John Shear
‘There are old heroes and there are bold heroes. But there are very few old, bold heroes’ – Monty Roberts.
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That is probably not one of Monty’s most famous quotes, but having spent a fair bit of time around unpredictable colts, it certainly colours a lot of what I do.
In this day and age, when the term ‘hero’ has become so diluted that it is applied to statesmen, sportsmen and even actors on the big screen with equal care, it is rare to have a bona fide, dyed in the wool old-school hero. You know, the sort who rescues maidens and saves lives. It is even more rare when that hero turns out to be octogenarian ex-jockey !!
In the modern world of Youtube, Twitter and Facebook, the sort of news that goes viral is often the sort of distasteful, salacious, page 3 gossip that feeds the tabloid mill. It is rare to have an opportunity to spread something really good and worthwhile, so today I am pleased to say that I have just such an opportunity.
As with all good yarns, my story has a villain, a hero and a damsel in distress. In this particular case, the story took place at Santa Anita on 12 March 2011. As with most stories, this one took place on a perfectly ordinary day, with perfectly ordinary people in a perfectly ordinary setting.
Our hero is a gentleman by the name of John Shear. He was born in England in 1921 and went on to have a career as a jockey. Unfortunately he was injured during World War II, and some shrapnel to his shoulder saw an end to his riding career. He crossed the Atlantic and around the age of 30 he trained horses in Canada for a while before moving to California in the mid 50’s. Some might remember 1955 as being the year that Swaps won the Santa Anita and Kentucky Derby’s. History tends to focus on those big wins, but a little digging shows that before his famous Derby wins there had been a horse to beat Swaps. The horse was called Colonel Mack and his exercise rider and groom was none other than John Shear.
John maintained his affinity for horses and racing and joined Santa Anita as a seasonal worker in late December 1961. When he took to his post on Saturday, 12 March 2011, John was 90 years old and in his 50th year of working at the track.
In the crowd that day was a father and his two young children. The father, who has asked not to be identified because his daughter is still traumatized by the incident, was holding his young son in his arms while his 6-year-old daughter (our damsel in distress) was on his hand. The little girl was self-conscious about being small for her age, so her dad had decided to take her to the track to show her the jockeys. He says “I wanted her to see that you could do great things no matter how big you were”.
Just before the third race, Shear was in his customary position, holding a perimeter rope on the east end of the track’s walking ring. As the field were on parade, something startled 3 year old gelding Sea and Sage. He broke free from his handler and galloped straight towards a gap in the fence – the opening Shear was guarding.
Shouts of “Loose horse! Loose horse!” rang out as Sea and Sage charged straight for the crowds, and our little family group. While most people were scattering for cover, the diminutive John Shear (did I mention that he was 90 years of age?), 5.2 in his bare feet and 110 pounds soaking wet, realised the imminent danger and took action.
Shear dropped the rope and grabbed the little girl by the shoulders, spinning her around and putting himself between her and the runaway horse. It was just in the nick of time. Sea and Sage cannoned into Shear with his shoulder, knocking him down. As he passed, one of his back hooves struck Shear on the cheek and left a deep gash on his left arm.
The little girl was unscathed and Sea and Sage was eventually rounded up and returned to trainer Gary Mandella’s barn unharmed.
Shear however, was rushed to Hunting Memorial hospital. He had suffered massive internal bleeding, multiple pelvic fractures, a fractured cheekbone and gashes above his left eye and down his left arm. On his first day in the hospital, he could only open one eye. “When I first saw him, he looked like he had been in a ring with Mike Tyson,” said Diane Shear, his wife of 46 years. Despite his injuries John simply commented “Could have been worse, something could have happened to the little girl.”
Medical staff estimated that John would be in the hospital for at least two months. However, son Mike said that he had made a remarkable recovery. “His doctors are amazed at the progress he’s made. He was badly injured and he was in very, very bad shape the first few days following the accident. He lost quite a bit of blood internally and his blood pressure got very low. My dad has always prided himself on eating well and staying physically fit and there’s no doubt this has helped him immensely.”
In fact he has made such rapid progress that he was discharged on Saturday, 16 April 2011, a day that happily coincided with his wife Diane’s 68th birthday.
“He’s a lot more independent than I thought he’d be,” Mike Shear said of his father. “He’s using a walker but he’s able to get around the house, get off the couch, and get things out of kitchen. He’ll be doing in-home physical therapy for three weeks. There is a place he wants to go to outside [of home] another three or four weeks [of therapy]. The first prognosis was the doctor said he be able to fully walk in eight to 10 weeks. I think it will be sooner than that.”
Mike Shear said he and his mother had suggested once that John Shear retire, but he just loves his job. He was interviewed by the local NBC affiliate television channel a day before his release, saying “I can’t wait to return to work at Santa Anita.”
Before the incident, Mike, John and some of his Santa Anita colleagues had been planning a trip to Las Vegas. On a visit to the hospital, one of the party suggested that they’d have to reschedule the trip for October, to which John replied – “I don’t know how I’ll be able to do that, I’ll be back working.”
Somewhere on the web, on one of the myriad reports and articles about John and the March incident, someone questioned what a 90-year-old man was doing still working. Saving a little girl’s life, that’s what.
Yup, heroes come in all shapes and sizes. Old, bold and, just sometimes, a little bit of both !
