long was it until you were back to riding again?I honestly don't remember, it would have been the second I was allowed to, I'm sure. But I I would bet it was three or four months before I could ride again. Because I couldn't lift my knees up or anything like that. I could only slide my feet. -
Callie King 28:00
And did you have in that time any kind of physical therapy or it was just go about go about life and let the body heal? -
Andrea Wady 28:10
Get up Get going? Yeah, and I don't see that as a terrible approach. I'll be honest, because have I've been told, oh my gosh, you've injured your back so much. Maybe mentally, I would have made some deals with my body. And I would have really suffered from it for forever. I don't know. But no, I don't recall having any therapy. And it's not that anyone was neglectful in not doing that. It just wasn't a thing back then. You know, I'm thinking this was probably 1985 or something like that. I was fine. I could move my toes. I could move. You just got up and got going. Yeah. -
Callie King 28:51
And is that something? Is it an injury that still affects you? -
Andrea Wady 28:55
Can do? Yeah, it can't like if I'm having acupuncture or something like that you cannot put a needle anywhere near that. The pain is intense. For the most part, if I leave it alone, it's fine. But if I sit in a certain way, for too long, it will make me very sore in that area. But I can walk it off pretty quick now. I mean, I got I got off quite lucky. You know, when you think about things that happen to people riding horses, but I like to weigh things up, though. And it's like, I have ridden horses. I don't know, I'm thinking probably 10s of 1000s of times. I mean my whole life. And my work in Costa Rica, you know for I had my business for 12 years and I probably wrote about six hours a day, you know, 1000s and 1000s of hours in the saddle and I've probably had maybe three hours of that in my life, not go to plan. So when you look at that in probability it's it's pretty good accidents can happen in any way. It wasn't something that was good. put me off. -
Callie King 30:00
Yeah, we got to we got to do what we love. I will always remember a saying that my dad told me when I started riding motorcycles. And I thought that he wasn't going to like the fact that I was riding because -
Andrea Wady 30:14
he was injured in a motorbike accident. -
Callie King 30:16
Yes, yeah. Yeah. And he told me, you got to do what you love. And if it takes you out, so be it. That's -
Andrea Wady 30:23
right. If something's gonna take me out, I'd rather it be something I enjoy doing. Yes. And, you know, the fear of what is what could happen can just paralyze you mentally. And your your comfort bubble just gets smaller and smaller and smaller. And it doesn't. That's not the same as being reckless. You know, it's different, being reckless is one thing, but doing what you love. And to hell with the consequences. You know, those are two things that maybe run close together, but I think they're different. It's, you know, you take precautions, you wear safety equipment, but you do it anyway. You know, I couldn't have not had horses in my life, my life would have been very, very different. And it's not something I would want to contemplate not having horses in my life. -
Callie King 31:16
Well, it's pretty wild to that. We both had a major accident when we were 13. Yeah, -
Andrea Wady 31:22
big time. And, you know, I think that, you know, there's so much more that comes out of accidents. It's not just what happened before. And then what happened in that in that moment. It's, it's the effects. It's again, it's the butterfly wing, I think, because I hit that wall so hard, or for horse. I couldn't have children. And that's okay. For me. I didn't really want children anyway. But that did change the course of my life. But I also didn't become scared of horses. And I moved on with my life with horses in it. And yeah, a lot of good came out of that as well. So things happen and change the course of your life, but it doesn't have to write it off completely. You know, it's how we redefine the story to suit ourselves as we move forward. It's not about denying something. It's about not letting it define who we are. -
Callie King 32:23
Yes. That is well said. There are there are so many things. We never know what could happen in life. I mean, gosh, probably what we do every day driving down the road is statistically one of the most dangerous things that we do. 100 We don't give it a moment of thought. You don't give it a moment of thought. But I feel the same. There's two big things that I always have to have in my life, despite the risks are horses and motorcycles. Yeah, it's -
Andrea Wady 32:51
pretty cool. Watching you rip around on your bike yesterday. Yeah, there's no holding you back. I don't want to be held back either. It's like, you know, I'm here for however long I'm here and I'm going to enjoy every second of doing what I love. Yeah, yes. Here's to life. Here's to life. Grab life by the reins. That's what we say. Well, everyone, I'm sure some of you had goose bumps like I did listening to this. But thank you so much for being with us and listening and we will be back soon with another episode. Thanks for being here. -
Callie King 33:29
Thank you for listening to grab life by the reins. If you want to see ridiculous photos from our adventures be the first to know when we release new episodes and be a part of your shenanigans. Join our email family at grab life by the reins.com. -
Andrea Wady 33:46
We'll see you in the next program.