BCATP
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Lancaster
|
Media
BCATP
|
Lancaster
|
Media
A Crowfoot Indian pony was struck by a Canadian Air Force Training plane in WW II, and both pilot and pony survived!! This story sounds like something out of Ripley's Believe It or Not, but believe me, it really did happen.
To give you some background first, the late Frank Medicine Shield bred and raised horses years ago that were known as the Bee Crowfoot Indian ponies -The last of the great buffalo ponies. Frank lived on the Blackfoot Reserve, a vast expanse of land that borders the town Milo in southern Alberta. Pretty well every cowboy in that area owned one of the horses, the best of which weighed in at around 900-1000 pounds. These horses roamed the wild open spaces of the reservation and seldom saw a man expect when they were gathered up for branding and gelding.
In 1940, an old friend of mine, George Nelson, bought and started the pony in the photograph. The pony was four years old. After World War II got going, George turned his pony back on the reserve when he joined the Army and went overseas. In 1941, there was an Air Force Training Centre (2 Flying Instructor School) near the small town of Vulcan, not far from Milo. The young pilot trainees used to buzz over the Blackfoot Reserve.
One Frigid winter day (it was around 30 below) a little band of these buffalo ponies was sheltering in a coulee on the reserve when a group of trainees on maneuver came flying over. They swooped low over the ponies - much too low - and before they could pull up, one pilot felt a slight jolt. He immediately began to have trouble and could not gain any altitude, so he landed on frozen lake McGregor.
Townspeople came out to help, noticed blood on the propeller, and asked what happened. The airmen explained they were flying low and felt a jolt ... and now they realized they must have hit one of the horses. They had marked the spot on their map, and thats how the small herd of ponies was found. It was George Nelson's pony that had been struck, and George never knew it happened until he returned from the war in 1946.
As the photo shows, the pony's neck was almost completely severed. The folks around Milo figure that when the pony fell, the wound filled with snow and that, coupled with the bitter cold weather, staunched the flow of blood and saved the pony's life. When George returned, he began to ride his pony again, and told me later that on a frosty morning, the ol' pony could still blow up and give him a ride for his money. The pony died at age twenty-four on the Nelson's Ranch near Milo.
