Hope things are getting better and that you and all of yours are safe.
Oh man, that’s just not even fair right before Easter weekend! I hope things have slowed down and you and the horses are all doing ok. Wishing you warmer weather on the way!
here is today’s forecast for Cooperstown, ND this is where the ranch is that is waiting for the brood mares to foal that my daughter has purchased
Cloudy with gusty winds. High 24F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
Lovely…so glad I don’t live that far north 
You know you’re going to have to post pics when that foal arrives!
will do for sure, this is the third horse my daughter has bought from this ranch, the mare of her choice is not supposed to foal until May the last of the five brood mares (however my daughter does have first rights of choice on the others). Their breeding program and what we do with their horses is very good match.
When severe storms, tornados and lots of lightning are forecast I stall my horses to protect them from flying debris. A tornado came through our area back in 2015 and horses in pastures had the lacerations and abrasions. Homes were hit but no barns, go figure. It’s understood that a direct tornado hit is catastrophic so you don’t dwell on it. Lightening strikes probably kill more horses each year than tornados, just a guess.
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I don’t buy horses often but I’ve always told myself I will only ever buy from a more north climate, simply because I know folks who have bought horses from the South and they just don’t fare our winters very well, LOL. Seems that if they were born and raised where you get a WINTER, they do fine in it.
Granted, if I were into blanketing and had a nice warm barn, it wouldn’t be too big of a deal. But I don’t blanket and I never want to start! My work days are too long, I would never be able to appropriately switch out blankets with the temperature changes.
Today I believe was finally the end. Last night, the horses watered themselves after we cleared a path ( I didn’t have to actually lead them one-by-one to the water to leave the windbreak) and they also started eating off the bale themselves (and I didn’t have to fork it to the windbreak for them).
Today and sun is shining, the sky is clear, and we’re getting dug out. I don’t think we can make it to town yet but that’ll happen when it happens. Our DOT has been posting some very amazing photos. Drifts covering interstate that are 10+ tall and solid for hundreds of feet. Incredible.
It’ll get cold tonight (near zero) and then more snow forecasted for Sunday. And then RAIN next week. It’ll be a mess for a while.
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when we moved here from Kentucky it took our Morgans not long to understand they did not need a four or five inch winter coat, they put it then promptly shed that off …after the first year they just changed to black bays in the winter
The first Morgan we got from North Dakota had its ear tips damaged from freezing …he was a real athlete, excelled in many disciplines and would do anything my daughter wanted
We do have a baby photo of him
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That is such a very classy, elegant foal, wonderful to see.
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he really was a very nice horse, daughter rode him to multiple championships in several disciplines
he really enjoyed the distance competitions
The photo I did not get was when she wanted him to LOOK at a concrete picnic table… I was watching but never saw him move… there he was standing next to the table then next thing he was standing on top of the table…with her still in the saddle, they looked like a Civil General’s statue … I never saw him move …she wanted him closer, cued him to go forward next thing there they were on top
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Some horses are, well, special, in a good way.
You and your family have many years of experience with that breed and those lines and that breeder … priceless. 
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Im generally not one to worry about weather having a fjord, however, tonight there was a ton of heat lightening, thought it was more fireworks at first. From reading, it’s generally from another storm system that can be up to 100 miles away and is why you don’t hear any thunder. The radar had the storm system coming to our way early early morning. All the others were turned out, but I was out late and brought mine in.
What’s the general consensus with lightening? There is no shelter in our pasture, no trees either. It’s pretty close to a wooden barn and a smaller metal storage barn. There are surrounding trees, but not directly next to the pasture.
we put all livestock in (all of our buildings are grounded)… personally have never had any struck but I have seen horses get killed by near direct hits.
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I know someone who had a horse struck and killed by lightening, that’s prob part of my worry too.
three of the six horses I groomed for at a saddlehorse stable were killed standing next to a pasture tree…this happened after I had gone on to other things but was told
We bring our horses into our metal barn at the first sign of lightning or sound of thunder.
One of my favorite horses, a sweet flea-bitten grey TB gelding, was killed standing under an enormous pecan tree during a storm, when I was a young teen.
One of my family’s nicest broodmares - beautiful, kind and gentle - was struck by lightning in her large pasture, leaving behind a weanling filly.
I’ve personally experienced two very near misses in my life. Lightning out of nowhere for the first, didn’t know what was wrong, but felt that something was about to happen and ran. In the second incidence, I was the only person who could tell it was coming, which I credit to having had the first experience. Once, our home was struck, a couple decades later.
We take electrical storms very seriously. And, if I ever tell someone that lightning is about to strike, they need to believe me, no matter what the skies look like.
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I have also known horses killed by lightning. Keep your horse in and make sure the barn is properly grounded.
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