Dallas Doc Story Preview

Miracle on Chigger Hill 

. . ."Pa's got 'em ready", was our call to work. While we were preparing to tend to business on this first Thursday, seven tail-wrapped rumps greeted us--two sorrels, a bay, three Paints, and a black. From then on, the others blended into a blurred line. Six, sixteen, or forty-two mares would be circling the catch pen, while three, six, or nine mares would be standing in the examination stocks inside the breeding shed. I started from left to right. "Hold 'er tail to the side," I said, aiming a pipette to inseminate yet another of the dozens to be run into the stanchions. "We'll check 'er by sonogram in fourteen days...to see if she stuck. Next!"

Hutch moved three steps to his right, and raised the next sorrel mare's tail. We were moving through another orchestrated pregnancy exam when the worst sound known to a horseman shattered the air. GONG! GONG! Bobby Don was ringing the fire alarm bell. GONG! GONG! The huge iron bell rang disaster. It could be heard for miles. Chills shot up my spine. "Ohmigod...it's barn two!" Hutch yelled, dropping everything and sprinting for the doors. . .

. . ."FIRE! FIRE!" I hollered back.

"Cut 'em loose! Turn 'em out!" I heard Hutch and Bobby Don shouting.

Dr. Vest's voice rang out. "That barn's filled with mares and babies!"

His stride was longer than mine. Billowing clouds of dense, black smoke were boiling from the west end of barn aisles as I raced behind Dr. Vest. He followed Bobby Don and Hutch inside. Horses were whinnying in terror. Flames shot high in the sky from the shavings bin on the east end-- and I was stopped in my tracks by the intense heat of the inferno. My forearms raised to shield my eyes. I lost sight of my partner and the other men, but I could hear them unlatching gates and shooing horses. Acrid smoke filled my lungs, and my eyes began burning as uncontrollable tears streaked down my cheeks. I choked and coughed, and jumped to the side of the entrance as a filly and colt, followed by a string of loose horses, blasted through the wall of shadows in a stampede of panic.

"Doc...Hutch...Bobby...," I cried out over the clatter of hooves. Roaring rumbles silenced any response. I heard another gate unlatch. "Doc...Bobby Don..." There was no reply. I yelled again and again. "Hutch...Doc..."

...find out the outcome in Chapter 1 of Dallas Doc.

(Excerpted with permission from Bridgeline Press 1-800-585-1488)