ONE KNOWS WHEN ONE IS IN BAKERSFIELD WHEN………..

Yesterday my wife and I were on a routine visit to our Veterinary facility towing our mare in a twenty-year-old horse trailer. Turning from Allen Road east onto Stockdale we felt a small bump and then a horn tooting at us from behind. Looking in the rear mirror there was no trailer behind us. The trailer was sitting in the middle of the intersection with its tongue lip tilted on the street!

A quick action demanded an emergency turn against all protocols and speedy return back to the incident with what to do next, foremost on our minds. There was no way for us to jack up the front of the trailer as the handle to do so had been bent out of shape. Not having a jack to conduct this task, I dispatched my wife back to Gremlan Farms near Hageman Road and Allen to get one, ASAP.

I stood by the trailer in the middle of the intersection to pathetically protect my awkward position. The people in the cars were tentative in their amazement at the scene when drawing up to the intersection and when passing by offered to help. Not knowing how this might be possible I called out that help was on its way.

Then to my amazement a truck spun off Allen raised a cloud dust by circling in the dirt turned onto Stockdale highway facing west and skidded to a stop in the lane directly in alignment with the trailer and placed on emergency lights. This to protect trailer and me by directly blocking a lane from the oncoming traffic. A few seconds later another truck came by and the driver yelled while passing he would help me get the horse trailer out of the way to the side of the road. He proceeded to reverse into position, jumped out and said he wished to drop the rear hydraulic lift under the tongue to raise the horse trailer.

Another gentleman approached to offer help and together we both guided the truck reversing it and with a scrape set the lifting platform under the trailer tongue. This done the gent jumped out and pressed a lever sending a whirring sound to the rapid rise of the horse trailer. A little thumping on the handle allowed us to lower the trailer jack onto a very bent wheel onto the tarmac. Next came the truck forward movement to allow the hydraulic lift to be replaced and guidance of the trucks ball directly under the trailer hitch. This all done in a few minutes with cars going their ways, all around us. In the mean time I had also found the bar and ball under the trailer that had separated from our truck. The cotter pin was missing – the explanation as to why we left the trailer behind!

The gent jumped into the truck to tow our horse and trailer to the adjacent parking lot. Only after another move of releasing the trailer emergency brake was this accomplished. Wow, it was good to see the trailer out of the center of the busy intersection. It is also amazing that these two men would take the risk to help our predicament. Focused on what we were doing I do remember one incident – a truck blasting past with a lead foot on his accelerator and remembering the buffering from the wind.

At this time my wife returned with the truck and a jack, which we did not have to use. We had already reversed the horse trailer into a shady parking space, so all that needed to be done was for us to hitch up again to get on our way.

We naturally introduced ourselves and thanked these men profusely for helping so freely. Being of sound mind yet slipping in memory I exchanged cards to better account for this occasion. My thanks goes to John Gosforth of Ulterra Drilling Technologies for his emergency equipment and to the second named gent who consults for people like us aged boomers, who need guidance for retirement, we have already forgotten his name. We are quite ashamed.

The kindness and swiftness in offering their aid in these circumstances will not be forgotten. What will be an indelible memory of the event was that they both had horses in their youth and said that was what caused them to give so freely of their support to our obvious predicament.

With that these two gents left and at that moment a Bakersfield Traffic Policeman drew up and asked if we were OK. Someone had called 911 for us – thanks to them the unknown Bakerfieldians as well. The most amazing thing was our 23-year-old mare Vendimiadora in the trailer was undisturbed when we offloaded her at the veterinary facility. Alls well that ends well.

Our profuse thanks go out to these two Bakersfield Good Samaritans.

Graham Kaye-Eddie