By Savannah Grace Brown
Tuesday anxiously gathered her family into the barn’s safety.
The Weather Service had issued storm warnings for Windsor and the surrounding plains.
The storm touched down with little warning, ripping the structure from its foundation and slamming it back to earth.
Tuesday, a championship quarter horse, managed to push the others in her herd out to safety, but she was the last to escape. Debris crushed her back and hind legs.
What happened next, however, transformed a night of tragedy — the horse having to be euthanized — into a story of faith, science, and an unexpected miracle.
Roque Cashier, Tuesday’s farrier, an FRCC and CSU veterinary master’s student, was with the family when the news came. He was with the family at the vet hospital.
“The family was anguished,” he said. They were mourning not only her, but also “the loss of her championship bloodline.” All we could do was pray for guidance.”
Cashier, who grew up shoeing horses on his father’s ranch in Michigan, said he felt compelled to act. Even though it was after midnight, he called his CSU professor, Dr. Patrick McCue, director of the school’s Equine Reproduction Laboratory. He conveyed the family’s hope: to preserve her lineage through emergency reproductive surgery.
“There was no way the family could raise that amount overnight,” he said. “We prayed again. They weren’t ready to give up.”
He called Dr. McCue a second time.
“After we said hello, he was silent,” Roque recalled. “Then the miracle happened.” Dr. McCue agreed — but the procedure required a $10,000 retainer.
Also, “I will waive the fee and tell the emergency technicians I’ll be there by 6 a.m. Keep her sedated until I arrive,” the vet said.
At dawn, Dr. McCue performed the surgery, removing her ovaries so her eggs could be fertilized in the lab. The next challenge: Find a stallion donor.
Help came from Evans, Colo., where Donna Ackerman — owner of Ackerman Ranch and breeder of champion stallions — donated fresh sperm from “IT,” the name for a Hollywood Dun stallion known for producing elite quarter horses. Ackerman waived all fees.
Tuesday’s fertilized zygotes were transferred into seven surrogate mares.
Months later, two healthy foals were born on the Mears Ranch: a buckskin with seal‑point markings, mirroring Tuesday’s striking coloration, and a palomino with a light cream coat and silver mane and tail.
Both foals – Wednesday and Thursday — are grown now and carry her championship genetics: the athleticism, intelligence, and versatility that made her one of the American Quarter Horse Association’s most celebrated show mares.
Tuesday, a refined buckskin sprinter had descended from mustang lineage and was the pride of the Mears Ranch. She excelled competing in the pleasure category: trot, canter, reverse walking — always with the calm, trainable temperament prized in Western riding.
“We all were heartbroken and lost,” he said. “But I believed God would guide us. And He did. We lost Tuesday, but her legacy didn’t end that night.”
