This happened to me about 20 years ago. A friend of mine and myself were traveling late
one night, going from one horse show to another, wanting to get a few hours sleep before
riding the next morning. We took a short cut which was an old two lane highway. We had just
stopped at a fast food restaurant and were laughing about the greasy, french fries, when we
started to climb a hill. My truck started to slow down, I shifted down, down again, and we
started rolling backwards. I told my friend not to worry; we would unload the horses and then
I'd pull up the hill and we could re-load them. She jumped out and screamed, "The trailer's
gone!" I jumped out and we were jack-knifed blocking both sides of the road. Before we
could unload the horses, I heard a car coming. I stood in front of the horse trailer waving my
arms, praying they'd see me before it was to late. The lights came over the top of the hill, I
heard the brakes squeal and the car flew out into the desert. The driver turned out to be a
young man around 20 years old. I might say he was very mad when he approached us. After
seeing what had happened, he and my friend lead our horses out into the desert to safety. I
ran back to the truck and tried to move it; it wouldn't move and the clutch was burning. I got
out of the truck and was yelling to my friend that I couldn't move the trailer. Then in the
distance, I heard a diesel truck coming. By then, I was crying; scared, not knowing what to
do. I heard a voice say, you drive; I'll push. I jumped back into the truck still crying so much, I
could barely see. The clutch was burning and the truck wasn't moving, yet, all of a sudden the
truck started moving very slowing. Then I was straight in the road, and the diesel flew past
me. The truck (almost on it's own power) pulled slowly off on to the dirt shoulder. So relieved I
hadn't been hit by the diesel, I hadn't given a thought as to how my truck ended up on the side
of the road. I thought the young man had come up and pushed the truck and trailer, not even
thinking that it wouldn't be impossible for a single man to push my heavy rig over to the side
of the road. I ran out into the desert where they were holding the horses. And thanked this
young man for saving my life. He looked at me like I was crazy. He said he never left my
friend and the horses, because there was no way he was getting anywhere near my truck and
trailer with a diesel coming. There wasn't another person around anywhere. About ten or
fifteen minutes later, a truck and several cars stopped. The truck tried to pull me up to the top
of the hill and wasn't able to. By this time there was about 8 or 9 people standing around and
they pushed - and the truck pulled me to the top of the hill. We loaded the horses, and being
very scared and shaken, went on our way. To this day I believe the voice I heard tell me to
drive while he pushed, was my Father who had passed away the month before...
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