Author - Ray Fout
Submitted By -HORSE CORRAL AND HOT BREATH
A long time ago, and a place far away. Early 70’s and Buckeye Rd. at the Aqua Fria River bottom.I was on Marvin Delk’s medium crew. Our job was to build a small 3-phase line, to a new customer.
The print called for the line to go behind some old buildings, over some sandy soil and through a horse corral. Because the horse corral was quite large, the print called for two or three poles to be set inside the corral. The corral posts were built out of 6-inch steel poles about 5-feet out of the ground. There were three strands of 1- inch steel cable, serving as a fence, strung between the steel poles. Lying on top of the sand, just inside, and at one end of the corral, lay several 6-inch pipes, about 20-feet long, and about 5-feet wide.
I can’t remember if there was more than one horse in the corral, but I remember the one. It was a
young horse in a very spirited mood. He was running and jumping all over the corral. I suppose, with hindsight, he was excited because of all the men around. At the time though, he made me very nervous. Several of the guys saw my anxiety. Some tried to calm me by saying he’s just playing while other guys had a good time with it.
At one point, about 4 guys were walking to the next pole to be set, when this horse ran up behind them. The horse was running so fast, I didn’t think it would stop before running over them. I was watching this whole scene unfold, while the fellows were not aware the horse was coming up on them. Remember the soil is sandy, so not a lot of noise is made. As the horse stopped, the guys turned, with the horse was right there. The lineman, the one who told me not to worry (wish I could remember his name) made a fist and hit that horse right on the nose. The horse reared up, now I could see the worry in this guy’s face, and came down without hitting anyone. The horse backed off and everyone went about their tasks.
My job, with a couple of other men, was to drill and frame the poles. This consisted of one man turning and holding the pole in place, while a second man drilled the holes in the pole. A third man, me in this case, while kneeling at one end of the pole, would sight down the length of the pole, to insure that the holes were being drilled straight.
Well, as luck would have it, one of the guys yelled, “look out Ray”. I barely turned seeing this horse right in my face. I took off at a dead run, in the direction I was facing. This direction happen to be clear across the corral. I’m running as hard as I can, not moving as fast as I would like. Remember the sandy soil? My lineman boots, because of the wide, smooth soles, were causing me to slide in the sand. Still, I was moving as fast as I could when I felt the hot breath of this horse on my butt. I’m already afraid of this horse, and now I feel him breathing on my butt. I know he’s going to bite me! I see the corral fence coming up, but between the fence and me is that pile of 6-inch pipe. As I run as hard as I can, and still feel the horse breathing on me, I start to figure how I am going to get on the other side of that fence. I’m thinking if I can pace my steps just right, I will probably be able to jump over the pipe (I’m in my early 20’s), and dive between the 1-inch steel cable. With the hot breath still there and I’m where I have to jump, or stop, I decide to jump. When I landed on my foot to push off over the pipe, the flat part of the sole of my boot hits the pipe, and I slip and fall onto the pipe. I rolled up waiting for the horse to kick me. I finally looked up, and didn’t see the horse anywhere. What I did see was the crew rolled up in laughter.
When all the laughter had died down, I was told that as soon as I had fallen, the horse stopped chasing me, and went elsewhere.
Ray Fout sometime in the early 70’s