The impromptu pit-bull rodeo event occurred on Presidents Day, as Glendale attorney Jim Yeley was completing his two-hour riding lesson at Tempe's Papago Riding Stables. Accompanied by his instructor, Yeley was riding through a construction zone west of Rural Road en route to the stable when a beat-up green pickup truck with a couple of pit bulls in the back zoomed past. In a flash, the dogs leaped out of the bed of the truck and were hot on the trail of the horses.
The driver jumped out of the truck and almost immediately restrained one of his pets. The other dog, however, lit out after the horse being ridden by instructor Jane Chambers; the dog turned its attention to Yeley and his mount only after Chambers repeatedly slapped at the dog with a riding crop.
Because of heavy construction in the area--the land was being graded for a new freeway--Yeley reports that attempting to outrun the pugilistic pup was not an option.
"We'd been riding through these big ruts, so I couldn't let the horse break into a gallop," reports Yeley, a staff attorney for the federal court in downtown Phoenix. "He could have broken a leg and fallen on me."
Instead, the rattled rider attempted to keep his horse in a holding pattern while the enraged dog repeatedly lunged and leaped at the animal. As if things weren't chaotic enough, Yeley was also forced to dodge rocks hurled by the dog's owner in an effort to get his pet's attention.
Yeley, who can now appreciate some of the absurdity of the situation, reports that his attacker's name might have been "Tiger." "Or at least what the guy kept hollering while this whole thing was going on. I don't know--maybe he was just a Princeton fan," he says.
Yeley may joke about it now, but he remembers thinking, "I've got to stay on this horse. If I don't, that dog's going to eat me for lunch."
In lieu of a human entree, it looked as if the dog was willing to settle for an equine appetizer--say, horse lip pt. Yeley reports that at one point during the ordeal, the horse flipped its head around wildly in what appeared to be an effort to shake loose the dog that seemed to be hanging from its mouth. (Later discovering that there were no teeth marks around the steed's muzzle, stable owners theorize the dog probably latched on to a chin strap on the bridle instead.)
"Actually, the horse handled it pretty well until the dog came up from behind and bit him on the tail," recalls Yeley. "After that, the horse kind of lost it, though. He reared up, threw me off and took off back for the stable. I ended up on the ground, out cold."
Miraculously, the unconscious Yeley was not trampled after being thrown from the horse, nor was he attacked by the pit bull. According to Jane Chambers, the dog's owner managed to subdue his ferocious pet shortly after Yeley was thrown from the horse.
"The whole thing only lasted a few minutes, but at the time, it seemed like forever," says Chambers, whose family owns Papago Riding Stables. Characterizing the dog attack as "terrifying," she adds, "We've had this stable for 30 years, and in all that time, nothing like this has ever happened."
Stunned but not seriously hurt, Yeley told a team of paramedics that was summoned to the scene that he didn't need hospital treatment--a course of action he claimed he later regretted.
"I'd just been knocked stupid--they shouldn't have listened to me," says Yeley, who still considers himself lucky that his injuries only included a sprained wrist and superficial lacerations that made it appear that "somebody had worked over my face with a cabbage grater." Surprisingly, the horse he'd been riding received an even cleaner bill of health. Chambers reports that although the animal was possibly "traumatized," the horse was none the worse for wear.
But Yeley and Chambers haven't been nearly as successful in their own battle to bring the dog's owner to justice. "That dog was savage," contends Chambers. "I have a hard time believing that was the first time that dog has done something like that--and I can't believe it'll be the last." (The dog's owner could not be reached for comment.)
Although Yeley eventually filed a report of the incident, after reviewing his story, the Tempe Police Department bounced the case over to Maricopa County Animal Control. That agency couldn't provide much more help--a dog must actually bite a person or be seen running loose by an Animal Control officer before action can be taken against a negligent owner. Because of the pit bull's temperament, a third course of action--confining the loose dog until an officer arrived on the scene--was obviously not much of an option in this situation.
"I can always sue this guy civilly, which is what I'll probably end up doing," reports Yeley, who only seeks restitution for his medical bills. Says the uneasy rider, "I really don't care about the pain and suffering. Hey, cowboy fun!
