In the summer of 2016, horse trainer, E.H. Pait and his wife, Arianne, had the opportunity to sell their farm and home in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The couple decided they wanted to build a new place from the ground up. E.H. is a well-known western pleasure futurity trainer who has ridden and trained several AQHA World and Congress Champions.
“Building our first house was something we really enjoyed and we were looking forward to building a new farm from the ground up, just exactly like we would want,” Arianne told us. “After selling our farm, E.H. continued to operate his business from the old place. The new owner was beginning a boarding business, and we were his first customers. We planned to stay there until we completed construction on a new facility.”
Unfortunately, life often changes in the blink of an eye. On Sept 18, 2016, E.H. was riding and had a freak accident on a horse that fell on him.
“The saddle horn landed on his abdomen,” Arianne recalls. “He called me to take him to the hospital because he was on blood thinners at the time. He was concerned about internal bleeding. He was right. Doctors discovered that he had a ruptured mesenteric artery. This artery feeds the major organs of the abdomen. He was prepped for surgery that night. His team had to try to counteract the blood thinners so that he would be safe during surgery.”
According to Arianne, mesenteric artery injuries are mostly associated with stab wounds. Survival rates for those with this injury are not very good.
“Our surgeon was hopeful for a good outcome because the blunt force trauma left so many of his internal structures in-tact, badly bruised, but in-tact. This helped to decrease his internal bleeding. All of this, in addition to his diagnosis of cardiomyopathy that he has had for 15 years, made his surgery a high-risk situation.”
While E.H. had to wait for his blood to be thick enough to tolerate surgery, his intestines suffered permanent damage. Arianne explains that the surgeon removed several inches of intestines, repaired his spleen and repaired some minor damage to his colon.
During this healing process, he was unable to eat or drink. That was all fine, with the exception of one critical heart medicine that he takes. It can only be administered orally. “After four days of being in the hospital, E.H. started to make a wonderful recovery. He was placed on a liquid diet, and his team of doctors were attempting to restart his cardiac medicine. All was going well. Well, until it didn’t,” Arianne recalls.
Unfortunately, after a day or so on a liquid diet, E.H. started to get sick to his stomach. “His intestines had stopped working. This condition is called an ileus. When an ileus occurs, your digestion stops. Without the continual movement of the intestines, you get very sick. He was unable to eat or keep anything down. Doctors said that the typical ileus lasts anywhere between one to three days. E.H. set a record for the longest ileus at that hospital. His lasted 23 days.”
After the ileus resolved, E.H. remained in the hospital for three days in order to get him safely back on his medications. During his hospital stay, the couple was in the middle of renovating a new home close to their son’s school. E.H. and Arianne bought this house to stay in while they built their own farm.
“When he got out of the hospital, this neighborhood gave E.H. a perfect place to rehabilitate himself. He walked our neighborhood day and night trying to build up his muscles. He trained himself,” Arianne remembers. “E.H. is a fighter. He may come off as reserved, but when he decides to do something, get out of the way. He will accomplish the goal. It was a miracle that he was healthy, eating and being a great husband and father. We were thankful for that. I really thought that might be all he could do. I was okay with that. I didn’t care what he did as long as he was okay.”
While all of this was going on, NSBA Executive Director Dianne Eppers contacted Arianne and asked her what NSBA could do to help. “We were unsure of our future and the NSBA Trainer Crisis Fund stepped in to help. You never think that you will be on the receiving end of that foundation, but if you ever find yourself out of work and injured, that assistance can do so much to ease the stressors of daily life. E.H. and I sincerely thank the NSBA for all they have done to ensure that the Trainer Crisis Fund is ready to help on very short notice.”
This could have been the end of the story. It isn’t…..
During his recovery, former and even new clients kept calling E.H. asking when he was accepting horses again. “He didn’t want to tell them that he didn’t think he would ride again,” Arianne reflects. “After walking countless miles as part of his rehab, he decided to bite the bullet and try to ride.”
E.H. called his friend and fellow trainer, Mark Dunham and asked if he could come ride a broke horse to see if he could do it. His abdominal muscles had taken quite a blow from the surgery. “Of course, Mark agreed,” Arianne says. “E.H. slowly started to get comfortable in the saddle. Walking had done wonders for his overall health, but riding was a whole other set of muscles.”
Over the next two months, E.H. got back into riding shape. According to Arianne, the next hurdle was, where to train horses. “We didn’t want to start building a new farm if we weren’t sure that E.H. would be able to ride young horses,” Arianne states.
This is where Jerry and Vickie Strickland come in to the story. E.H. trained the Strickland’s horse, Hope By Invitation to multiple national titles including showing her to an AQHA World Champion Junior Western Pleasure title in 2006. Their farm did not have a trainer working out of it at the time. E.H. started boarding a couple of training horses there so that he could see how he was going to be able to handle the physical demands of horse training. He gradually started taking more and more horses.
Over the last year, E.H. has built up a talented group of horses. “His show string is now one that he is proud of,” Arianne proudly states. “We would like to thank God, Dr. Roger Hill, Dr. Devi Nair and, of course, Connie Hill (pictured left) for helping E.H. get back his health. For that, we are all forever grateful.”
We are happy to see E.H. back in the saddle and we wish him continued success. His 2018 accomplishments include:
Dixie National Champions
Select Western Pleasure with Lazy To The Roan and Amy Black
Amateur Western Pleasure and Non-Pro Maturity with Sole Sister and Katie Johnson
Green Western Pleasure with Sole Sister and E.H.
Jr. Western Pleasure with Lazy To The Roan and E.H.
Gordyville USA
$9,000 Green Western Pleasure Slot Class – Champion with Sole Sister and E.H.
Photos © Kaleena Katz Weakly, Impulse Photography, Ruele Photography
