Name: Rooster Gender: Gelding Species: Horse Breed: Spotted Saddle Horse Description: Lost in the Big South Fork area. Running after the ground, bees got after them and got away from the riders. I want to thank everyone for helping us find our lost horses. I can’t put into words how heartbroken and devastated we are. The amount of people who have taken the time to ride through the woods and search for our horses is overwhelming, and we are so appreciative.
We contacted a person with a thermal scanning drone the day the horses were lost to attempt to fly over the trees and scan for the horses. This seems to be the best way to find them, as Big South Fork Park covers 125,000 acres. After talking with the man, he can not fly his drone over the park where the horses were lost due to regulations regarding drones flying over a national park. There is some shield preventing the drone from flying into the park. He was able to fly the drone around the outskirts of the park and covered 4,000 acres with no luck.
The Woodruffs and I have contacted the Fentress County Sheriff’s Office, TN State Troopers, TN Wildlife Resources Agency, National Park Service, and Park Rangers, asking for help searching through the park and allowing the drone to fly over. I also talked with the office of TN Senator Marsha Blackburn, asking for help. All authorities have denied our request for help searching for our horses, who have been missing in the woods for five days. We are desperate for help in finding our horses. We can’t understand why the authorities aren’t offering help finding two animals who are scared and could be hurt or starving. Please let us know if anyone has any recommendations on who to contact. Thank you for your continued prayers. We pray to find our horses safe and unharmed.
The map on 10/31/23 represents the point of loss of the horses and the red lines represent a flight path with thermal imaging both morning and night for a distance of over 15 miles from center point at 9 days after loss I believe, we saw every single living animal with a heart beat in that 15 mile circle, - Mike Joseph
Area Last Seen: Allardt, TN, 38556 Date Lost: 10/14/2023 8:52:00 PM Contact
11/1/2023 8:55:00 AM
UPDATE 10/31/23, 1:37 pm - This picture represents the point of loss of the horses and the red lines represent a flight path with thermal imaging both morning and night for a distance of over 15 miles from center point at 9 days after loss I believe, we saw every single living animal with a heart beat in that 15 mile circle, we shared those images with the best trackers Lathern Hull and the National Parks Rangers who were out there receiving this information, we saw foxes, hogs, wolves, deer, birds, and everything in between, nothing was large enough to be a horse, there were two animals that we couldn’t tell exact size because of them laying down so we sent in the trackers, turns out they were cow elk most likely, the night we did this there was the marathon with hundreds of people on foot in the park, these animals are domesticated, they are people friendly and they know a person equals food and safety, hundreds of horses on trail since then and not one time did a horse come to the noise of humans or other horses, a mere so called sighting by someone who claimed they saw a tan horse with a saddle running up a trail but this person used a third party to tell us and then would not cooperate or be willing to be contacted and actually turned off comments on the post, he had no coordinates nor did he offer to show someone where he was, my thoughts now lean towards someone took them the first day. I’m sure they are alive and well but just not with the owners, we watched hogs eat some small carcasses that night and if there was dead horses we would have seen that as well from the birds and smaller animals that would be around them feeding. Just my opinion from 30 years of SAR experience both military and police. 🤷♂️ To close this comment when you look at the red lines and see each one of those are flight paths we didn’t miss anything. https://www.facebook.com/groups/bigsouthforkservices/posts/2337654089775806
Debi
10/26/2023 8:39:00 AM
Misti Dunivan Gardner is with Dakoda Gardner and 5 others . October 9 at 1:59 PM · This past weekend we went to big South Fork(Honey Creek Campground) for a relaxing weekend of camping and trail riding something as a family that we all love to do! Well Dickie loves it mostly for the socializing and for us because he knows it’s my therapy and the girls just love doing anything that involves horses! Well we did just that for 2 days and on Saturday while riding our girls and all the kids were leading the way when they went over a log and got into ground bees they had know idea what was going on but their horses started acting up and my girls were getting stung all in the head and realized it was bees!! Before they could get their horses under control and turn around and let the rest of us know it was too late we were all in them! Our horses and all of us we’re getting stung! Dickie Gardner and Woody Woodruff were in the back and heard Emily screaming somebody get Vivi! So of course the Hero Daddy’s Dickie Gardner and Woody Woodruff came to the rescue to get Vivi. Dickie grabbed Vivi and Woody was right behind them! We thank God all of us humans are ok but we have lost 2 trail horses in the big woods of Big South Fork! Honey Creek owners Teresa N Bryce Smith have went above and beyond using all search efforts. We want to thank all family and friends that come during the night to search! Thanks to everyone for sharing our posts/pics. Me and my girls have cried our eyes out having to leave camp without one of our beloved trail horses but we all have jobs and businesses to run! Please continue to share our posts/pics In efforts that our horses are found safe and sound! We could also use prayers not only to find them, but for our family and all our friends involved during this devastating time! Link: https://www.facebook.com/misti.d.gardner/posts/6545859982133795
Debi
10/25/2023 8:35:00 AM
Tuesday Oct 24, 2023 from Brandon James Post: I talked to the owner now I'm more confident the horses went in the direction and could be where I seen the buzzards it's just a few turns away. And 3 miles Lot misinformation out there probably more miss information than truth .he said horse reins were dragging when they left . The spoted horse is high strung and likes to go and was first time horses had been there it wouldn't took but one wrong turn from stepping on there rains getting separated from the 3rd horse .with that being said this area be easy for them to get to very quickly. With out being seen now I'm sharing this because I'm not greedy and if you go looking and get hurt or lost I'm not responsible I plan on going back but it's 2 hour drive and I got put some shoes on a horse it's going be some tricky terrain to go into. But can be done as I previously stated in previous post that I deleted because I was told I was gready for not sharing info but at the time no info was being shared with me no good info .I'm not greedy Iv just spent a long time catching horse and training and Farrier work . Knowing the terrain is the easy part knowing horse has been my life long profession and each is different. https://www.facebook.com/groups/bigsouthforkservices/posts/2333411353533413
Debi
10/24/2023 1:13:00 PM
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Debi
10/24/2023 1:04:00 PM
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Debi