Story of the Month from Janna Banksten,
a Senior at Clemson University
and an avid eventer:
I've never had
a horse trials natural disaster war story to tell to all my friends... until
now!
¹ Recently, I groomed for a competitor at Paradise Farm
horse trials. When we woke up Saturday morning, we watched the
weather channel and were advised of tornado watches (someone correct me if
I'm wrong... it was the lesser of the two- warning or watch, which is it?)
throughout most of Georgia, Northern FL and Central SC (Paradise Farm is in
Aiken, which is definitely in central SC!!).
¹ My competitor was warming up for dressage
as foreboding clouds started to gather over our heads. She was about to head
over to the ring when the sky was absolutely lit up with lightening, the
bottom fell out, and the wind almost swept us off our feet. Everyone was
told to get back to the barns... temporary stalls no less! So, there
was a mad dash as all four dressage arenas were cleared, horses and
riders were pulled off cross country, and the whole group tried to find shelter.
¹ I have never felt wind so fierce. Its strength pushed me back every time I
started to move. The noise of the tents being pelted by rain and
slammed by the winds freaked all of the horses out; and, many refused to come in
the barn (I was reminded of the barn fire scene in Black Beauty where horses
refused to leave the barn, this time it was reversed). We were trying to
decide what to do: was it better for the horses to be on trailers or in the
stabling tents??? (What would y'all have done?)
¹ About the time everyone was trying to decide what the
heck to do, the tents started to fly away. People started putting
halters and their number tags on their horses in case the tent flew away and
the horses got loose. My competitor's stall had a support pole that was being lifted off the ground and was waving around the stall;
it
almost hit her horse before I was able to grab a hold of it and dangle on to
it. At one point I was actually lifted off my feet as the wind swept the
tent upward. As I was dangling on to the pole, I had an insightful thought...
"was
it really advisable for me to be hugging a metal pole as lightening
struck all around us?"¹
About the time I had that brilliant thought, a
competitor's husband started filming the events that were transpiring and
trained the camera on me as I was lifted off the ground. I was thinking, "Oh
great... I'll be one of the idiots who was too dumb to find shelter when
natural disaster strikes! this will be someone's home video show for the
next few years to come."
¹ When the wind died down (and I use the term, died
loosely, because it was still near gale-force, it just wasn't trying to carry
the tent off anymore); we focused our attention on our next dilemma. Rain
water was rushing down the barn aisles and flooding stalls as it reached them.
Being "quick thinking eventers", everyone quickly grabbed the nearest horse
related implement (pitchforks, feed scoops, boot jacks, sweat scrapers, boot
pulls, etc.) and started a group effort of digging a trench for the water to
be diverted into. The hope was the stalls would not be flooded. Despite our
efforts, about half of the stalls flooded.
¹ I wish we
had a picture of it all... everyone was helping, even riders still in their Ariats and Pikeur jackets- digging
furiously in the muddy and poopy aisle to
try and keep the stalls and stall fronts dry.
¹ After a two hour delay the horse trial resumed, and
amazingly enough, cross country was still somewhat navigatable. (The footing in Aiken
is just too cool, can you believe it drained that quickly???)
¹ Thankfully everyone was ok, and an actual tornado did not come
through.
What should we have done? Stayed in the tents or
gotten the horses into trailers? Editor's Note: Post your thoughts on the
Discussion
Board. |
Story of the Month
As a competitor, I often find myself watching unusual situations; or as
this month's feature, participating in unusual situations.
Have you experienced a radical show experience?
E-mail the story and have it posted in the Story of the Month Section.
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