Preventing lightning strikes for turned out horses

[Texarkana]

I think if you’ve been in horses long enough, you know someone who has lost a horse to lightning.

Trying to find a balance between keeping your horses safe and not having to bring them in every time a surprise storm crops up at 2am can be daunting.

I know I generally turn my horses out with shelter and always assumed the structure provided enough lightning protection. I’m learning that is often not the case.

Reading this article I learned that wire fencing on wood posts is one of the greatest risks to horses. They recommend grounding the fence with a metal rod periodically so a lightning strike doesn’t travel all the way around the perimeter. But wouldn’t that be incompatible with electric fencing/hot wire?

I always thought metal shelters and buildings were more of a risk to horses in a lightning storm, but that doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case.

Does putting lightning rods on sheds increase or decrease the risk to your animals? On one hand, it provides a path to channel the electricity away from your animals. On the other hand, I feel like you’ve just increased your likelihood of attracting lightning having a tall metal spike where your horses are seeking shelter- or is my thinking wrong on that?

Anyone have any hard data on this?

[Bluey]

Decades ago, mid summer, in the Rockies, we bought a well bred yearling colt from a friend, to be our next stallion.
We left him with the breeder in their yearling pasture until the race meet was over and we were hauling back home for the winter.
One day friend called and said they had an evening storm come up, colts were on top of the dam, lightning hit and killed the colt!

I don’t know how you can keep horses or any other safe in storms.
Lighting has been known to hit inside barns.
Growing up in the mountains, most farm houses were built out of rock and mud with wooden roofs with clay shingles.
One neighbors house was hit right over the barn part and lighting killed his farm horse, milk cow, goats and pigs in there.
Could just as easily have hit over the other side and killed the people there.
The roof had about a 3’ round hole, impressive to see and scary for the little kid I was.
Another farmer lived close to at tree that kept being hit about once a summer, most years.
One time I saw it right after hit by lighting, it had a big branch peeled off, just lying there.

Here, on a real old wood post barbed wire fence we have, before we added a steel post between every wood post, after one storm we found the neighbor’s handful of black Angus bulls in our pasture, fence intact.
Best we could figure, lighting hit and pushed them thru the fence.
A few weeks later neighbor called and said, those bulls had lost all hair, were now hairless, his vet thinks from getting hit by lighting.
Eventually their hair grew mostly in, but some of it was white.

No data for you, but will say, lightning is going to hit where it wants to, can’t predict where and little can be done to protect horses but maybe put them in during the storms, impractical that is for most horses that live outside or stay there much of the time.

I think hail is a problem, at least here, where we have monster hail chunks.

[lenapesadie]

I’ve been thinking a lot about this myself.

The horses I know that have been killed by lightning were outside under a tree.

[Texarkana]

From my understanding, part of what makes the house a safer location to weather a lightning storm is the fact that the wiring means the electricity from the lightning has multiple routes to the ground via the electrical wiring.

Does this mean barns or sheds with wiring are safer for the horses?

I also really would like to know if rubber mats help considerably.

I know a single tree is a risk, but what about tree lines surrounding the outside of the pasture?

Or what if the horse and/or it’s shed are one of the tallest things around? Does that put them at more or less of a risk?

[StormyDay]

So apparently lightning rods don’t attract lighting, at least from very far. The idea is the lightning goes down the pole and to the ground instead of hitting the roof and going through all the walls.

The issue that I see is that my horses don’t stand in the run in during the rainy weather. So in order to protect my horses, I’d need to put a lightning rod every 10 feet in the pasture.

There was this strange incident that happened in a national park, I think it was the Grand Canyon, where lightning struck a building with people in it. Everyone survived except for one person sitting in a bed against a wall.

[clanter]

@Texarkana

hat wire fencing on wood posts is one of the greatest risks to horses. They recommend grounding the fence with a metal rod periodically so a lightning strike doesn’t travel all the way around the perimeter. But wouldn’t that be incompatible with electric fencing/hot wire?

We were required to ground all fencing on a government sites… we had to use what is called a bonded ground cable to all sections on the fencing which was then run to a ten foot ground rod… had to do this every 500 feet on straight runs or when there was a turn

I saw a lightening strike a fence line, a horse in a paddock a good 500 feet down the fence line standing near to but not next to the fence was knocked to the ground… after few it was able to stand but would only turn one direction… it took time but it did recover … the fence was V mesh on steel posts.

Two of the six horses I took care of at a saddlehorse barn where killed in separate lightening strikes

[ThreeWishes]

Following this thread … you have no idea what having horses out from May to September in the afternoon in Florida is like. The lightning is insane. And the thunderstorms come out of nowhere. So it might cloud up and you lock your horse inside. Then nothing. Or it’s sunny and you leave the farm and bam all hell breaks loose to the point it’s a danger to you to try and bring them in. Makes me shake my head sometimes when I read threads with people who are vehement about 24/7 turnout. Come live in central Florida and witness a wicked lightning storm.

[ThreeWishes]

I’ll add that much of this area is flat as a pancake. And guess where horses stand in bad weather ? Under trees and under your pasture shelter. I’ve never had a horse struck but I know many who have. Horses and cattle. I have had several of my big oaks in my yard struck to the point they DIED. One burned for 2 days from the center like a GD bbq. And I’ve had the lightning travel through a trees roots close to the house and blow my Tv and cable boxes dead.

[ThreeWishes]

IMG_2217

When this tree got hit at 4 am it sounded Ike a bomb exploded. I didn’t realize it was on fire until the morning

[Marla_100]

I know a guy here in Florida who built a new large barn for very expensive horses. In a discussion with him I assumed he had lightning rods on it- NOPE- He was a Senior Scientist
for US govt. projects- very well educated, etc. and he claimed the lightning rods giving protection
to barns is a fallacy. He explained his theory, which I’ve since forgotten but he was adamant they did nothing to protect the barn.

[Texarkana]

@Marla_100

I know a guy here in Florida who built a new large barn for very expensive horses. In a discussion with him I assumed he had lightning rods on it- NOPE- He was a Senior Scientist
for US govt. projects- very well educated, etc. and he claimed the lightning rods giving protection
to barns is a fallacy. He explained his theory, which I’ve since forgotten but he was adamant they did nothing to protect the barn.

I’ve heard similar theories. “Doing nothing” would be fine with me. But I’ve heard people say they can increase the likelihood the building will get struck and not offer the protection you think they will. That’s the part that scares me.

For as common as lightning is, you would think there would be a definitive source of information. Most agree that keeping horses inside a well grounded building is safest, but that would mean living inside half the summer in many places where you have that constant threat of a pop up storm.

[Texarkana]

@ThreeWishes

When this tree got hit at 4 am it sounded Ike a bomb exploded. I didn’t realize it was on fire until the morning

Yikes!!!

[ThreeWishes]

It smoldered for 2 days. Hosed it immediately and then had to cut it down as it was certainly dead. The lightning cut so deep inside of the heartwood you couldn’t even hose it. And that was the second time it had been struck ! First time was about 4 years prior… lost about a third of its canopy and branches the first time

[Texarkana]

@clanter

We were required to ground all fencing on a government sites… we had to use what is called a bonded ground cable to all sections on the fencing which was then run to a ten foot ground rod… had to do this every 500 feet on straight runs or when there was a turn

I saw a lightening strike a fence line, a horse in a paddock a good 500 feet down the fence line standing near to but not next to the fence was knocked to the ground… after few it was able to stand but would only turn one direction… it took time but it did recover … the fence was V mesh on steel posts.

So what about fencing with hot wire? If you ground hot wire every 500 feet you won’t have a hot wire. Did that ever come up for you?

I would have thought the steel posts in the ground would have prevented the horse from getting zapped in that instance. But I guess not?

[clanter]

@Texarkana

So what about fencing with hot wire? If you ground hot wire every 500 feet you won’t have a hot wire. Did that ever come up for you?

none of the fencing was electrified, that is only in the movies all fencing was metal mesh of various grades

A standard electric fence will carry the lightening strike back to the charger … I would follow the manufacturer’s suggested methods to reduce/eliminate the problem

Lightning and Electric Fences: How to Protect Your Livestock and Property

[ThreeWishes]

That’s all good and well but lightning will usually strike the tallest object. And guess what’s taller than your 4 ft fence ? Your horse. The tree. Your shelter. It’s a crapshoot I suppose.

[clanter]

just Because we grounded our metal building with its own grounding rods.

Yesterday I was helping a friend who was working on the overhead doors of a cutting horse arena…steel framed clear span with steel setting on concrete …the building was “Hot” from a grounded electrical wire… traced back to a bad wire.

If the building had an earth ground the electrical charge would have gone into the grounding connection

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

When I was a teenager, we had a boarder’s horse get killed by lightning. He was the only shod one in a group of 3-4. You could see hoof prints right next to his body (under a tree) where the friends left in a big hurry but he appeared to have just fallen over like a toy horse. We couldn’t find a mark on any of the others and one had a perfectly healthy foal the next spring.

This is a bit rambling but it shows the path lighting can take with enough metal and wet ground to feed on.

Lightening Almost Destroyed Our Farm!

[lenapesadie]

@ThreeWishes

The lightning is insane. And the thunderstorms come out of nowhere. So it might cloud up and you lock your horse inside. Then nothing. Or it’s sunny and you leave the farm and bam all hell breaks loose

Right. One minute you’re getting fried in the sun and then you turn around and it’s a Hollywood worthy apocalyptic storm. Then back to the regularly scheduled heat and humidity.

[wildlifer]

If your buildings have hurricane/windstorm anchors, that’s probably as good as you can get. My hurricane anchors, plus additional rebar pins on my shelter would ground anything that hit the building. I let the horses decide where they want to stand - I had a feed shed implode (last non-wind rated building on my property) when a freak summer storm ripped the roof off & have seen just as many buildings fail in storms as other disasters, so I am of the opinion that there is no guarantee either way. I figure at least my horses will not be trapped in something & I do make sure they always have an option to get off the top of the hill.