It has been about 6 months and the family completed the deal with Amed. Hill Hearst was acquired by the family and the residence and stables were purchased by Quinn and Georgie. The family decided to include Quinn's family in the deal so the Hill Hearst investment was a joint venture. Lou and Peter took over the management of the facility and Quinn was added to the board of directors.
Amed had remodeled the residence and stables so there was little work to be done by Georgie and Quinn. They set up their offices in the stables and began to market their training center to potential clients in Canada and the United States. They thought it would be good to start there, then expand to Europe and Asia. Katie has made the commitment to Quinn to have him train her through her Olympic effort and Georgie has decided to compete again.
Lyndi and Amy decided to take some of the wildies and gentle and re-home them. One horse in particular has been very difficult to gentle. Lyndi named him Flash because when she finally thought he was settled into to his new life, he unexpectedly jumped the fence and rejoined his herd. This time, Lyndi finally thought Flash had given up his old lifestyle because she was able to saddle and ride him in the pens.
Today, Lyndi was riding Flash around the pen when Amy asked, "Do you think he is ready for a trail ride? How about you and I take him out for a ride."
Lyndi, "I think he is ready... Let's do it. I will tack him up and we can go."
Amy took Zues from his stall and got him ready for the ride.
Amy, "Where do you want to go?"
Lyndi, "Do we have time to go by the Canyon Pass. It is so pretty this time of the year."
Amy, "I think so. Are you concerned about Flash getting out of hand? You know it is a pretty tough trail."
Lyndi, "We are good."
Amy and Lyndi headed out toward Canyon Pass for the ride. They came to the part of the trail that was very narrow and had a steep cliff to the right. Just as Lyndi was making her way down the path, Flash gets spooked and begins too rare up. Lyndi, who is an excellent horseperson, handled the flare up just fine but Flash lost his footing and started falling toward the cliff. Amy, watching all this happen said, "Lyndi, hold him down, hold him down!"
Lyndi, "Mom, he is spooked! Settle down, boy settle down!" Then Flash rolled to avoid the cliff and Lyndi fell off him and rolled over the cliff.
The cliff was about 30 feet high and very steep; Flash was able to recover and get back on the ledge, but Lyndi took a fall and began rolling down the cliff. Just before reaching the bottom, her head hit a large boulder and rendered her unconscious. There she laid, lifeless at the bottom of the cliff. Amy, frantically calling down to her, "Lyndi, are you ok? Say something! Lyndi!" At that moment she realized that she needed to get to her but needed to get help as fast as possible. They were about 2 miles from Heartland and luckily there was cell reception, so she called Ty. "Ty, Ty, Lyndi has had an accident at Canyon Pass. Flash spooked and threw her over the cliff into the canyon. I am going to try and get down there, but I need you to call an ambulance. She looks unconscious Ty! She might be seriously hurt! Please come quick."
Ty was working on some records in the Heartland office when he took the call and immediately called an ambulance and gave them instructions to the site. He didn't waste time tacking up Harley, so he pulled him from the stall and bridled him up. Jack was on the porch when Ty rode by on his way to help Amy and yelled, "Jack, Lyndi has fallen off Flash into the canyon,on Canyon Pass and is hurt. I called for an ambulance! Can you wait here for them and direct them to the part of the trail where it becomes very narrow?"
Jack, "Sure! You be careful! That is a very steep cliff. You might want to bring a long rope."
Ty, "You are right!" He heads back to the barn to collect some longer ropes and some first aid items.
Meanwhile, Amy is trying to figure out how to get down to Lyndi. In the process, she is praying, "God, please keep Lyndi safe! Show me the best way down to her, please!" Amy decides the best way to her was to go back a few hundred yards and try to get down to the bottom from there. As she is riding back to where she wants to enter, her instincts were to leave the horse and go it on foot. It is quite a rough decent from there, but she was pushing through the steep embankments and brush and was getting to the bottom were lyndi still laid motionless on the ledge. "Lyndi, I am coming sweetheart! Stay with us! You are going to be ok! Mom will be there shortly!" With each treacherous step she was making she continued to ask God, "Help me God! Help me get to our baby! Please help me!"
As Amy was getting close to where Lyndi was lying, Ty made his way to the site. He saw Flash standing by the ledge and got off his horse and looked over the cliff. "Lyndi, are you ok? Speak to me, Lyndi!" Ty saw Amy struggling down the cliff to get to Lyndi, when he called out, "Amy, let me throw you this rope and wrap it around your waist. It will stable you as you move toward her!" Ty threw the rope to Amy who caught it and put it around her waist. With that, she was able to get to Lyndi faster without the fear of falling herself. She finally reached a lifeless Lyndi, who was not moving or breathing. She immediately started resuscitation procedures to get her to breathe. She called out to Ty, "Ty, she is not breathing! I need to get her breathing!"
Ty, "Amy, press on her chest at the same intervals as your breathing. See if you can get her to breathe."
Amy is frantically pressing on Lyndi's chest and is praying, "Lord, give my baby her breath, please!"
Lyndi starts to convulse and takes a huge gasp of air. Amy grabs her and holds her and says, "You’re back, Sweetheart! Breathe!" However, Lyndi is still going in and out of consciousness so Amy begins to assess her daughter’s injuries. By this time, Ty has repelled down the cliff to where they both were and he too begins to look at her injuries.
Amy, "Ty, look, she has a very large gash on her head where she hit the rock!"
Ty, "Look, I think her legs are broken, too!"
Amy, "My poor baby, I am so sorry. I should have never let you talk me into coming down this trail!"
Ty, "It is not your fault, Amy. You guys have been here many times. This is just an accident!"
Amy, "What do we need to do?"
Ty, "Take this gauze and some alcohol and see if you can clean up that wound on her head. I need to try to splint these legs so that they don't get any worse. I have Jack waiting at Heartland to bring the ambulance out here and they should be here soon!"
Amy takes the alcohol and begins to wipe the blood from the wound and as she is wiping she is repeating, "My sweet angel, we are here for you. My sweet angel, we love you so much. You are our little girl and we love you so much!" Lyndi, was still unconscious and Amy and Ty worked to stabilize her so the medics could get her transported to the hospital.
Ty, "Amy, be very careful, we don't know the full extent of her injuries. We want to make sure that her neck and back remain still, just in case she has any neck or spinal injuries. Man, that was a fall. Remember when I took that fall when we were rescuing that eagle?"
Amy, "I remember that I had to repel down the cliff to save you!"
Ty, "Right. Well, this is the best I can do for now with her legs. We now need to wait for Jack and the ambulance to get here!"
Amy, "Let's say a prayer and ask God to take over and heal our baby, Ok?"
Ty, "I have been praying that since I left Heartland!"
Amy and Ty join hands and each grab one of Lyndi's hands in theirs. Amy, "God, take care of our daughter. She has been such an inspiration to all of us, so we know that she is special to you. Please God, heal her wounds and bring her back to us complete, Amen!"
Ty, "Amen!"
Jack and the Ambulance arrive and as they are assessing the situation, they quickly realized they needed air support not only to help them get Lyndi out of the canyon, but to usher her to the hospital as quick as possible. So they radioed for the helicopter to come on-site. The other attendant immediately set up a repel rope and brought down his bag and backboard. As he reached the site, Ty began to fill him in on the situation and what he had done so far to try and stabilize his daughter. The attendant, "That is great, let's get her on the monitor and check her vitals. Let me see if there is any evidence of internal damage."
Ty, "Look, she hit her head pretty hard on this rock as she fell so we flushed it and put gauze to check the bleeding. When we got to her, she was unconscious and not breathing, so Amy did CPR and revived her, and I stabilized her legs. They both look broken!"
Attendant, "That is great. It doesn't appear that she has any internal injuries, but we won't be sure until we get her to the hospital. Did she ever regain consciousness?"
Amy, "She has been going in and out, but over the last 10 minutes, she has not woken up!"
The attendant checks her eyes and sees response and notes, "She is following the light, so that is a good sign!"
Amy and Ty grab each other and hug. They both let out a sigh of relief as they watched the attendant perform more tests.
The helicopter landed and the EMS crew began quickly to rig up a retrieval harness to get Lyndi out of the canyon. They lowered a basket to the ledge and the attendant and Ty carefully stabilized her onto the board, then put her into the basket. The Helicopter then hovered over the site and dropped a retrieval cable to the ledge where they secured the basket. The attendant then strapped himself to the cable and the helicopter began to retrieve both Lyndi and the attendant. Once they got her out of the canyon and onto the cliff, they loaded Lyndi into the helicopter. Ty, "Amy, why don't you go with Lyndi to the hospital and Jack, and I will bring back the horses and come as quick as we can. Call me if anything changes, ok?"
Amy, who is still trying to grasp the emotions of seeing her daughter being pulled from the canyon responds, "Ok, I will!"
The air ambulance lifts off and heads toward the hospital in Calgary and Jack and Ty, pack up the horses and begin the trek back to Heartland. As they were riding back, Jack said, "Ty, I am so sorry that you and Amy have to go through another event like this."
Ty, "Jack, that is life! There are always risks that we take and most often nothing becomes of them. But when things like this happen, we can only pray that God will take us through this. When I was younger, events like this would bottle up inside of me and I would go crazy trying to deal with it on my own. Amy and I prayed over her today, and I realized that whatever the outcome, all we could do is what we could do, the rest we must leave up to God!"
Jack, "Ty, your faith has grown so much! I am so proud of you!"
Ty, "Jack, listen, when we get back to the ranch, I need you to be with the twins for a while. Then, call Georgie and see if they can come get the twins while we deal with Lyndi at the hospital. Is that ok?"
Jack, "Sure, I can do that. I will also call the family and tell them what has happened."
Ty, "Make sure they pray for her healing. We need God to really step in here. I think Lyndi is going to need it!"
Jack, "Will do!"
As they reach Heartland, Jack takes the horses and brings them into the barn, while Ty gets into the SUV and heads to the Calgary hospital.