Pamela and Bill Resch thought a romantic horse-drawn carriage ride through downtown Los Gatos would be the perfect way to celebrate the holidays and their upcoming 42nd wedding anniversary.

When another couple was late for the ride, the Resches took the opportunity to pose for pictures with the horses. Pamela Resch, an accomplished concert pianist, said she didn’t panic at first when a horse named Tom started nibbling on her finger after she petted him on the head.

“I looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘Let go,’ ” she said. “He started to chew.”

In the next few frantic moments, the couple said, the horse bit off the tip of her right pinkie finger — shocking Pamela Resch and leaving in doubt whether she would ever command the piano again.

“I saw a little piece of meat and a red thing hanging off, and my next thought was, ‘My life is over,’ ” Pamela Resch, 63, said Tuesday.

In the chaos that followed, someone found the fingertip and gave it to Bill Resch in a cup of ice, he said. A plastic surgeon reattached the tip that night, and everyone is hoping for the best.

“I heard ‘Let go, let go,’ ” Bill Resch said. Then, “she was holding her hand up and somebody was saying, ‘Where’s the finger, where’s the finger?’ ”

Just listening to her husband recount the details makes Pamela Resch cry, but she remembers trying to stand up to the horse whose handler insisted Tom was friendly, the Resches said. Instead of a horse-drawn carriage ride, Pamela Resch rode in an ambulance to the emergency room.

Melvin Silva, owner of the horses, declined to comment.

Bill Resch said Silva “expressed his apologies” when Resch called him the next day. He said he felt very bad and that it had never happened before.”

Los Gatos police Chief Scott Seaman said two Los Gatos officers responded to the call.

‘A bad dream’

“We don’t know if the horse nipped or bit, or if the finger was injured or severed,” Seaman said.

Pamela Resch is sure it hurt.

“At first, I thought I was going to wake up from a bad dream,” said Pamela Resch, who gave piano recitals around the world before launching The Pamela Resch Salon Series in the couple’s home.

What happened instead is that she heard “the ambulance guy say ‘Don’t worry, your finger is right over there.’ “

It isn’t the first time the Resches have made the news.

Nearly 20 years ago, San Jose police sent two undercover vice squad officers to their home after reading an ad the Resches placed in a weekly newspaper, inviting people to “experience music in an intimate romantic setting.” That happened to be the couple’s elegant Naglee Park home, where Pamela Resch played Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt on her 1906 Steinway for the 20 or so people who had paid $25 to attend. Even though the two officers said they enjoyed the concert, they busted a tuxedo-clad Bill Resch as guests were leaving and fingerprinted him in front of the home.

Remaining positive

City officials said Pamela Resch didn’t have a business license.

“No Chopin for profit in San Jose,” Tom Brokaw quipped on “NBC Nightly News.”

The couple continued with their concerts after paying $1,248 in penalties and obtaining a license.

They had just held a concert in their home on Dec. 19 — and decided to celebrate by making reservations for the horse-drawn carriage Dec. 21 in Los Gatos.

“We decided to celebrate the end of the December concerts,” Bill Resch said. “Now we have to cancel our February concerts.”

Both Bill and Pamela Resch said the woman coordinating the carriage rides encouraged them to have their photos taken while they waited for the other people who had bought tickets to arrive.

When the horses started nudging the couple, “She said they were friendly so I petted one behind me and she indicated that the one standing behind Pamela was really friendly,” Bill Resch said.

The whole incident “was unbelievable,” Pamela Resch said. “I don’t know who found the rest of me, but God bless that person.”

While the Resches and the doctor wait to see how the reattached fingertip heals, Pamela Resch said she plans to try to remain positive.

“I don’t ride bicycles, I don’t skate,” she said. “I’m so careful with my hands. But I always have this optimism that things will be OK.”

Mercury News staff writer Tracey Kaplan contributed to this report. Contact Linda Goldston at 408-920-5862.