Weather, storms, lightening

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sherry Cassetori on May 14, 2010 at 3:47pm

My trainer and breeder always buts the horses in their stall when it is bad weather. There are 35 horses and she puts them all in.

Permalink Reply by Jackie Cochran on May 14, 2010 at 4:29pm

If the storm was going to be real bad (T-storm, hail, high winds) I would put them in. I once got a lightning strike in my pasture AWAY from the trees.
A breeder I knew had sold a horse and later found out that it had been killed by lightening out in the pasture. I've seen on the PBS Cloud series that a whole band of wild horses that got wiped out by a lightening strike.

Most of the time keeping a horse out in the pasture all the time can be OK, I kept my horses out for decades without having one struck by lightening (I also kept them barefoot.) After a hail storm, though, I would worry about their backs being bruised.

Permalink Reply by Susan McCarron on May 14, 2010 at 5:12pm

I always put my horses in the barn in this kind of weather. We have had horses in our area that have been hit by lightning when left out in pasture. If your horse's pasture is open and flat, then the tallest thing in that pasture is the horse and that horse is a good target for lightning to strike.

Permalink Reply by Veronica Delagard on May 14, 2010 at 6:08pm

Hi Shirely

I am not going to say that I have not heard about horses getting killed by lightning because I have.

But that being said, I would think stuck in a stall with no where to run from the noises of the thunder and lighting would be pretty tramatic and that could be worse.

I have 5 horses here , well 6 with my new foal and he was born in the rain. The truth is all my horses have a choice, they could go in either a very large enclosed barn like struture , actually it's our triple garage. One part of it was made into a very large walk in stall for those bad days .

My horses also have 2 run in's. The truth is they go inside none of those places unless they are going for a poop.

I have noticed that the only time they do seek shelter is when it is a very bad rain storm with thunder and lighting, they go under the trees. Wind they hate and are constanly walking when it is windy.

But the rest of the time if it's just rain or snow or freezing rain they stand in the middle of the pasture.

But if your pasture is just flat no trees no shelter I guess they just might be better off in your barn.

I almost hate to say that because I know my horses hate to be stalled. I know other people though that take their horses in and that is what the horses want. That is what they are used to.

My horses have 100 Acres of woods they have access to and when it's rough they group together in the trees.

I don't know if this helps, but I guess each situation is different. What are your horses used to?

Permalink Reply by Linda White on May 14, 2010 at 9:46pm

Oh man, just one more #*%& thing to worry about. I swear, I didn't worry about so many scary things when I was raising a child. This is why I don't read Equus - each issue has 10 more things I think might go wrong with my horse.

Permalink Reply by Shirley on May 15, 2010 at 1:48am

If you weren't worried about it before you don't need to worry about it now. That is unless this is a new thought and you are glad to know this danger and can prepare to help prevent the possible death of your horses in a storm. I'm glad to hear these responses because things have been mentioned that should help protect our horses.

Permalink Reply by vickie lawson on May 14, 2010 at 10:07pm

yes i have heard of 2 different horses killed by lightning while in their paddock. if they are used to being stable, like mine are, they prefer to be inside. we just had thunder and lightning and heavy rain this morning and my guys were waiting by the gate to get into their stalls.

Permalink Reply by Jan Jollymour on May 15, 2010 at 10:14am

Hi, Shirley:

My experience is that the horses are much less bothered by thunder than we are, and certainly less bothered than dogs. I've had enormous claps of thunder occur right above my arena while riding, and they startled me totally, but the horses were nonchalant.

We get very strong winds here (but not hurricane force), at times in the summer, usually accompanied by thunder and lightning. Our horses will take advantage of the wind as a reason to charge around, but they're not frantic. I usually leave them out unless it's time for them to come in. I have had trees come down in windstorms, but that happens relatively slowly, and again, the horses just move away, rather than panicking.

Last summer we had a major storm system go through, and my neighbour's barn was hit by lightning and exploded. In the course of that hit, the lightning travelled to the horse standing at the wall of the barn, and it was hit too. The barn burned to the ground in a matter of minutes, and the horse was euthanized.

I think when it's your time it's your time, and that goes for our animals as well as for us. I agree with slc2 in that preparation is good, but catastrophization is unnecessary. We do our best to protect ourselves and our animals, and that's the most we can do.

Permalink Reply by Shirley on May 17, 2010 at 2:25pm

Jan Jollymoor & others
Just wanting to know what is the best we can do for our horses. I'm not a control freak. I just do my best and let life take it's course. I guess I think we can alter 'our time' by being careless.
Two of my horses relatives were struck & killed by lightening one evening while they were outside in a bad thunderstorm. Nothing happened to the barn during the storm.
My thoughts are, at a golf course they don't send people out from the clubhouse to the greens when a storm comes up. They have them come inside from the greens. At sports events they cancel to get people off the playing fields.
My husband used to work with a fella that had a part time job. After storms his job was to travel the local area picking up large animals that have been struck by lightening. These weren't from barn fires usually.
When there is a lightening storm do you run out and stand in the middle of your yard? At a school, do they send children out to play in a lightening storm or tell them to come in?
Stay safe! .. ..safe as possible.
Shirley

Permalink Reply by Cindy Jeffery on May 17, 2010 at 1:22pm

In our area it is very rare for animals especially horses to be killed by bad weather with lightening inside or outside. I believe God has programmed horses and other animals to know how to protect themselves from danger such as lightening. They seem to instinctively know where to go for protection, but it is true that some animals get caught for various reasons. I believe with too much human intervention we can confuse what God meant for good for these animals and cause them to be more dependant on us rather than their own instincts, a dulling of their natural way if you will. Keeping a horse in a barn or stable which is not protected by lightening rods is more dangerous than allowing the horse to be outside. Most modern stables have protection built in to them to protect rather than be a danger.

Permalink Reply by Jackie Cochran on May 17, 2010 at 1:45pm

One day my Paso Fino mare saved my life. I was rushing, trying to feed them before a thunderstorm came in (they lived outside), and when I put her feed bucket down she refused to come up to it. This got through to me, usually she had her head in the bucket before it got to the ground. I looked up and saw various sparks almost right above, and I immediately crouched down, detoured to the edge of the woods, and half-way up to my car heard a CRACK, real loud and then the rain just poured. When the rain let up finally I ventured out fearing the worse, but all my horses were standing happily eating their hay, everything was fine. But if she had not warned me I would have probably been hit.
All my horses were out 24/7/365. We get LOTS of strong thunderstorms here. None of the horses in pastures where I kept my horses ever got hit by lightning. Some seem to learn to sense it and, not being dummies, just avoid being in the lightening strike pathway. Since they were barefoot it seemed to be enough. Of course their are no guarantees in life, but I kept horses in pastures and paddocks for over 30 years without them being struck by lightening.

Permalink Reply by Shirley on May 17, 2010 at 2:52pm

HI Jackie! Close call! How wonderful that your horse warned and saved you.
It's still news-worthy when people are hit by lightening but 'it' happens even with the precautions that people usually make to take cover for their own safety.
I still wonder how many people think to themselves, "well, they are okay, none have gotten struck by lightening in my many years of leaving horses outside". I also wonder once a person has lost a horse or other large animal to electricution when outside if they continue to leave their horses outside in the open in the future.
I'm not claiming to know the answer. I just gotta go with my gut as you also have to do. Of course knowing someone that personally lost two makes me more leery.
I also know a lady that lost her barn and all the horses in it to an arson fire. Not even a personal issue. Her place was just randomly selected along with a couple other homes the same evening.
I guess I just wondered what the actual odds were for the field horses and the stalled horses in comparision with this sort of accidents.

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