"Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch,". . .

By Graham Conway
 


It was around 6:30 PM, April 6th, 1978, and Wendy Cairns had just finished bedding down her horses for the night. Leaving the barn she began walking towards the house. Suddenly out of the corner of her eye she saw a thin beam of light shoot down from the sky. Wendy described it as resembling "sunshine through a knot hole". The immediate result was a scream from a horse, the likes of which she had never heard before. Then pandemonium broke loose within the barn.

Rushing back in, Wendy found that "Tammy" had put her feet through a 3/4" plywood wall board. Whereas "Boo Boo" in the next stall had reared up and dented the heavy mesh wire above her stall pushing it outward a good 8 inches. Both horses were in a rough state. The colt was sweating and the mare was in a stupor. The remainder of the horses were snorting and panicking.

Realizing that she couldn’t handle the situation alone, she phoned her sister Mary Morgan who promptly came over with her husband Wesley, and two friends. Between them they were able to eventually get the nine horses out into the yard. After which they walked them until they calmed down. However, attempting to return them to the barn was a more difficult task. Eventually they had to blindfold the horses before they could be persuaded to re-enter their stalls.

After this was over they noticed a big light in the night sky. The weather was clear and cold, visibility excellent. Phoning the local Baldy Hughes C.A.F.B., she was told, "Yes, we do have a UFO on radar." At a later date this was firmly denied. Wendy later learnt that others had been watching the light for the two hours that they had all been engaged in attending to the horses.

Next morning Wendy phoned the local vet in Prince George. She spoke to Dr. Colby who was sympathetic to her account. In any event it was Dr. Ken Nesbitt who arrived to examine the animals. The colt at that time was still so wobbly that it had to put its nose on the ground to stop from falling over. The vet ordered the animals to be walked as much as possible and he took blood samples.

Wendy and her sister walked the animals most of the following night as the horses were so sick. This continued for a month. Later on they were unable to renew their insurance on the injured animals. After this Wendy and her husband Edward (who had been in Washington State when the incident took place) began to notice some very unusual things. They only ever received one bill, for $192.00. Yet the vet, Dr. Ken Nesbitt would come and spend 8-9 hours sitting watching the horses. He told the couple that the horses' systems had "shut down"? The doctor for Baldy Hughes C.A.F.B. (their own family doctor) turned up with an Air Force officer one day. He recommended they go for a physical, which they did, but never got to hear the results. They did hear through the grape vine that the federal government was picking up the bills for the vets services.

They had also notified the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This resulted in an officer arriving who thought the whole event was one big joke. According to his jocular approach, lightning was what had resulted in "Tammy" receiving two dollar size burns(?) on each side of her neck. Plus the fact that, in his opinion, the horses were just fine. This attitude so infuriated Wendy that one day at a social gathering she related the event to a stranger she met. Unknown to Wendy he had RCMP connections. The very next day the disbelieving policeman arrived and offered profuse apologies. But when on future occasions they met him he still had a smile on his face. After that they always referred to him as "Smirky".

The two injured horses remained depressed for a long period of time and were reluctant to move around. Which for them was most unusual. Altogether 2-3 years elapsed before they regained their more normal behaviour.

(Addendum) Anticipating some of the readers queries I should add that Wendy stated that when the beam struck she neither heard anything unusual nor detected any strange odours.

Although the couple owned a beagle and a border collie, both dogs were in the house with the children and showed no signs of being disturbed at any time.

It is also worth noting that UFOs had been seen on numerous occasions within a 20-30 mile radius. In fact Wendy’s mother had seen one herself. The Cairns knew only of reports describing yellowy, orange lights, high in the night sky. No daylight reports.

A Mrs. Len Thomas arrived at the farm one day with a Geiger counter. She claimed to be from an investigative group, but the Cairns were unable to recall which one. This visitor obtained a reading of .05 in the stall. Unfortunately we don’t know what the background reading was at that time.

Finally it should be mentioned that after the events described, the Cairns found the house was noticeably cold and clammy for several hours afterwards. They had no explanation for this very unusual feeling.

It is also noteworthy that in 1972 this same couple owned cattle and suffered, it seems, from losing a heifer through mutilation. See "An Early Cattle Mutilation?".

(NB) Names have been changed to protect witnesses. Also a couple of additional identifying details re: profession and location have been omitted.

 

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