When the Ice Almost Took My Best Girl

What a year this has been for us here on the farm.

I pride myself on pushing through the hard things — for my kids and for my livestock — but lately, it has been so hard. I know anyone who cares for animals can relate. Farm life can be beautiful, but it can also be absolutely brutal. And honestly… this year has been shit in a lot of ways.

Yesterday, I almost lost my horse.

We had some really nasty weather here in Oklahoma, and much of our town was frozen over. When things started to warm up, I turned the horses out from the barn. I keep going over that decision in my head — wishing I had put them in the arena instead of the pasture.

I was watching from the window when I saw Jazz fall through the ice in the middle of our pond, right where it’s deepest.

I grabbed my dad and ran outside as fast as I could to get a rope on her. The ice was thick in the center, and she couldn’t get her feet out in front of her. She was up to her neck in freezing water.

I crawled out onto the ice and managed to get a rope on her. Thankfully, my dad brought his tractor over to try to pull her out. She was in the water for what felt like forever — shivering, exhausted, and eventually she just… stopped fighting.

I was screaming at her, pulling on the rope, begging her to try but nothing was working. Not even the tractor.

I couldn’t get a rope under her legs, and I was terrified that pulling too hard on her neck would choke her. My dad and stepmom ended up in the water too, trying to help. The ice kept breaking beneath us.

I have never experienced cold like that — the kind where you can’t catch your breath. And all I could think about was how Jazz must be feeling, trapped and freezing, unable to escape.

I was losing hope. I truly thought I was about to watch my best girl freeze to death, and I’ve never felt so helpless in my life.

As a last attempt, my dad got back into the water to break the ice in front of her. Then he went back to the tractor and tried pulling again. I begged Jazz to move — and finally, she did.

We got her to the bank.

I think I cried for hours that night. I’m still emotional writing this now.

I got her straight to the barn, dried her off as best I could, gave her warm pellet mash and plenty of hay. I even blow-dried her as much as she would let us. She was quiet, stiff and not responding the way she normally does, which scared me all over again.

But thank God she’s okay.

She’s sore and has some visible swelling, but her temperature is stable and she’s starting to act like herself again.

I lost my phone to the pond. I gained rope burns and bruises from the ice. None of that matters compared to a saved life.

This year has taught me a lot. We lost our chickens. We lost piglets. I’ve been dealing with health issues on top of everything. And now, I almost lost my best friend.

It’s so easy to fall into a dark, negative headspace after a year like this. But I’m trying to keep going. I’m trying to hold onto what we still have.

We can rebuild our flock.
We had a healthy litter of piglets.
And Jazz is still here — growing with my kids.

And that is what matters.