A pair of Derby Day miracles
Because a Warren County horseman cheated death, long shot Taiba has a chance to beat the odds today and make history.
Taiba’s chance at MORROW — making history today when he
— attempts to become the first horse in 139 years to win the Kentucky Derby in just his third career start
nearly died in the bloody grass — and the desperate screams outside of a barn on a picturesque farm east of Morrow in Warren County eight years ago.
“I came out and saw the two (yearlings) running loose in and out of the barn,” Mary Ryan said. “I threw my hands up and said, ‘What you got going on out here, Bruce?’”
She got no answer.
And that’s when she saw her now-husband, Bruce Ryan, a rock of a man, lying motionless on the ground.
“He was lying there on his back with his hands crossed,” Mary said. “It was like he was sleeping.”
He was snoring loudly and then the sound became raspy and she said she later was told “that was the death rattle,” one of the last stages of a person’s life.
Bruce’s right temple was caved in and blood was coming out of the back of his head, too. He did not respond to her pleas.
As she’d learn later, Bruce was taking one of the yearlings out
when it became agitated and reared up. As he turned, one of the yearling’s hooves came crashing down on his skull.
He was knocked down with such force, he suffered a severe hematoma on the other side of his head.
Sitting in the high-ceilinged living room of their home the other day — with Bruce seated across from her and adding a few facts to an incident he mostly cannot recall — Mary found the memories
were soon accompanied by her tears.
She told of finding her husband’s phone in his truck and frantically dialing 9-1-1.
“I got some dirty horse wraps out of the barn and tried to compress them on his (wound), but every time he took a breath, blood spurted out the back of his head,” she said. “I was screaming as loud as I could. I just wanted him to open his eyes.
“I heard gurgling and thought
he was choking on the blood, so I tried to roll him up against my knees.”
That’s when the first rescue unit arrived at their 130-acre farm off State Route 132, but the medics didn’t initially see her and she screamed some more.
Eventually, the UC Health Air Care helicopter landed and Bruce, still unresponsive, was loaded on board.