"A Very Sad Difficult Day on theTrain", Day 29,Sunday,June 27,1976,Batsto Historical Village, Hammonton,NJ...Rest Day

                           

                                          

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"A Very Sad Difficult Day on the Train"
 Journal Entry :Day 29,  Sunday, June 27,1976,   Batsto Historical Village, Hammonton,NJ

Rest Day

 

Sheila on "G:,   Cathy on "KK"

   

 One of the worst nights of my life.  We were able to find an area in the nearby trees to bring G and try to make her comfortable.

 Her conditioned was worsening,we tried all we could to keep her comfortable. I stayed with her all night and as the night went into morning it became clear that she would not recover.  At  7:30 am  G expired (temp 107.2) .

 

Lt. Cathy Grady, 1983

   My sister Cathy who is 16 is here helping. She has just returned to the "Train" because school is out but she  is having a very hard time with this whole situation. Trying to understand why we are still here with sick horses.I tried to make her understand that we were representing our state and our country and we need to continue with this journey. Going home at this time won't change anything .,and it won't bring back G. We will  go on in her memory.Once you commit to something like this you must see it through as well as you can  (Proud to say she went on to be an Air Force Nurse in service of our country and is a Desert Storm Stateside Vet !)

      We tried all morning  to contact the state vet and we were told there was none. No one really knew what was going on with all these sick horses so an autopsy was needed.  There were calls going back and forth to the State of RI and Wagon Train Officials. Finally someone contacted a Dr Miller and she came around noon time at the same time Frank Atkinson,NJ Wagonmaster, contacted a Dr Day but  he wanted to have G brought to the slaughter house.  But Dr Miller said we could have the autopsy done on the Park Grounds . We were able to get permission for that and Lee and I went and helped her.  We went into the park past the fire tower and took a left at the next intersection about .2 miles down the road on the left is where  we were able to find an area where we could conduct an autopsy and also bury her on site. My training in Pathology enabled me to help Dr.Miller as she had no one else to help her. She was very surprised at the condition of the horse. She expected to see an emaciated horse in poor condition. G was the picture of health.

    Mr Keegan & Micky Robinson are saying that the wagons will move again tomorrow.  A 29 mile day.  She said they would work on getting us a team because the vet said our horses should be rested for about 5 days.  Some of the people went on Sat to visit the Calif. Train.  They won’t

be back until late tonight but Lee Ritchie got rushed back by the state police because of "G".

  

     "G", Gamble's Got It was Lee's Quarter Horse mare  that we had purchased from a friend in Vergenns ,Vermont in 1974. She was 8yrs old ,  a foundation mare out of Wilson's Wimpy and Miss Gamble. She was proving to be a great horse and we were looking forward to having her in the family for many years.

Addendum:

Autopsy Results showed that G died of  resistant Staph Aureus.   Today this is known as MERSA !

There was probably  nothing anyone could have done back then to cause a better outcome.Even today this infection  has a very low cure rate.

http://vetbook.org/wiki/horse/index.php/Staphylococcus_aureus 

"Staphylococcus aureus is an uncommon cause of pneumonia in horses. The results of one study documented isolates of S. aureus from only 1.7% of horses with bacterial pneumonia or pleuropneumonia. When staphylococcal pneumonia does occur, it can be difficult to treat^"

 

                                                 Stan Bashura's Journal:

      Here is the CT Wagon Journal entry for Sunday, June 27th, 1976.

We awoke this morning, still camped in Batsto Village, to some very sad news.  Unfortunately, one of our worst fears finally happened.  Sadly, a horse died on the Bicentennial Wagon train Pilgrimage early this morning.  Rhode Island's spare horse, a beautiful Quarter Horse mare named "G", died early this morning about 6:30 am.  This was the R.I Team horse that had been sick for several days.   We were told that "G"'s temperature at death was 107.2 degrees. How terrible!  Everyone is extremely saddened, but at the same time very angry this happened.  Right along, everyone, from our Wagon Master Roger, down to the Official State Wagons and their teams of horses, to the outriders and independent wagons , have all been saying that we have been pushing our horses too hard in this heat and humidity for no reason.  This is the result.  The camp is in a total uproar right now over this.  State Officials quarantined the entire camp, all the horses and people and shut the park down at 8:30 am.  There would be no visitors allowed and no one was allowed to leave, until the officials could get a vet in here to determine the cause of death.    About noon time, an autopsy was performed and we were told the "official" cause of death was pneumonia!  Everyone was asking, "how could this happen" along with a thousand other questions.  The rest of the horses were all treated, and examined, checked out and given an okay for being well enough to continue.  Luckily for our two horses, Jack and Colonel, they were doing better. The park finally opened later in the afternoon to let visitors in and to let the "show" go on. However the majority of us were sad and gloomy for the rest of the day.  This incident definitely took a lot of the Bicentennial spirit out of us for a while.  Later in the evening, we all were offered the option of trucking our horses the next day which would be about 36 miles to Adam's Horse Farm in Medford, NJ.  I and many others, chose to truck them to give them an extra day of needed rest.  Batsto Village turned out to be one of the worst encampments we ever stayed at obviously for more than one reason. Very buggy. Lot's of huge horseflies the size of a half dollar!  And the people there did not treat us very well at all.