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My daughter and I had driven the 510
miles from Fresno, California, to Oregon
to look at a new horse for her. She was
on Cloud 9 — this horse turned out to
be “the one.” As the tearful previous
owners bid us goodbye, we loaded
Spanky in our trailer. We promised that
we’d give him a smooth ride to a fabulous
new home.
We got on the road around 9:30 a.m.,
expecting to arrive in Fresno around
6 p.m. Spanky seemed quiet as we
headed south. We were making decent
time and enjoying Oregon’s smooth
highways. We knew we’d leave those
smooth highways behind us in central
California.
As the day aged, the temperature
rose. We were just a few miles from
Shasta Lake and looking forward to a
stop in Redding, California, about 45
minutes ahead, where we’d get fuel,
water Spanky, and grab lunch to go.
No Power
That’s when it happened. With a
distinct ‘clunk,’ the truck lost all power.
It fooled me for a moment because we
were on a slight downgrade, but it was
running rough. Missing a cylinder, I
thought. Quickly trying to analyze the
possibilities, I wondered if we could
drive another 350-plus miles.
So there we were, just the three of us,
sitting on an exit ramp in the middle of
the mountains high above the freeway.
When the Zeners of Fresno,
California, were on their way
back from Oregon with a
new horse, their truck broke
down in the mountains.
Their first call was to USRider.
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Shasta Lake ‘Adventure’
The temperature that day was
projected to be in the low 100s. It was
surely in the mid-90s already. The truck
would still idle, so I was able to keep
the air conditioning running, but there
was no cool air in the horse trailer for
Spanky. We checked on him first — he
was warm, visibly sweaty, and growing
impatient.
First Call
Knowing we were now in for an “adventure,”
I got out my membership card
and made my first call ever to USRider.
The person who answered was so kind,
so helpful — and most important — so
reassuring.
She took all our information, including
our rig size, how many horses, how
many people, and the nature of our
problem. I told her what I felt was the
problem and asked to be towed to a
larger town where my diesel truck could
10
be worked on by a shop specializing in
diesel repairs. She took my number and
said she would make some contacts and
call me back.
Meanwhile, she suggested that I call
9-1-1 to determine my location. When
you call 9-1-1 from your cell phone,
the call goes through the California
Highway Patrol exchange so they can
pinpoint your calling location. I learned
that when you’re broken down on the
freeway with a horse, the highway
patrol considers that an emergency and
is happy to assist in any way.
Help Arrives
The next thing I knew, a Highway Patrol
Officer pulled up to offer assistance.
He wanted to make sure we had water,
and that a towing company had been
contacted to get us moving again.
The lady at the USRider call center
got back to us in about five minutes.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF STEVE ZENER
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