Girl Is Hurt in Riding Mishap That Killed Thoroughbred

A horseback ride for two teen-age girls turned into a nightmarish, four-hour battle to pull their thoroughbreds from 12 feet of mud after the horses bolted and fell into a ditch, rescuers and witnesses said Tuesday.

Alexandra Lohnes, 14, of San Clemente climbed out of the 12-foot ditch to safety, but her horse, an 8-year-old gelding, either drowned or suffocated in the muck, said Ron Hanson, owner of Sycamore Trails Stables, which is near the accident site.

With the help of about 30 rescuers, the other horse finally was tugged by its tail up the slick, muddy side of the ditch to safety. Firefighters, construction workers and four members of the county’s animal control unit were among those assisting in what was described as a dramatic four-hour rescue.

“It was just about our worst nightmare come true,” said Hanson, who had been boarding Lohnes’ horse, Cimarron, at his stables. “We lost a wonderful horse, but we were lucky neither of the girls were hurt.”

The accident happened about 5:30 p.m. as the two girls were riding back toward the stables near Trabuco Creek, said Doreen Lohnes, Alexandra’s mother.

“For some reason the horses started to run on their own, and the girls couldn’t hold them back,” Doreen Lohnes said. “The girls got them under control once, but they started running again. They were hyper for some reason, probably because of the storm, but we don’t know.”

As the other rider, Grace Corcovibias, 14, of Mission Viejo, jumped off her horse, Alexandra was thrown into the 4-foot-wide construction ditch, where a sewer line is under repair, followed by the two horses.

“At that point, she thought she was going to die,” Doreen Lohnes said. “Grace’s horse squished Alexandra into the side of the ditch, and then Cimarron came down beside her.”

Alexandra, bruised and scared, managed to crawl over her fallen horse and out of the ditch. She then stumbled down the creek side, about a quarter of a mile to the stables to get help.

In the meantime, Grace jumped into the ditch and attempted to get the mud out of the nostrils of the dying horse, but to no avail, said Jerry Harris, owner of Rancho Sierra Vista Equestrian Center, who helped in the later rescue.

When rescuers got to the scene about a half-hour later, Cimarron, who was already dead, was buried up to its neck in mud. The other thoroughbred, Razamataz, also an 8-year-old gelding, after thrashing and scratching to free himself, was wedged between the dead horse and the wall of the ditch.

The dead horse was removed from the ditch by the use of a backhoe, Harris said. But it was only after tying a rope to Razamataz’s tail and wedging straw beneath him that the rescuers managed to free the horse.

Local horse owners put the value of the two thoroughbreds at just under $10,000, but the money was not the issue for Alexandra, a ninth-grader at Santa Margarita High School.

“It’s a very difficult time for her,” Doreen Lohnes said. “There are pictures of her and this horse all over our house. But she’s trying to cope.”