Racehorses survive scary, sweaty ride through Eastern Oregon

PENDLETON, Ore. — After a harrowing ride down Cabbage Hill with failed brakes and three thoroughbreds, a Bend man won’t soon forget his Pendleton adventure.

Gary Morris, a racehorse owner and trainer, was winding his way down the steep section of Interstate 84 Saturday afternoon in a three-quarter-ton truck hauling a horse trailer. Morris was transporting the trio of horses from a race in Boise, Idaho, and heading to another in Tillamook, Oregon. As he neared a 45-mile-per-hour curve, he applied his brakes.

Nothing.

“The brakes just left,” Morris said. “I pumped them and nothing happened.”

Morris dropped into second gear, but slowed little. He downshifted to first only to hear an ear-shattering squeal as the Ford’s transmission gave out.

“I had no transmission and no brakes,” he said.

Fortunately, his trailer brakes and emergency brake still functioned. Morris, 78, managed to keep the speed below 70 miles-per-hour as he made it safely to Pendleton exit 216 near the Arrowhead Travel Plaza. As soon as his adrenaline subsided, he turned his attention to his cargo. With the mercury hovering around 105 degrees, the valuable thoroughbreds were at risk. Morris, a financier turned racehorse owner, worried about the well-being of his horses.

“They were number one,” he said.

About that time, Morris got the first of several doses of Pendleton hospitality.

“A guy and his wife stopped by in their pickup and pulled me to Kenworth,” he said.

With disappointment, he learned the truck sales and repair business worked on only large commercial trucks. Service Manager Josh Payne, however, gave approval to move the horse trailer into the repair shop.

“The horses were drenched with sweat. The (Kenworth people) pulled me into one of the bays and got the horses into the shade. They got three huge fans going,” Morris said. “Without that, the horses might even have died right there.”

“The horses were shaky and upset,” Payne said.

Kenworth employees provided water for Morris’ three Boston terriers and showed the horse trainer to an air-conditioned lounge where he could use a computer to search for a rental truck with a gooseneck hitch. After making a string of fruitless calls, he dialed the number of the NEIGH-bors horse hotel, owned by Mary Alice Ridgway.

“I called Mary Alice and told her I was in a predicament,” Morris said. “From there, everything was roses.”

Ridgway and her friend Bev Kopperud arrived shortly, hooked Morris’s trailer to Kopperud’s Ford 350 and headed to Ridgway’s horse hotel. When Morris unloaded his thoroughbreds, the two women gazed with admiration at equine perfection.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God.’ They were so beautiful,” Kopperud said. “They were prancing and happy to be out of the trailer.”

The group included two chestnuts named Ex and Gypsy and a dark bay called Seattle Diner. All have won their share of races, Morris said.

Ridgway installed Morris in a second-floor apartment over the stalls. The next morning, colleagues from Morris’ horse farm arrived with a truck to pull the thoroughbreds back to Bend. Morris said he won’t soon forget the kindness he found in Round-Up City. His rescuers, however, deflected the praise.

“You do what’s right,” Payne said. “You treat people the way you’d want to be treated.”

Kopperud and Ridgway agreed.

“It’s not extraordinary to help people,” Kopperud said. “It’s what you do.”