Natural Disasters and Training

Aria has been doing great in training. She walks through gates and is galloping nicely. The rider can stand up on her most of her gallops, which is fantastic. She is going 1.5 miles in her gallops. Everyone is very pleased with her and her behavior. She’s ready for shoes. I had planned on watching her gallop this week at Sam Houston Race Track, but, ol’ Hurricane Ike came to visit us. The training track Aria lives at is known to flood in heavy rains, much less in a hurricane. It can be serious flooding with horses having to swim out .We toughed it out and no one left when Gustof was due to hit us, but Ike looked much serious. I decided to pick her up and bring her home. Her trainer was packing and heading to San Antonio to ride out the storm there. I’m far enough from Houston that I thought we would be safe.

Aria came home and my fat mares were not happy. They were hoping I had sold her or something. She came back full of confidence,the 5 fatties following her around and acted tough, this did not impress her. By the next day, she had re-established herself as the alpha Hoover in this herd. She has a few hoof prints on her thigh; the head mare has a hoof print on her chest. I can guess who discussed herd ranking. But all is calm now.

The storm hit and no one enjoyed it. The horses thought they had found themselves in a watery hell with stinging rain and horrid wind. I left the pasture horses out because it seems to be 50/50 on what is the safest place for horses in a hurricane. Out loose they can run and avoid flying debris, hopefully escape flooding. Stall horses are protected from flying debris, but cannot escape rising water or collapsing buildings. I tagged all the horses with nametags that included phone numbers and email addresses. I peeked out at them in the morning. They all looked miserable, but okay. I did not feed them breakfast. It wasn’t safe out there. I doubt a bucket would have stayed on the ground with the wind. They had a very late breakfast/early dinner once the storm was gone. All seemed grateful to be alive and to have food show up. Several trees fell out in the pasture, but no damage to the buildings. The boys seem to be the only ones who are freaked out. They don’t want to go out in their pasture? The mares are acting normal. I may have to move them around.

Aria will return to training after this break once her trainer comes back to the area. I think it was good for her to have a break. She’s enjoyed the constant eating of hay, grass and getting to run around. Next week will be back to school for her and back to work for me.