Dakota's Story

A pleasure ride for Dakota, a 17 yo retired Search and Rescue volunteer mare turned tragic last Saturday evening after a beautiful day on the trails of the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie in Western Washington. Only 1/2 mile to the trailer, and crossing back over a bridge that looked very well built, the rotted boards gave way and this beautiful loving mare suddenly found herself with 2 feet in the grave. Through the efforts of over 30 rescuers from King County Search and Rescue and Wasart (Washington Animal Search and Rescue Team) and Dr. Dana Westerman, DVM- who all dropped everything and immediately responded to the call out to come to her aid, Dakota was rescued from the bridge fall, but not without an aftermath of issues. The rescuers and Dr. Dana were absolutely amazing in this advanced technical rescue and as a result, her life was saved. From the time of the incident to getting her safely back to her home, the rescue took 11 hours. I have been on many rescues myself and with Dakota with SAR and some with WASART and never have seen the technical expertise and dedication this rescue required.

The next three days were nip and tuck for Dakota. Her injuries were life threatening but she has been a fighter. Some would ask why we chose not to put her out of her misery. Well, the answer was simple, this mare helped save many lives with her hundreds of hours and many years dedicated to rescuing others with missions and training, all to be there for others when they needed it. Now she needed us and we were not going to let her down. While her future as a trail rider is in question, she will recover and be able to enjoy loving others and being loved by others until old age. She has earned her keep.

Her recovery has been very expensive and will continue to be so for a while. Dr. Westerman has devoted hours and hours already, and as a result has brought this girl back to a safe recovery, though the road for Dakota's recovery is still long. Dr. Dana feels confident she will lead a somewhat normal life within the months to come.

Were are asking for the community to help us with these very unexpected costs to her recovery. Any and all proceeds will be used to pay Dakota's vet bills for this deserving mare and all proceeds left over will be donated to King County Search and Rescue and WASART. THEY ARE INCREDIBLE and every member of these units are volunteer. What an amazing group of men and women and what an amazing work they do.

Thank you for reading this and please donate if you can and God Bless