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  • From: Karen Nesbitt <spanishequines@yahoo.com>
  • To: MSAR <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [MSAR] Evacuations..Montana passe
  • Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 15:51:15 -0400

[Deleted HTML duplicate, standardized quotes and attributions. -Una]


Chris Pennington wrote:
>Karen, if you don't know how to deal with evac'ing frightened horses
>then you should not respond to situations that call for it. We are all
>responsible for knowing our own limitations- and strengths as well. I
>believe we've established here that the owner's evacuation plan is
>reasonable and appropriate.
>
>Just to clarify a bit - the original post says clearly that he has 130
>head out of 1500 in the breed worldwide. In that area of the country 130
>head isn't all that unusual - having them be approx 1/10 of a breed's
>population is.


Karen Nesbitt wrote:
>> I personally own 12 equines and it would be a monumental procedure
>>for me to evacuate any of them in case of an emergency such as fire.
>>That is a far cry from 1000 or more head to do.

>Please, PLEASE, find out how to evac your animals in an emergency and
>practice it now. Emergencies do not give advance warning that allows us
>to 'work out the kinks' in time. If you need help/suggestions about how
>to work with your herd so that you COULD load and evac them in an
>emergency I am sure that many of us on this list would be willing to
>help you.
>
>Chris Pennington


Chris, First of all, I never said I did not know how to deal with panicked
horses and secondly I would be responding to a situation I could not handle
unless I had backup.
I am a person of reason and sense Chris and therefore do know my
limitations and that of my crew.. What I would resent is someone assuming
that what >they think< are my limitations and them imposing >their<
limitations on me without a clue as to what I can handle and them making
their limitaions mine without cause.

I stand corrected on the numbers of the horses this particular mustang
person had.. And still remain in aw of part of your comments whereby you
said you did not care about the people....my feelings of your comment, were
that they were not professional.. and that is from my point of view and my
own opinion. Perhaps, I did not take teh comment as it was intended and so
no offense intended.

As for my horses and in a situation of my own evacuation should that ever
happen.... PLEASE DO NOT HELP ME IN THE LOADING OF ANY THEM UNLESS YOUR HELP
IS SOLICITED, I am as is my husband, perfectly capable of doing so without
the interference of others. The last thing either of us need is some idiot
rushing in thinking there might be a problem only causing more. (This is not
a personal comment either...) And beleive me, I have seen my share of idiots
make fools of themselves and cause more harm than good and I will not
tolerate that. I have seen too many times the horseman the cause of the
horses panic as well.

BTW I have been training and trailering horses for over 30 years and have
a lot of miles on my belt both in the moving of the livestock nationwide and
countless hours riding or working with same. I am far from being a
part-time horseman. We live, eat and sleep horse and other ;livestock
24/7/365 and then some. To clarify what I meant by monumental, I guess I
should have stated that differently as it would have to be a disaster of
monumetal proportions to get us to evacuate.

As for any personal evacuation plan in any event thereof.... that would
soley be up to the type of the emergency and how we personally would
determine the evacuation of our own animals. A fire is absolutely not a
problem within our barn as we do not stall our horses, they are sheltered
with freedom to go in and out of a three sided steel
run-in so they would never be under the instance of being trapped in a
barn fire. We had the wherewithall to plan perfectly for that..It would not
be appropriate to keep the elders in my herd who range form 17 to 27 in
stalls anymore than it would be for the youthful stock

Fires are a big problem in large stables with numerous stalls. Most barn
fires are caused by also ignorant people who do not know how to put up and
cure hay properly and another cause can be the dung heaped too deeply. If
you do not beleive me on the dung....go pile a few wheel barrows of manure in
a heap and hose it down and wait a few hours.... and tell me how hot that
sucker can get while it heats to compost itself... Putting that in a wooden
stall (in the combo of manuer to deep along with a large amount of
urine...)...well baby, I hope you keep your stalls clean.
As I have personally been in some barns where the walls have appeared heat
scortched already from that.

Bad or faulty wiring, smoking and hot machinery can be all causes of barn
fires, or even farm chemicals left in inappropriate areas. Some public barns
have been known to go up in smoke for having a kitchen area within the
stable. OR persons grilling on a hot day and just plain stupidity being too
close to a barn.. Then of course you have your basic arsenists be they pro
or otherwise. Rotten grain heating up can be a cause...numerous things.
Mice eating electrical cables, lightning, storms and the list goes on. I
have seen barns with space heaters in use in the tack rooms or allies, fans
everywhere in use with electic cords too numerous for the outlets to handle
be it the summer and it behooves me to think how often or how little some
people inspect their barns and their hazards and how many of these issues
could be prevented when it come to a fire.

As for wildfires and those causing a barn to go up in smoke, well, consider
the amount of vegatation and weeds and trees surrounding your own home and
stable and how it could be a wick from the wooded areas that could be a blaze
and how it would travel toward your buildings. Is your barn a proverbial
firetrap? How are your firebarriers? Do they need a mow or what?

Is your pasture a wick? Do you let it go to weeds and not mow it? Horses
like the tender plants, so how often do you take down the roughs? Those
dry weeds can
torque and take a pasture down in a heartbeat and wick right up to your
buildings....and so what too is the point of those weeds????

There are not too many things that would give us in particular a cause for
evacuation.
The one most is the stupidity of a neighbor who leaves trees and weeds to
grow into his hotwires and also the electric lines that run his front
property and things like that.
Or allowing livestock to roam in the houseyards near other sources of
trouble. Or having livestock in in adequate fencing and such to start with.
Other than that perhaps I should say, reasons for evacuation in our own
situation are rather few.

And like I said, how we would evacuate, that is soley dependant on the
emergency.

As for the guy nextdoor, it is obvious he is not going to do much about his
own to correct it for the benefit of himself or the neighbors, so there is
not much I can do either in that respect other than be vigil of my own. So
if you have a suggestion in that area on how to "get the kinks" out, well
girl, I am all ears!

Short of chemical spills on either the railway or the highway, an
earthquake or tornado, I can think of only one or two other disasters that
would give cause for evacuation, however, you would have to be alive first
afterwards and then maybe able to evacuate. Of these, tornadoes are the most
probable, then chemical spills and the later being the earthquakes or
terrorists. And Chris, I don't care how often you prepare for it, you can
never be prepared to the fullest on the real thing. If life was that
predictable, I would have by now won the lottery. And that is being
realistic.

As for a hearattack, Chris, just toe tag us upon arrival...we are over 8
minutes away from the nearest hospital.

Keep the faith, that is the one thing we do because we know we are not
infalable and have a date one day with our own mortality.

Karen Nesbitt
Illinouis - Unafilliated
Iroquois County

PS - To all, I apologize for the typ-o's in my recent emails..Looks like I
am needing to have to replace my keyboard as my keys are starting to stick
and I also type so fast the thing is not catching all pressed.






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