So the fact we are under a tornado watch today got me thinking (though I’m actually on vacation atm lol) what do you do with your horses in the event of a tornado/severe weather outbreak? Do you believe they are safer outside or inside during a tornado? (Flying debris vs flattened barn possibilities)
we have ours up, mainly for flying debris
We lived in Kentucky in 1974 during the April tornado outbreak, I was working for a saddlehorse farm which was spared but Bob Whitney’s took a direct hit… the horses in the main barn lived but were trapped in the stalls, we had to take chain saws to cut the barn apart to get the horses out… the horses in the pastures, some died from being hit with debris, other got mangle in the broken fences
The funny thing (if there can be any) was Bob had just pulled his new car into the barn to protect it from the hail… the barn fell onto the car … he did laugh about loosing the car
I co-managed a 26-stall barn that got hit on May 3rd, 1999 by an F5 tornado with winds that storm chasers recorded at 320mph when it hit the property.
In or out, it doesn’t real matter. It is a crap shoot… Tornado debris will not be stopped by a barn wall or roof, it will shoot right thru. Barns do provide protection from hail, though.
We had 22 horses on the property, all were “in” for the night, in stalls with attached runs. No one knows who was in the barn vs. out in their run. The barns were DESTROYED. We had 8 stalls in a 40x100 Quonset hut, the pipe runs remained, the Quonset frame was mangled into a pile that would almost fit in the bed of a truck. Another 8 in a wood frame barn, stalls and runs gone. Remaining 10 stalls in a concrete block barn, stalls and runs gone, but feed room intact, as well as restrooms. Lounge walls sorta standing, but roof gone. Freaky thing was all the magazines were still fanned out on the coffee table, just like I left them that evening. Ten trailers on the property, mainly 3-4h goosenecks. All gone except one 2h slant bumper pull that was shoved back into the lounge. We found part of the trailers, windows, dividers, doors, etc. but never a whole trailer.
All of the 22 horses survived, but we lost 2 shortly after. One was euth’d where she was found, 1/4 mile north of her barn. She did not run there. She was dropped. The other was literally left to die, on her own, because she was dropped on private property and the police would not allow a gun to be discharged to shoot her, nor would they allow a vet on the premises to admin euthanasia. It was NOT fun. A family from the barn literally laid with her until she passed.
The remaining 20 were trailered out during the night to various vet clinics for treatment. The most severely injured was hospitalized at OSU until being released on Labor Day, four months after the tornado. He belonged to me. $25K in vet bills…
Mine stay out because I don’t have a sturdy barn to put them in. They do have a shed to get out of the hail but that won’t hold up in a tornado. I live in the county with the most recorded tornados but the large majority of them are EF0 and EF1.
This summer we’re building a new barn. Making it storm safe is definitely on the priority list. It won’t be finished in time for storm season this year (for here it’s late May-September) but it will be done for next year.
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It’s a real crap shot, whether to bring in or leave out during severe weather. My horse’s were in barn summer 2016 for severe weather. Straight line winds were predicted.
We got hit by the winds at 2 am 75 miles an hour plus winds. Trees snapping off getting up rooted fences taken down. We watched as lighting lite up the sky you could see trees coming down. Power went out in just minutes of storm hitting. No power for 4 days. Power poles out here were snapped in half power lines down in our pasture. Pretty sure my horse’s would of been killed or severely injured…had they be outside that night.
Once it was day light the damage was incredible. Our drive way impassable trees covered it. Highway also had trees over it. Almost all our fencing was down. Barn was fine no damage all our buildings had no damage. But trees and fencing took a big hit, took over a week to get fencing fixed. Months to get all the downed trees cleaned up.
Years ago at a barn I boarded at (before I built my own barn) they had a tornado go through. This barn had maybe 40 stalls and also had a small covered arena attached to the back end of the barn. Well, the tornado blew through, ripped the roofs off of the arena and part of the barn. All the stalls were fine. They found a weanling out grazing the next day. He was in a stall when they left him. His stall door was still latched, but he was not in it. No worse for wear. Can you imagine? Otherwise, all horses were fine.
Me, I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, but I do bring mine into the barn when bad weather comes.
I live outside the tornado belt but this story will be giving me nightmares.
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I keep mine inside, but I have a concrete barn which I feel is a bit safer than other barns. If we were to take a direct hit, I’m not sure it would matter much one way or the other where the horses were.
I have seen horses hurt badly by flying debris from high winds or struck by lightning. I’ll take my chances keeping them confined.
Mine are inside in a Barnmaster barn. I am much more worried about lightening (I know of 9 horses killed in 3 instances within 10 min of my farm) than direct hit tornado. We’ve had some rough weather here, lost some big trees and fences. I feel they are safer in the barn.
Unless I had a concrete hurricane grade roofed barn, I leave out during tornado warnings. I leave them out tagged and identified during hurricanes as well
I have always left mine out.
I watched the EF-5 tornado that flattened the town of Fairdale, IL go by from my front porch. My horses were locked up in my concrete base barn with loft, but who knows how it would have held up to a direct hit from that tornado. There was an old loft barn in Fairdale with two horses in it that took a direct hit. One horse lived, the other did not, but I don’t know the details of what killed it. It was an elderly horse, but I don’t know if that factored in. The barn appeared to have been about 80% destroyed.
I’ll continue to lock mine up in severe weather, but if I had a pole barn, I might reconsider, it’s hard to say. In general, I feel that debris is more of a danger, especially if there is not a direct hit. Plus, unless your pastures are huge, there is only so far they can run, and in a panic they might easily go through the fence.
Where I live now, bank barns are common. I’d be more inclined to leave my horse in a bank barn than a pole barn. The top of my bank barn might blow off and away, but the concrete base where the stalls are, sunk into an earthen bank, isn’t going anywhere.
Everyone tagged and marked 2 or 3 ways, no matter what. I think I would prefer they be in, if at all possible, vs the risk of fences blowing down + debris. Bit when you get to category F4 and F5, its really all a crapshoot and you have to hope for the best.
Have we all seen the photos of the “storm shelter for horses?” Something to consider, if you live in an area prone to extreme weather (I’d be better off putting the money into heated water lines and a snow plow, where I live!). Obviously a dedicated structure would be expensive, but if you’re building something new, perhaps components could be worked in.
http://www.pleasurehorse.com/latest-news/safe-rooms-for-horses-preparing-for-the-worst/#.WrHpAmrwZaQ
I’ve seen that tornado shelter idea and I think it’s a great idea if you live in tornado alley. As far as inside vs outside, I think it depends on your set up. If you have good sized pastures, I think outside is safer. Of course, if a big enough tornado comes through, as has been said, indoor vs outdoor won’t really matter (sadly).
In 2004, my Home was hit by a tornado. I was going to be a senior in high school. We were lucky. By some miracle, the House was not damaged (we were in the basement) and the oldest shed on the farm was not (where my father happened to be, after he put the tractor inside). Our barn got the worst of it. It was the old style hip roof barn … that had no roof anymore after the tornado was done. (Bottom half was brick, and while cracked, was still left standing) We don’t believe the tornado even actually touched the ground and the damage was done in just seconds, but that’s all it takes.
My horse was was in the pasture next to the barn. He was smart enough to go to the “correct” corner of the pasture where he was not in line with any debris. The other horses were in a good location pasture and were safe from any major debris.
We dont get tornadoes super often in ND but they do happen. For that reason, our future house will be brick. I’d love to have the barn brick too for safety … but I’ll pfobsbly leave my horse’s out because they will have 130 acres to find the safest spot for themselves.
I looked at the “equine tornado shelter” and my only questions were “what will be the tornado warning time?” and “how long will it take to get the horses into the shelter?” I suspect the answer to both questions will be “it depends.”
We are in terrain that rolls and has low mountains. We have a number of semi-sheltered creek beds where I’ve seen horses go in bad weather. But, then, I’ve also seen then stand away from these placed, head down and butt to the wind.
I suspect there is no “school” answer here as terrain and other issues make each place unique.
G.
P.S. And one more question to my two, above: where do the humans go after they secure the horses? And how long will it take them to get there?
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like some others have noted lightening will kill a horse as they often will gather under trees for shelter… that alone is the primary reason we put ours in their stalls. Our primary barn is steel framed and the frame is grounded to earth grounds
While personally not having a horse killed by lightening I have had friends loose many over the years. I was visiting a fellow Morgan owner, we were standing his barn looking out at the pastures… we both saw the lightening strike the upper fence line then a moment later saw one of his horses that was five or more feet away from the fence line fall to the ground…this horse was about 500 feet from the lightening strike but the fence was a steel pipe and cable with v–mesh… the posts were set in concrete therefor not grounded … we thought the horse was dead but after a few minutes it got to its feet but could only walk in a left hand circle… which it did for about fifteen minutes then started to come out of the shock… after a few days it had recovered. but this horse was not near the strike nor near the fence but the electrical charge travel down the fence line to then jumped to the horse
When this happened we were talking about fences and I was explaining to him we had to ground all of the fences on an airport every 500 ft or if the fence line made a turn (and other commercial properties) …then we see this happen … he grounded all of his fence lines afterwards
with the new weather radar systems (x-band doppler radar) you can get a long lead-time… an hour is not uncommon but we are in a tornado belt area so have an extensive systems in place
https://phys.org/news/2014-02-weathe…llas-area.html
over the more recent years we have had at least fifteen touch downs within five miles… but none near by… the high rises in downtown Ft Worth have been a barrier that splits the weather patterns to our north or to our south
where do the humans go after they secure the horses?
the bar for a few drinks would be ideal, but usually not the case…if its just a storm usually nothing, if a wall cloud system usually we keep an eye on it and if a touch down we go to shelter
the last F5 that hit Moore was 1.3 miles wide at its base … our dog trainer was the FEMA dog handler at the school, his dog found all the bodies
as for brick… it best be a solid brick wall not a brick veneer wall that is nearly always used on a house used as a veneered wall is just “pretty” adding nothing to structural integrity
I don’t know if there is a “right” answer. I live in Ontario so while we do get tornadoes occasionally they are not the massive, powerful storms Tornado Alley experiences. I have heard from people in tornado prone areas that they have “tornado halters” for every horse with info tags on them. The horses have their fly masks put on to protect their eyes (from flying dirt I guess, because it won’t to much for larger debris) and they are turned out. A horse in a collapsed barn could very well be killed, but a horse in a paddock might get loose if the fence is busted but be recovered and brought home. But I feel like for lower-level storms where full on building collapse is unlikely, inside is best, and this is what I have always done for severe weather.
But lightening. . . I know people who had a breeding farm. The horses stayed out overnight in the summer when the weather was good, and came in if storms were forecasted. That particular night there was a chance of a thunderstorm, but there had been a death in the family and they were hosting a celebration of life sort of thing at the farmhouse so they opted to leave them out to make chores the next day easier.
Thunderstorm blew threw and lightening hit the barn just right. It burned to the ground. They would have lost every horse had they not left them out that night. All the horses were fine.
It is such a crapshoot, and those who lose horses to weather will beat themselves up about their decision when really, it’s a combination of luck and best guess.
Yes of course it would be solid brick. What good would veneer do?
And as I said above (that you didn’t quote), if a big enough tornado comes through, indoor vs outdoor for the animals won’t matter… for obvious reasons.
