A Close Family
July 27, 2010
The Ohio Quarter Horse Association pulls together to help one of its own.
Trey and his roping/speed-event horse, Bar Dee Boy 036, aka "Scooby." Photo courtesy of Tow Pal Inc., which sponsors Trey.
By all accounts, 14-year-old Trey Schwab has a wonderful, supportive family. But outside of his biological family, he also has an amazing network of unrelated kinfolk – connected by a common love of horses – who have rallied around him in the wake of a terrible accident. At the AQHA Region Four Championship in Columbus, July 15-18, this family was kicking it in high gear.
May 22, Trey and his family had been driving to a horse show on Ohio’s Interstate 71 when their left front tire blew out. As Paul, Trey’s father, slowed down to pull over, the truck shot abruptly across the median and into some trees. The trailer disconnected from the truck, and one horse ended up dying. Cindy, Paul’s mother, bled profusely from a severed carotid artery, and Paul sustained head injuries. Cindy also suffered several broken bones and is now in a wheelchair, although a full recovery is expected. Trey remains hospitalized, and the extent of his brain injury is not yet known. He blinks to answer “yes” or “no” questions, and he knows that his best horse, “Scooby,” survived.
At the accident scene, “there were angels everywhere,” says Ohio Quarter Horse Association youth director Kelli Diaz – from a passerby who stopped and helped stanch Cindy’s bleeding, to another one who happened to be driving by with an empty horse trailer; she transported the horses to a nearby vet clinic.
Today, it’s Kelli and others at OQHA and neighboring affiliates who are filling that role.
Kelli and Jamie Watson, whose daughter, Lacy, is an Ohio youth director, filled me in on the details of how the horse industry has swooped in to help the Schwab family.
The Ohio youth kids had already been selling raffle tickets for an All American Quarter Horse Congress package that included a stall at the Congress, a VIP parking pass, tickets to premier events and more. The proceeds were to go into a youth general fund that could be used for pizza parties or other social events. After the Schwabs’ accident, “the kids all got together and said, ‘We would like to donate it to Trey and his family,’ ” Kelli says.
At the Region Four Championship, Lacy sold $750 worth of raffle tickets in one night. She “has been phenomenal,” Kelli says – and she even sells the raffle tickets on her Facebook page.
It’s understandable why Lacy feels that kinship with Trey. The members of the Ohio Quarter Horse Youth Association voted on who should attend the AQHA Youth Excellence Seminar in June in Amarillo. Lacy and Trey – both active directors who were successful in the show ring – were unanimous picks.
Trey, obviously, wasn’t able to attend, but he was on the Ohio representatives’ minds. Kelli bought a photograph of the letters “A,” “Q,” “H” and “A” from Quarter Horse Outfitters, and she let all the kids at YES sign their names to it.
They’ll deliver it as soon as the busy summer schedule allows.
“We’re all going to go down and see him,” Kelli says. “A lot of the kids want to go visit him.”
At the Region Four Championship, besides the raffle sales, proceeds of a live and silent auction also went toward the Schwab family’s benefit fund. More than $9,000 was raised, and items just kept being added to the auction – a month’s worth of training here, more Congress tickets there. Others were just writing checks to make straight donations. The selflessness and generosity was heart-warming, to say the least.
“Once it starts,” Kelli says, “you just can’t stop it.”
But she says it’s easy to care this much about such a great family.
“They’re just a phenomenal family. They’re just as real as you can get. They do it (show horses) as a family.”
Trey was spotlighted in the Ohio affiliate’s newsletter in May, and in his interview, “it just talked about how humble he is, all the way down to ‘we save money by packing our lunches instead of buying food at the shows’ so he can help his parents so they can continue to travel. He’s just a great kid,” Kelli says.
Jamie, who ponied up $2,500 in the live auction to buy a Congress package, says it’s all well worth it.
“In Ohio, we’re pretty tight with our kids. Everybody works together, and it’s like a family.”
The “family” is now brainstorming, wondering how they can make Trey a part of the Built Ford Tough AQHYA World Show, which kicks off Friday in Oklahoma City. Trey and Scooby, registered as Bar Dee Boy 036, won the AQHYA stake race national high-point. He was to accept his trophy on August 5.
“We might even try to Skype,” Kelli says, referring to a service that allows online video conferencing. “We’re trying to think of different ways.”
But no matter how hard Kelli and her Ohio youth members work, they know Trey is working harder.
“It’s going to be a long road to recovery,” Kelli says, “but he’s a strong kid and they’re such a great family. I’m very optimistic.”
And that Ohio Quarter Horse spirit? It’s pretty cool, and yet another reason why joining your state affiliate is such a good idea – it’s like adding to your support system.
“We would do it for any of our youth,” Kelli says of the benefit efforts, “because we’re all one family. But he and his family are extra special.”
To help:
A benefit account set up at Chase Bank
Or at the Paul Schwab III Benefit Fund
Park National Bank
50 N Third St
P. O. Box 3500
Newark, OH 43058-3500
Hats off to all the fund-raisers, and best wishes to the Schwab family!
Holly Clanahan
Editor, America's Horse magazine
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