Rockin' Horse Ranch

Every summer our family of five would visit the beach and enjoy time together playing in the ocean, building sand castles, and enjoying the standard mini golf, arcade, boardwalk rides.

This year my parents wanted to try something different and booked a dude ranch in the catskill mountains in upstate new york. My dad’s partner on the joint narcotics task for raved about the place and the vacation of a lifetime that their family experienced.

We pulled up to the main lodge on a Sunday ready for a jam packed week of rustic outdoor adventures.

The brochures were chock full of photos outlining activities like archery, horseback riding, and smores at dusk by the campfire. Heck, they even had a mini golf course like the boardwalk that you could play as many times as you pleased.

The first thing I thought as we made our way through the musky lobby was that this place was very quiet. My two sisters and I peaked into the dining room when we heard plates drop only to discover a lone waiter picking up after himself. If this was prime season, where was the staff and all of the smiling families like we saw in the brochure.\\\xxx.

There were other red flags like the extremely narrow staircase up to our room, the even more musky smell of our bunkbeds, and the flies that seemed to swarm around our much needed lunch in the dining hall but the excitement of being on vacation just sort of went over our heads. “We came here for the outdoors right?” my dad said as he raised his drink for a pre-meal toast. My mother and father were civil servants and this was the only vacation they could afford. Packing the car and leaving wasn’t really an option. My mother, an always positive kindergarten teacher, did her best to keep the smile on her face even as she waved frantically to keep the flies off her sandwich.

“Can we go check out the pool?” i pleaded after scarfing down my overcooked cheeseburger. “Sure thing. Your mother and I are going to finish up unpacking.” “Anne Marie, go with your brother so that he doesn’t get lost.” My oldest sister Anne reluctantly followed my sister Kathryn and I out the back door onto the ranch.

The pool was closed and appeared that it hadn’t been open in years. The water was murky green and vegetation was growing out of the corners. It was similar situation with the mini golf course. It was open but all of the obstacles were broken or rusted out. The archery xxx consisted of a single target on the backside of the stables. The entire place wreaked of horseshit. By the time we returned to the main lodge, my father was already trying to negotiate an early departure and any kind of refund. My sisters were complaining to my mother as my father returned from speaking with the manager, clearly frustrated. “Why don’t we see if there’s an afternoon horseback ride we can all take?” My mother was clinging to a hope that something could salvage the day.

The sun was shining and we all rode the beginner course which consisted of a large circle around the grounds. No one in my family had every really ridden a horse and we all had a blast. It was enough to carry us through the same menu of overcooked burgers and flies for dinner before hiking up to our room on the stairway of death. My dad picked up his negotiation with the weekday manager the next morning. We rose early to make sure we were out on the first group ride of the morning. There was another family already down at the stables when we arrived. We hadn’t seen them at breakfast so we assumed they either arrived this morning or were staying off property and taking day trip to the ranch. “Is that an option?” my sister inquired. My mom rolled her eyes, “smart.” The beginner course consisted of three laps around the property. Upon completing our first lap, one of the ranch hands made his way back to our family that was riding behind the aforementioned off-property smartpants family. “Would y’all like to step things up to the intermediate ride?” Apparently the family was bored with the loop and ready to venture out. My father looked at my mother who in then asked, “Is it dangerous?” “Oh no, we just go off on some trails and cross a few streams.

The course is pretty much flat and we’ll get back in a few hours.” My mom gave my dad a worried but approving look and he snapped his head back at us, “You guys ready for this?” “Yeah!” The ride was pretty unremarkable. We were in the Catskills but we could have been anywhere in the woods. No vistas, no mountain or valley views. Just sort of plodding along on a trail through the woods. The most exciting part of the ride was apparently coming up. We would cross a small stream before making the turn back to the ranch.

There was some kind of hold up while crossing the stream with the family in front of us. This caused a back up on the trail and we ended up waiting for about 10 minutes as one of the smartpants daughter’s horse would not budge from the middle of the stream. My parents had already crossed and were waiting for the last few riders of which I was included. One of the ranch hands grew frustrated and decided that we’d cross the stream at a point about twenty yards downstream from where the others it the group had already crossed. “Come on,” he said to me. “Let’s get you back up with your Maw & Paw!” I looked up the stream at the woman on her horse, still stubbornly refusing to move form the middle of the stream. One of the female hands had dismounted and was hold the horse’s reigns, attempting to lead it back to land. There was about a three foot incline that didn’t look steep until the horse needed to gallop up it to reclaim its footing. I noticed that the horse in front of me had almost tripped when it hoof stepped into what i believe was a sinkhole or some kind of animal’s burrow. The hand turned to me from the top and called, “Ok, your turn. Give em a poke to get him over to the shore.” The shore, how I longed to be back at the shore. My horse paused just before the incline. It seemed hesitant but as a novice, I assumed it was just getting its footing prior to making the last push up the inclinement. Similar to the hand’s horse, mine nearly lost its footing in borrow but before i knew it, we were safely on solid ground. I looked over at the hand and still remember him uttering, “Fun right?” Just then my horse started to buck like a colt in a rodeo. I have no idea how or why but i somehow remained in my saddle. It was pure adrenaline at this point. The remainder of the group could tell something was wrong and the ranch hand quickly dismounted and was making his way towards me.

Suddenly, my horse took off as if the gates had opened at Saratoga Race track. The forrest trees were wizzing by. The visuals reminded me of riding a xxs bike on the forrest moon Endor in Return of the Jedi. The horse seemed completely out of it mind and my extinct was to flee and not see how this ride would end.

I leaped… BAM! My father was the first to arrive by my side. He cleaned the blood from my eyes and started to immediately ask me questions, “What’s your name?” “Where were you born?”. I was bleeding profusely from my head and it was difficult to tell just how bad my injury was. He carried me back to the stream so he could clean my wound and assess the damage. There were so many questions racing through his head. -why would frankie recommend this place? -why did we agree to the intermediate course? -why did my son’s horse apparently lose its mind? John was struggling to keep his eyes open as the blood started to coagulate. He whispered something but his father couldn’t quite make it out. He lowered his head to John’s lips in attempt to decipher his son’s message. -bees The swarm seemed to come from all sides and engulf the two of them. As he ran up the embankment he noticed the bees nest half crushed inside the ground. The bees are what got the horse. The ranch hands were trying to help but they too were being attacked by the bees. He sprinted back to where the girls and John’s mother were away from the action and now crying uncontrollably. “How do we get out of here?” he yelled at one of the hands. “There’s a auxiliary road about a quarter of mile that way that leads out to route 5.” John’s father was already sprinting. He arrived at the auxiliary road which was little more than two tire tracks of dirt cutting through the maples and pines. It was not clear which way led to the main road and he couldn’t recall whether the hand instructed him to go left or right. John’s father knew he had to act quickly. The bee stings were starting to make John swell. He took the first step to the right then paused, once again second guessing his decision. The clock was ticking. In the distance he heard the faint buzzing of a motor. At first he thought it might be a chainsaw but quickly realized it was growing louder and must be some kind of engine. Two men on quads soon emerged form the thick onto the road about 200 yards down the way from where Tim Sullivan now stood holding his semiconscious son.

As the men approached on their vehicles, Tim could now see that these men were teenagers whose age was probably closer to his sons. -what happened mister? -he fell from his horse… can you get us to a hospital? John began to regain consciousness on the ride to the emergency room on the back of the quad. The roar of the engine and the bumps along the way would jolt him awake long enough to see his father’s nervous face looking forward. John’s body was now numb from the pain but he could feel a tingling under his shirt. He reached up and pulled the neck of his shirt away from his body allowing for 20 or so bees to escape. His father didn’t failed to notice as he was now fixated on the hospital just up ahead on the road. The quad pulled right up to the emergency room entrance as if it were an ambulance. Someone must have radio’d ahead as the doctors and nurses were all waiting for John and his father. Tim Sullivan took a deep breath as the OR door swung shut leaving him alone in the hospital hallway.

John’s sisters and mother waited as the automatic hospital doors opened. A nurse slowly pushed John forward in his wheelchair to greet his family. His sister Kathryn was crying and ran to John offering him a big hug. Even his older sister Anne Marie, who John constantly annoyed, was teary eyed to see her brother alive and well. John’s mother still seemed a bit in shock over it all. The emotional roller coaster of the past few hours drained her emotionally and now she stood silently with her one hand over her mouth, one part grateful that her son was safe and one part stuck in that moment when she saw her son's head strike the tree. John’s father had ice cream for everyone as they emerged through the exit to the parking lot. The kids piled in the back seat of the Sullivan sedan with their sundaes never even noticing that the car was packed for home.

Tim looked at his wife as they pulled onto the thruway and shrugged, “I was able to get a full refund from the manager.”