This horse was located over 8 miles away from the site of the accident after being unsaddled by the injured cowboy, Lonnie Cisco, and sent toward its ranch.

LONG CREEK — A cowboy injured in a horse accident was flown to a hospital for treatment after he was located in a remote area of western Grant County.

The Grant County Sheriff’s Office was notified of an overdue cowboy on the Deer Creek Ranch, northwest of Long Creek, at 11 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 16.

Sheriff Todd McKinley and Deputy Savannah Coalwell responded to the area along with the landowner and other area ranchers. The injured cowboy, Lonnie Cisco, 76, of John Day, was located close to 2:15 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 17.

Cisco suffered a hip injury when his horse stumbled, fell and rolled over him in the Cole Canyon area, close to the North Fork of the John Day River, according to information from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.

Though injured, Cisco was able to unsaddle the horse and head it back to the ranch. The horse was located unharmed over 8 miles away from the site of the accident, at a closed gate near its home barn.

A Life Flight helicopter responded from the Pendleton area, and the crew was able to land in the dark in rough terrain.

A ranch hand in the search party was able to make verbal contact by yelling out for Cisco, who was located on the ground at the accident site, where he had been lying for over 15 hours. He was then taken to the Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, Washington, arriving close to 4 a.m.

“This one could have had an incredibly different outcome,” Sheriff Todd McKinley said. “If he’d been unconscious, I don’t know if we would ever have found him. It’s just a rough and rugged piece of no man’s land out there.”