New Year's celebration may have killed horses

Two horses had to be destroyed after they were spooked by a loud noise off Foothill Road south of Centerville on New Year's Eve.

Carolina Segerer said she was up at midnight when she heard what sounded like a loud cannon or explosion.

"I was up at the time and the dogs started barking, but I didn't know about the injuries to the animals until I went to feed them (the next morning)," she said.

Carolina said she could tell the four horses in the front pasture had been running.

"Two of them collided and they were lying there all night," she said. "I had to destroy both of them."

The two horses were a 2-year-old Arabian filly named Veda, who Carolina said would have been a show horse. The other horse was an 18-year-old half-Arabian named Jester.

Veda had a damaged spinal cord and Jester had similar injuries.

"It's not only the loss of the animals, it's a major expense for the vet bills, which will run a couple of thousand dollars," Carolina said. "I don't mind if people toot their horns, but we're talking about a flight animal. It's traumatic for the animal."

She asks that anyone with information contact the sheriff's office.

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We said farewell to retiring Douglas County Sheriff's Public Information Officer Sgt. Tom Mezzetta on Friday.

Tom told a packed room at the retirement luncheon at Carson Valley Inn that he's already embraced retirement.

"I drove here 20 mph under the speed limit, in the fast lane, with my blinker on," he said, cracking up the crowd.

There were a lot of sheriff's office retirees at the lunch. One whom I spent New Year's Eve 1990 at Stateline with was retired Lt. Al Baumruck.

Sheila Gardner and I attended the lunch as representatives of the Fourth Estate and sat between retirees Bernie Curtis and Dave Nishikida.

Dave told us the story of how he and Larry Coy were eating at Sharkey's and someone set their patrol car on fire.

They got the fire out, but had to finish their shift in the car because there wasn't another for them to use.

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There were a lot of farewells on Friday, but one of note is the retirement of Associated Press Reno Bureau reporter Tom Gardner.

Tom's a Johnson Lane resident, who worked for the AP for 42 years and never called in sick.

The last time I saw him was when he was covering Steve Fossett's disappearance in September. Time to start working on the book, Tom.

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Two Douglas High School graduates returned from Africa recently. I've called Bobby Stiehler about his three-month trip to Kenya. Bobby graduated from Douglas in 2007. Kate Gardner was back in Gardnerville last week after spending time in Africa. Kate is a 1998 graduate of Douglas High School and is the daughter of Sheila and Tom Gardner.