I wrote this last Tuesday night, when we were on day 2 of no power. Power came back to the barn on Thursday, but not to the house until Saturday, with internet restored yesterday. Tethering my phone to the computer gave me limited access, but not enough to blog, so here's the better-late-than-never update on how we fared.
With Sandy’s untimely visit, Facebook abounds with photos of
the incredible amount of destruction brought by Sandy’s torrential rain
combined with the cold front. With all
the hype the media has given this storm (I suspect because reporters are tired
of reporting about the election…), many friends and family have checked in to
see how we managed on the farm. For readers who keep horses, this post is going
to be kinda dull, but for my rare non-horse-keeping readers, who we will now refer
to as NHKs, well, this blog is for you.
For starters, PA is not really known for hurricanes. Usually
by the time they get to us, it’s just a nasty storm with a lot of wind. That
being said, we have our fair share of weather-related disasters, usually
blizzards, and with so many animals dependent on us, we learn to be
prepared.
The big concern for horse owners during a natural disaster,
well, really anytime, is colic. Colic,
for the NHKs, is the biggest fear of horse owners. If you, as an NHK, want to
see looks of horror and grief, ask your horse keeping friends about it. But be
prepared to hear all of the horror stories of all of their horse friends, who
of course you haven’t met, who has lost a horse to this horrible thing. Yes,
horses really do die from a belly ache.
Horses, like us, have only one chamber in their stomachs, so
are prone to all of the same GI issues as humans – gas pain, ulcers,
constipation, etc. But with horses, with ¼ mile of intestine wrapping around
inside of their body cavity with just one attachment spot, all GI issues are a
bit more volatile. A horse’s intestine, when under stress, can wrap itself
around into all kinds of inappropriate knots.
The best defense horse owners have against colic is hydration
and consistency. The first item, hydration, becomes much more complicated during a natural disaster.
In pretty much any natural disaster, on a farm, loss of
power is a given. In the country, this creates a huge problem—no power means no
water. For townies, if you lose power, your water still runs. Not so in the
country, as wells require electricity.
And horses drink a LOT of water-on average 15 gallons a day. Hurricanes come with lots of water, so barring
trees falling on buildings or fence lines, a minor hurricane can be easier to
deal with than a blizzard.
To prepare for our water shortage, Doug put water barrels at
the ends of the downspouts. All told, we
can collect over 300 gallons of rainwater from the barn roofs. Plus, prior to Sandy’s arrival, he made sure
all of the troughs in the fields were full, in case we needed to bucket-brigade
from there. Several times a day, Amy,
Maddy or I faithfully make sure all stall water buckets are full to the top, using
water from the rainwater catches, so the catches could refill. Yes, that means I can’t keep my normally high
standards of super-clean-or-else water buckets, but it is a hurricane, I do
have to let my standards drop a little.
Once hydration is established, horse owners turn their attention to thier next best defense --consistency. Consistent turnout (NHK translation - time in the grassy fields), consistent diet, consistent exercise, consistent temperatures. But natural disasters, by their very nature, disrupt all consistency. So we do our best to keep the things we can control as consistent as possible.
Turnout isn’t really an option, and because of that, their
diets are missing several hours of grazing. But with our indoor arena (NHK
translation – huge, warehouse-style room with a sand floor), we can at least
keep them moving. So once chores were
done (by flashlight – we have an impressive flashlight collection these days),
we got all of the horses in the arena a bit.
The bare minimum was 20 minutes of hand walking, and everyone pitched in
to help. Some of the boarders were still
house-bound by downed trees, but the boarders that could make it happily
walked, lunged (NHK translation – human stands in the middle holding a really
long rope and the horse makes circles around the human), or rode an extra horse
while they were at the barn. All the
horses have been super, no loony bucking or goofing off under saddle. On the
lunge line or loose in the arena, well, that was another story. Harry, at the ripe old age of 4 months, is
playful on a normal day. His acrobatics in the arena have been a source of much
laughter for all of us.
The rain is supposed to stop sometime Wednesday, so
hopefully the horses can get back to their normal routine on Thursday. Peco still has no idea when they will restore
our power, so for now the house is running on our generator. It powers the
furnace, the house well (we can schlep water over to the horses once the rain
catches run out), and the living room outlets.
The barn doesn’t have a generator, which means no lessons once the sun
goes down. So tonight I enjoyed a couple
of good beers, had some pulled pork BBQ that Doug had made ahead, and watched
the extended version of Lord of the Rings.
Then attempt to tether my phone to my computer to borrow some internet,
and post this masterpiece.
Stay dry, and enjoy your running water for me.
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