Today is the aftermath of a terrible storm...last night we all huddled in the living room, eyes glued to the TV hoping the power would hold...a tornado had been spotted less than two miles away...I clutched my shihtzu while Caitlin had her dwarf hamster at hand in case we all had to pile into a closet...and of course we cringed inside for our horses. Four yrs ago during Hurricane Charlie, a tornado tore down our barn with 6 horses and 4 dogs inside...We couldnt get to them. In the dead of the night and the aftermath of a frightening blast of a storm, we heard nothing from the shattered barn. Caitlin was inconsolable. I couldnt breathe. My husband Jimmy scaled the 16 foot high pile of splintered 6 X 8 beams and got 12 pair of shining terrified eyes...the dogs were okay, the horses were trapped. Outside our brand new gooseneck lay wheels up, dented and twisted. The house had a single cracked window. My little filly Sushi had missed being speared by a 60 ft water oak by a mere 3 feet. She huddled in her stall, quivering and staring at the massive tree pile-drived into the center of her stall.
I will try and find pictures from this mess; I have long since tried to forget the scene we saw the next morning when dawn came.
My question is to all: What would you do in this kind of situation for your horses...we were smack in the middle of show season, I was the treasurer of a large Paint horse club, and I was due to be at a show the next weekend...Needless to say I ended up going horseless as my kids were too traumatized and I had no trailer.
About Me
- crazyhorse
- Enjoying the fruits of my talent and the daily farm life I live...love my horses, and the time spent with them!
5 comments:
Argh! I have no idea what I would do! I live in the Pacific Northwest where we don't have that kind of weather. And I like it that way. LOL.
I mean, are they safer in the barn? Out of the barn? Tied to big trees? I dunno!
I have big 100ft fir trees all over my property and occasionally we have a fair wind storm, but the trees are all away from the barn far enough not to fall over on it...not so much the house, we sleep downstairs in the basement when that happens. I had a week without power once and had to pack water from the pond after breaking ice...
I was raised that the horses always eat first. At home, at a show, anywhere, you get up, feed then take care of yourself, and in any of our emergencies, nothing like yours! I have kept to that tradition. Take care of them, then us.
Still it is hard to imagine. My heart beats fast just thinking about it!
Me too...the horses come first...and as much as I wish we could just turn them out, we are smuck in the center of "PROGRESS" meaning while our old farm has been here for the last 70 years, the junkyard bordering it on one side and the housing developments on the other three havent...After the hurricanes that year, we found car parts in the pasture...150 yr old oaks met their demise. My vet told me he euthanized countless horses and found many dead in trees...I guess if they were gonna die, I would be able to find them in barn debris...Eeew...what a thing to think of but not knowing what became of them would kill me...
I keep my two most valuable mares insured.
We don't really have those types of disaster plans here in Pa.My biggest fear/freakout time is in the winter when we get the ice here.I have lost 2 due to falls/fractures on ice and let me tell you it is heartbreaking when it happens.After losing the last one(husbands first horse at 36 yrs.old)I now NEVER turn out when we have the hard ice or ice over snow.This past winter my 6 were in for 6-10 days at a time and only hand walked in the aisle.It sucked,they hated being in all that time but NO BROKEN LEGS!!
The other thing I worry about is fire but we had our barn all rewired when we bought this place.It gets really HOT and Humid here so my guys are in during the day w/fans on and I do worry about an electrical fire if the fans fry or short out.
I think that even if you did have a trailer it would have been best to leave the horses at home.
They had a pretty traumatic experience too.
My mare Foxy had a sort of nervous breakdown after we got her out of the barn...she just kinda had a melt down one day and THREW herself onto a fence...luckily it collapsed with her weight and we just had to doctor some scrapes...I have never cried so hard watching her poor little mind try to understand what happened...She is our winningest horse, tries so hard and we will always own her. I am very close to my two mares, bonds form when you spend time with horses the way we all have to at shows.
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