Just Another Fun Day at the Ranch
This is one of those days when having your own horse facility isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'd only been at my desk for 5 minutes this morning, working on March's issue of Horse & Rider, when I heard an echoing BOOM! from the general vicinity of the pasture. Leaping to the window, I saw a red sedan come skidding to a stop after tearing through and flattening 60 feet of fence. The driver'd spun out of control on the adjacent icy highway, hurtled the ditch, and created a gaping hole. I could see the driver out of the car and walking around as I pulled on boots and parka for a closer look. I wasn't even halfway to the wreck site when a SECOND car left the highway and managed to do the same kind of damage as the first one!
Fortunately, neither driver had any injuries, and cars and fencing can be replaced. Still, I can think of things I'd rather be doing in the days before Christmas besides rebuilding a fence in a snowstorm.
If you keep your horse at a boarding stable and will attend your barn's holiday party over the next couple of days, hoist an extra eggnog or hot toddy on my behalf, OK? I probably won't be singing "Jingle Bells," nor exclaiming any "Ho, Ho, Ho's." It'll be more like, "Pass me that box of fencing staples, will you, Honey?" and "Whose idea was it to buy a horse ranch, anyway?"
posted by Juli Thorson @ 2:33 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Yikes! That's awful. Good thing no one got hurt. That's no fun having to repair all that fence. Too bad you can't just snap your fingers and it's fixed.
Yes Julie, I am learning all too quickly that having your own place, or in our case managing someone else's ranch means working 24/7 whether feeding, calving, mending fences or worse such as a young horse needing Vet care on Xmas eve. The horse's owner had to borrow our truck/trailer to go 50 miles for professional help. Times like this I feel so helpless, there never seems to be enough or the right medical items on hand, therefore, I am doing an inventory of our medicine cabinet to be better equipped when the next emergency comes along! It is easy to say we'd like to live out our horse fantasies on a full time basis, but few of us are actually willing to put in the blood, sweat & tears that lifestyle requires. To all of you folks that do, my hats off! To the rest I say, "Be careful what you wish...you may get more than you bargined for!"
Sincerely yours a Cowgirl-in-Training,
Buckarette Annette Kolkey-Porterfield
Monte Cielo Ranch
Macdoel, CA
Hey Julie:
I was thinking about you when I was out riding in a sweatshirt and no gloves today - in MN! As I am sure you know, we had a brown Xmas. A lot of people are complaining, but I love it! We leave for AZ in Feb. and it has not been much warmer there than it is here.
Last summer I had a kid that went off the gravel road and plowed through our fence also. But the first thing he said was "I missed your mailbox." Actually where he hit he was lucky he missed a horse!
wow glad there weren't any horses out there!
Hi, Buckarette Annette! (Annette and I are alumni of a fabulous women-only ranch ride held in California each April--www.elkcreekbuckarettes.com if you want to check it out).
Anyway--your comment gives me an idea for a future item, one on vet-care items to keep on hand. One thing I ALWAYS have standing by is a syringe loaded with injectible Banamine, for colic...it's come to the rescue on more than one occasion. I also keep copies of a great condensed equine first-aid manual in the barn, and in my trailer. It doesn't do that much good to keep it in the house!
Thanks for the good idea.
--Juli
Hi Julie
I feel so bad for you. We have had a very mild winter so far here in eastern PA. We have been very fortunate in not having a similar experience, especially since we have about 300 feet of road frontage.
The closest we came was when a driver lost control of her car back in the summer and skidded off the road but on the other side of the road, not through our fence - although our fence would probably have been more forgiving than the tree she hit.
The emergency services brought the medivac helicopter down in our front field (which was definately not appreciated by the horses in the next field!) and removed the top rail on one section to make it easier to lift the gurney over.
On the subject of unexpected happenings that can besiege the farm owner, last week (on Christmas Eve) we got a call down in the house from the barn staff - there was no water in the top barn!
Now here's the picture: we are on reduced staff because of the holiday and the pump in the well for the top barn has died. We reset the circuit breaker but it just kept popping - something is shorting out.
As we have 26 horses in the top barn, we REALLY need water into that barn. Fortunately, when the pump died 4 years ago Ray figured out how to rig the water from the bottom barn to the top barn using what seems like a couple of miles of hose pipe.
As the pump is 240 feet down, we need to find the time to pull it out and replace it but for now, because the mild weather is preventing the hoses from freezing we are at least surviving!
We are praying for this weather to last another week or so to buy us time to get the pump fixed.
I am so glad no-one (human or equine) was hurt in your incident. Hopefully you have been able to get the fence fixed by now and no-one else has paid you an unexpected visit!
Julie: Phoenix reminded me about how we selected our place out of all the places we looked at.
We would not take any home that was near a major road or Hwy. We did not want to be near a flooding river, have neighbors very close, and yet be close to the town we worked in.
We now live on a gravel road, our closest neighbor is 2 miles away, and we are on the second highest hill in our county.
Just a reminder that when you are looking don't forget about your kids, horses and pets. I would rather have them safe than have lots of closets. HA
Great that no one got hurt. I live on a busy road, not a highway but a road. My house is about 60 feet from the road and the barn (now housing 4 horses ) is 100 feet from the road where there are no fences to separate. I am constantly worried that a horse or boarder will have a bad day or a moment and a horse will get out to the road.....rarely do I think a driver will plow off the road into the yard and pasture.. I guess it's a heads up.. I REALLY need the fence .. .well maybe more than that....the property has good proximity but with man's encroachment on the land our animals have less and less of a chance..sigh.
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