Saturday, March 17th — a quiet morning on the edge of Decatur. The top traffic stories were mainly the scores of construction zones that customarily occupy the Atlanta roads on weekends. But at about 8:30 a.m., a precocious team of horses from the Little Creek Farm Conservancy decided to spice up the ride on Highway 78.
DeKalb Police said that keepers let the half dozen or so horses out of the barn, not knowing the outer gate to the property just south of the Stone Mountain Freeway was open. The mares took little time to figure their way out into traffic.
Vivi Siegel, her mother, 4-year-old daughter, and 2-year-old son were on the way to ballet practice on Highway 78/eastbound just before I-285 and right next to Little Farm. They were used to seeing the horses when they drove and noticed them coming toward the highway. Closer. Closer.
“All of a sudden, the horses were next to us — and then they were in front of us,” Siegel told the AJC. Her family was one of the first cars behind the loose farm animals. “We couldn’t believe it, we were sharing the highway with horses.” Siegel’s Facebook post and video of the event, including her children’s cute commentary, has more than 330,000 views and she has turned it into a fundraiser for therapy horses.
Reporter Jill Nelson was staged in the WSB 24-Hour Traffic Center, scouring the GDOT site for road problems, when she happened upon this.
“I was monitoring the DOT Navigator site when a red box popped up, which is never good. And when I clicked on it, I read that they were shutting down Highway 78 because of horses that had gotten loose that they were trying to round up. I had to read it a few times to be sure I read it correctly,” Nelson recalled about the odd traffic closure. “When I pulled up the WSB Jam Cam, there they were, just strolling down the side of the freeway — some of them stopping to eat some grass. None of them seemed spooked or scared at all! They were just out on a vacation.”
Siegel, who has an affinity for horses and took riding lessons as a kid, said that she and the surrounding motorists were very careful. “It was scary. Everyone started going slow, obviously, so we didn’t hit the horses. We wanted to protect them.” Siegel’s daughter astutely chimed in, “This isn’t safe, these horses should not be on the street!”
Siegel had to get her clan to practice on time, but did not want to risk trying to drive through them. “Horses are unpredictable. We didn’t want to take any chances.”
Like the motorists, Nelson had to work to keep her composure, while taking in this strange occurrence. “Then when it was time to go on air with it, it was hard for me to deliver the info with a straight face. It was such a crazy event! I was just happy none of them got hurt.”
The small inconvenience turns into a positive for Siegel and her kids. “”We heard from someone [at Little Farm Conservancy] who boards a horse and she invited us to come out and meet the horses.” Siegel also said that the U.S. Pony Club has reached out and is including the account in their next newsletter.
Animal Services and DeKalb Police managed to corral the horses and get them back to the farm safely, DeKalb PD said.
And Nelson gave them her seal of approval: “The police did a great job of getting them off the road and back to safety quickly.”
A small mistake on a farm could have ended with dead horses, hurt people and damaged cars. But both motorists and authorities worked quickly and carefully to make “The Great Highway 78 Horse Escape” only a funny story and nothing more. Good job.
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