| NAME: | Stormy |
| SPECIES: | Quarter horse |
| DATE: | September 13, 2010 |
| LOCATION: | Sulphur, Louisiana |
| SITUATION: | Children threatened by a feral boar |
| WHO WAS SAVED: | Siblings nine-year-old Emma and seven-year-old Liam Leonard |
| LEGACY: | Local hero for equine valor and stouthearted devotion in the face of an attack |
Stormy was acting skittish. The brown quarter horse was dancing and snorting and almost too antsy to control. Her bareback rider, nine-year-old Emma Leonard, didn’t know why.
It was the afternoon of September 13, 2010. Emma and Stormy were exploring an unknown trail not far from their home. Emma’s brother, seven-year-old Liam, was walking in front.
“Liam likes to be the point man, the scout,” their father, Kevin Leonard, said, “so he’s always leading.” Rather than ride on Stormy, Liam preferred to be on the ground, pretending to be a foot soldier. With a rubberband gun in hand, Liam scanned the woods for imagined enemies.
Then, all of a sudden, a very real danger crashed through the undergrowth: A huge wild pig, with brown bristles and sharp tusks, burst in front of them and stopped not six feet from Liam. The feral boar radiated menace, making an aggressive clicking noise and almost daring the boy to take another step. Emma knew that boars fiercely protect their territory, and this one’s behavior didn’t need translation.
“Run, Liam!” Emma shouted.
But Liam was frozen in fear.
Stormy—who had been unaccountably nervous just moments before—quickly took charge. She trotted between Liam and the pig, drawing the animal’s attention. As she did this, Stormy also gently nudged Liam with her nose, pushing him away, in the direction of the house.
With Emma clinging to her neck, Stormy strategically positioned herself with her rear facing the pig. In the next moment, as the boar tensed to attack, Stormy kicked out with her back hooves and struck the boar square in the snout.
The dangerous beast squealed in pain and ran away, and the children raced home in a panic. “They were white with fright and crying so much that I could barely understand them,” said their mother, Kathy.
FIGHT OR FLIGHT
All animals experience a primal fight-or-flight urge in the face of a life-threatening danger. This is pure survival instinct, and no one is immune to it. One definition of heroism, or courage, is the ability to overcome this instinct in order to help save someone else.
When animals do this on our behalf, we are doubly amazed, for we know all too well that it takes a powerful motivation to override the wild urge to do whatever is necessary to save oneself.
Of Stormy, Kevin Leonard said, “She could have saved herself easily but left the kids in real danger. But she didn’t do that. I feel that she was motivated out of love to protect the children.”
If so, Stormy had good reason to love the Leonards of Sulphur, Louisiana. She had been rescued a few years before as a thirty-year-old mare who was so starved and emaciated that she was eating the bark off trees. A local nonprofit rescue center, Steeds of Acceptance & Renewal (SOAR), took her in.
“In spite of her age, she recovered remarkably well from the abuse,” said Heather Dionne, the head riding instructor. “She could still collect herself, bridle up and jog, and with wonderful cadence and style.” It was obvious that “someone had spent a lot of time training her.”
At first, SOAR enlisted Stormy as a therapy animal for kids with disabilities, but they wanted to find her a permanent home. “When we discovered a family in search of a horse for their young daughter to love and learn from, we felt a prayer had been answered,” Dionne said.
Emma, in turn, doted on Stormy. She would rush home every day after school, eagerly finishing her homework and chores, so she could spend time with her horse. As girls will, she gave Stormy hoof pedicures using hot pink paint.
Whatever Stormy felt that day, “she took care of those kids,” Kathy said, “and we will forever be grateful.”
Indeed, Stormy took care of the kids as fiercely as any mother protecting her own children.
As Emma simply put it, Stormy “was very brave, and she loves me.”
EQUINE GUARDIANS
Jonathan Swift imagined an entire society run by intelligent horses (the Houyhnhnm) in Gulliver’s Travels, and his satire wasn’t so far off the mark. Horses are among the few social mammals that scientists believe clearly display self-awareness, empathy, and compassion. Horses show a remarkable sensitivity to human emotions, and an incredible gift for reading people, which was long ago demonstrated by the infamous Clever Hans (see page 295). But horses also show a proclivity to help people, such as in the stories of Molly (see page 154) and Betsy (see page 147).
Just to confirm how brave and protective horses can be, here are two more life-saving rescues:
In August 2007, Scottish farmer Fiona Boyd went to lead a scared calf to a shed, only to have the calf’s overprotective mother attack her. Perhaps misinterpreting Boyd’s intentions, the cow charged, knocking Boyd to the ground, butted her again as she got up, and then fell on the farmer as if to crush her. Boyd curled into a ball and thought, “This is it. I’m going to die.” Then her fifteen-year-old chestnut mare, Kerry, intervened. Kerry kicked at the cow and drove her away, giving the injured Boyd time to crawl under a fence to safety. “I am in no doubt Kerry saved me,” Boyd said. “If she hadn’t been in the same pasture, I really believe I would have been killed.”
During a town parade in Vivian, Louisiana, in March 2008, a pit bull broke loose and attacked a group of riders, who frantically dismounted to avoid being thrown by their rearing horses. As Chloe-Jeane Wendell jumped to the ground, the pit bull snarled and turned on the teenager. Chloe-Jeane’s horse, Sunny Boy, started as if to run away, but then abruptly jumped in front of Chloe-Jeane, squared up, and kicked the dog with his hind hooves. Soon after, the dog was subdued. “I was shocked,” said Chloe-Jeane about Sunny Boy. “Usually he avoids other animals.”