It was around 6:30 PM, April 6th, 1978, and Wendy
Cairns had just finished bedding down her horses for the night. Leaving
the barn she began walking towards the house. Suddenly out of the corner
of her eye she saw a thin beam of light shoot down from the sky. Wendy
described it as resembling "sunshine through a knot hole". The immediate
result was a scream from a horse, the likes of which she had never heard
before. Then pandemonium broke loose within the barn.
Rushing back in, Wendy found that "Tammy" had put her feet through a 3/4"
plywood wall board. Whereas "Boo Boo" in the next stall had reared up and
dented the heavy mesh wire above her stall pushing it outward a good 8
inches. Both horses were in a rough state. The colt was sweating and the
mare was in a stupor. The remainder of the horses were snorting and
panicking.
Realizing that she couldn’t handle the situation alone, she phoned her
sister Mary Morgan who promptly came over with her husband Wesley, and two
friends. Between them they were able to eventually get the nine horses out
into the yard. After which they walked them until they calmed down.
However, attempting to return them to the barn was a more difficult task.
Eventually they had to blindfold the horses before they could be persuaded
to re-enter their stalls.
After this was over they noticed a big light in the night sky. The weather
was clear and cold, visibility excellent. Phoning the local Baldy Hughes
C.A.F.B., she was told, "Yes, we do have a UFO on radar." At a later date
this was firmly denied. Wendy later learnt that others had been watching
the light for the two hours that they had all been engaged in attending to
the horses.
Next morning Wendy phoned the local vet in Prince George. She spoke to Dr.
Colby who was sympathetic to her account. In any event it was Dr. Ken
Nesbitt who arrived to examine the animals. The colt at that time was
still so wobbly that it had to put its nose on the ground to stop from
falling over. The vet ordered the animals to be walked as much as possible
and he took blood samples.
Wendy and her sister walked the animals most of the following night as the
horses were so sick. This continued for a month. Later on they were unable
to renew their insurance on the injured animals. After this Wendy and her
husband Edward (who had been in Washington State when the incident took
place) began to notice some very unusual things. They only ever received
one bill, for $192.00. Yet the vet, Dr. Ken Nesbitt would come and spend
8-9 hours sitting watching the horses. He told the couple that the horses'
systems had "shut down"? The doctor for Baldy Hughes C.A.F.B. (their own
family doctor) turned up with an Air Force officer one day. He recommended
they go for a physical, which they did, but never got to hear the results.
They did hear through the grape vine that the federal government was
picking up the bills for the vets services.
They had also notified the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This resulted in
an officer arriving who thought the whole event was one big joke.
According to his jocular approach, lightning was what had resulted in
"Tammy" receiving two dollar size burns(?) on each side of her neck. Plus
the fact that, in his opinion, the horses were just fine. This attitude so
infuriated Wendy that one day at a social gathering she related the event
to a stranger she met. Unknown to Wendy he had RCMP connections. The very
next day the disbelieving policeman arrived and offered profuse apologies.
But when on future occasions they met him he still had a smile on his
face. After that they always referred to him as "Smirky".
The two injured horses remained depressed for a long period of time and
were reluctant to move around. Which for them was most unusual. Altogether
2-3 years elapsed before they regained their more normal behaviour.
(Addendum) Anticipating some of the readers queries I should add that
Wendy stated that when the beam struck she neither heard anything unusual
nor detected any strange odours.
Although the couple owned a beagle and a border collie, both dogs were in
the house with the children and showed no signs of being disturbed at any
time.
It is also worth noting that UFOs had been seen on numerous occasions
within a 20-30 mile radius. In fact Wendy’s mother had seen one herself.
The Cairns knew only of reports describing yellowy, orange lights, high in
the night sky. No daylight reports.
A Mrs. Len Thomas arrived at the farm one day with a Geiger counter. She
claimed to be from an investigative group, but the Cairns were unable to
recall which one. This visitor obtained a reading of .05 in the stall.
Unfortunately we don’t know what the background reading was at that time.
Finally it should be mentioned that after the events described, the Cairns
found the house was noticeably cold and clammy for several hours
afterwards. They had no explanation for this very unusual feeling.
It is also noteworthy that in 1972 this same couple owned cattle and
suffered, it seems, from losing a heifer through mutilation. See "An
Early Cattle Mutilation?".
(NB) Names have been changed to protect witnesses. Also a couple of
additional identifying details re: profession and location have been
omitted.
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