Thunder and lightening

J

jools

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Oct 3, 2005
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Had a chance to take my share horse out for a hack today,so I jumped at the chance....owner was taking her other horse to a show,so wasnt going to be around.

Nice,hot gorgeous day,thought we'd have the perfect hack out..

Wasnt I wrong!

Bout 20 mins into our hack,the skies started to go a boggy grey colour,wind started blurring in the trees,spits of rain started to come down.....then BOOM BOOM....flickers of lightening started...I was a fair bit away from the stables..I was just sat there thinking oh my god.

The thunder was getting louder and louder,huge cracks of thunder each time,I turned around and started heading back to the stables.....

This was my first hack out in 7 weeks due to the last time she bolted with me on the back....

She spooked a couple of times whilst we were out,flags flapping etc

But when she heard the thunder,she stamped all four feet and I thought....Oh no not again,she's gonna bolt....I was scared..

Thought nothing else could go wrong then it happened,the heavens opened and down came the rain....all I had on was a polo shirt :(

Absolutely drenched.....drivers were coming past us on the road laughing at us lol..........most of thought it was hilarious...


Anyone else get caught up in a thunderstorm??
 
Not yet - we seem to have missed it here it the east. Glad you made it back okay - how scary! Was she okay later?

I've heard several tales of horses being struck & killed by lightning in fields - often on a hill, exposed, + wet = good conductor. Rather grim.
 
Oh my god!!!!!!!

Yeah we trotted all the way back.....it was like she was taking me home.


We were on hills today too,wet roads,I never knew that :(

I'll never ever ride out again not while a thunderstorm is brewing..
 
OMG how scary! :eek:

I had only just put Annie back in the field when the heavens opened - still got soaked but not on horseback! :D feeling guilty now that I didn't put her rain rug on. :eek:
 
Yes, nearly. I once went for a 4-hour ride with my friend to a park and we got half way and saw the cloud. The crazy people we are, we went on, thinking no itll pass over. Unfortunately the heavens opened, and we were stood underneath a shelter of some sort for 10 mins drenched to death. But luckily it passed over, and we hacked back in the drizzle, although ill be honest, we both found it quite amusing :p.

And the lucky thing was, the thunder and lightening were quite a way in the distance so it was never overhead. We were also lucky we had very calm horses!

Jenny xx
 
gosh, that must have been scary for you jools. we had torrential rain and thunder and lightening almost all day yesterday. mine never left their stables. i absolutely do not turn out in thunder storms. my friend lost 3 of her 4 horses 2 years ago when they got struck by lightening so i won't take that risk.
 
I got on Martini yesterday and could hear the thunder in the distance so stuck to riding round the farm rather than venturing off incase it came to something. It did but not til a few hours later. Must have been scary for you!
 
The storm seemed to last ages yesterday, I was meant to be going on a nice long hack but I thought I'd play safe and stick to schooling outdoors - at least I wouldn't be too far to run to safety if it got really nasty! It died down and came back - and I thought the flies were horrendous too - they were more dopey and annoying than usual! Neither of our two seemed unduly worried by the lightning tho or the thunder. Which is good, cos Storm's usual reaction to anything scary is to leap and bolt.....:eek: :p
 
jools said:
Anyone else get caught up in a thunderstorm??
Click to expand...

Yes- they do come up out of nowhere sometimes! We raced one home a few weeks ago. Fortunately (?) we have quite a few thunder storms, so the horses do not seem to be bothered about the sound.

If you are ever caught out, DON'T take cover under a tree! Especially if you are in an area that is otherwise flat. you do not want to be the highest object around- and you do not want to be under the highest object.

We had a couple of boys struck by lightening a few years ago down in the local park- they were at football practice, the storm came up, and they took shelter under one of the big trees. Fortunately the coach was an EMT and both survived...

I would not be afraid to ride when it is cloudy, but if there is thunder we stay indoors. If we are caught outside, we go as far down as we can- and get off the horse (remember we do not want to be the tallest)!
 
The storm came from nowhere yesterday...it was lovely when we went out believe it or not...felt like a bit of a divvy when I got back on the yard,the owner was panicking that something had happened to us..some of the owners were laughing at me cos I looked so wet.

:(
 
Yup - I got caught in it on Sunday, as far away from the yard as I could possibly be and having set off in a t-shirt.

Murphy was an absolute star (which was a surprise to me) and apart from looking round a couple of times when it started to see what it was, was completely unfussed and got me home safely.

At one point though it got so bad, I swear I'd have dumped him in some farmer's field and phoned for someone to bring the horsebox and pick us up. Quickly got rid of those thoughts when I realised I'd be a bit stupid to use my mobile in the middle of if all, and promptly switched it off.

It used to be the standing joke at the yard that, when I worked there over the summers, it was always always always my hacks that got caught in the thunderstorms.
 
The storm yesterday was forked lightening,sooo frightening,to tell you the truth it has put me off hacking out again..

And yes Goldie'sGirl I was wearing jodhpurs lol,got home was soaked right through to my knickers lol :D
 
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