Cowgirl loses faithful steed

Cowgirl Donna Byrne packed up her two horses, Tonto and Jay, in Arcadia, Fla., five months ago and took to the road, hoping to make it to Amarillo, Texas, and a new ranch job.

She’s less than 80 miles from her destination, but she’ll arrive exhausted, beaten down by the trip and heartsick.

Jay, the horse she was riding, died last week.

Byrne thinks it was the result of eating a poison plant in the town she was passing through, Childress.

“I saw her chewing on something and I jerked her away,” she said. Soon after that she began to bleed from the nose, then her tongue swelled up. Byrne called a veterinarian who came out to check on Jay. He gave her medication but couldn’t save her.

No one performed a necropsy to figure out what killed Jay, but it could well have been a poison plant, said Terri Gammage, president and founder of a horse rescue operation in Amarillo, Safe Hayven.

“She could have died from eating toxic weeds. We have them here, they’re everywhere.”

But after getting calls from people who have been following Byrne’s story, Gammage tracked her down on Monday. She wanted to check on Tonto and the horse that Byrne bought to replace Jay.

Gammage found both of them in good shape, she said. “As a cruelty investigator, I would never dream of trying to make a case against her,” Gammage said. The horses seemed comfortable. They weren’t blowing “or dancing around like they were hurting.”

Byrne, 44, set out from Arcadia in February, riding her horse Jay and using Tonto to carry a tent, clothes and almost everything else she owned.

She had lost her job on a small ranch and decided to head to Texas, hoping to find steady work in Amarillo. Her journey brought her through the Wiregrass, where she spent a night in Dothan.

Some bloggers on a Web site set up to follow Byrne’s progress have been condemning her for subjecting her horses to such a long trip. But after seeing Byrne’s horses and meeting her, Gammage defends her.

“What she is doing is not any way worse than what a lot of people on competitive trail riding and endurance riding do. They do it every day. She’s not doing it nearly as hard as competitive riders do,” she said.

“Donna has a choice in what she’s doing. The horses don’t. But as far as I can see right now, the horses are not in danger.”

But Byrne is spent. “I’m worn down,” she said. “But I know cowgirls don’t cry, ride, baby, ride. But with Jay’s death, it really took a toll on me. I’m just tired.”

Lindsay Peterson is a staff writer for The Tampa Tribune.