Tubs The Horse Refuses To Give Up After Tumble
Sandi Hall knew that if Tubs wasn’t dead after her 300-foot tumble down a steep hill, then the appaloosa was seriously injured. So, packing a gun, Sandi inched down to her horse.
She almost had lost Tubs twice before - but not to death. As Sandi slid down the hill, she fought the dread weakening her legs.
Tubs had been a present for Sandi’s 26th birthday 23 years ago. She was a yearling appaloosa and Sandi’s first horse as an adult.
“I broke her myself,” Sandi says with a small smile.
Sandi had grown up riding mountain trails with her brother on her family’s horse. A horse didn’t fit into her budget as a young adult, but she pined to own one. Then her aunt gave her Tubs.
Within a few years, Sandi was breeding, breaking and selling appaloosas. She built her herd up to a dozen before a divorce in 1985 cleaned her out. Even Tubs was sold.
“I was crushed,” she says. The memory still makes her wince.
Tubs’ new owners moved her from Washington to Iowa, but Sandi kept in touch. Eighteen months after the sale, the owners offered to sell Tubs back.
“She was almost 15, and my husband was concerned she wouldn’t live much longer,” Sandi says. “But I couldn’t take not having her.”
Tubs and Sandi settled on acreage near Rathdrum, Idaho. Six years later, an accident at work cracked Sandi’s back. She couldn’t ride, but Tubs needed exercise. So Sandi regretfully leased out her horse for a year - until the doctor gave her the go-ahead to climb back in the saddle.
“This horse has had some weird things happen to her,” Sandi says, slowly shaking her head.
The ride earlier this month on narrow Cabin Creek Trail near Calder, Idaho, was nothing more difficult than Sandi and Tubs had done dozens of times.
But this time, shale gave way under Tubs’ hind legs. Tubs slipped over the edge and Sandi bailed off as Tubs’ 1,100 pounds tumbled 300 feet down the steep hillside.
Sandi found her horse 75 feet from the bottom of the slope. Two trees had stopped her plunge. She’d hit them with her head.
“I thought she was dead, but I saw her eye blink,” Sandi says, self-consciously swiping at a few escaped tears. Tubs was scraped and bruised but had no broken bones.
Sandi and a friend worked three hours to free Tubs without hurting her more. They led her to water at the bottom of the slope, looked up at the steep, unreliable hillside and knew they’d have to blaze a trail.
They had climbed only 60 feet before the shale gave way again. This time, a sapling stopped Tubs. Sandi knew she needed help. So she unloaded the saddle from her horse, hiked up the hill and found Jack Modrell.
Sandi took Jack and two friends down the trail to show them Tubs, but her horse was gone. Tubs had slid onto a ledge another 30 feet down the hill. She was still standing when they found her.
By then, it was close to nightfall. Sandi had to leave Tubs until morning.
“I wanted to stay,” she says. “They wouldn’t let me. I couldn’t sleep at all.”
At dawn, Jack persuaded Sandi to stay in camp. He envisioned a brutal rescue - Tubs wouldn’t make it up the unreliable hill without force. He tied a rope to her halter, looped it around a tree for support and pulled.
Tubs cooperated and crawled up 250 feet before her weight pulled the tree out. Tubs plummeted back to the bottom where rescuers found her. She was standing in a creek waiting for them.
The second rescue attempt succeeded.
“All I could do was cry. I hugged everyone,” Sandi says, trying to find a comfortable position for her aching body. The fall had aggravated Sandi’s back and bruised her side. “I never thought they’d get her out alive.”
Jack wouldn’t take payment for his work, so Sandi bought him and his friends dinner.
Tubs spent a week in St. Maries mending. Her brow bone was broken and she was cut and bruised. But the veterinarian told Sandi she could ride her old friend again in six months.
“I’m going back to Calder to pray and thank God he let her survive,” Sandi says softly. “With her age, it’s amazing she made it.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo