Hello from sunny-and-beautiful-at-least-for-a-couple-more-days Florida. As you may or may not have heard, there’s currently a hurricane pointed…. directly at us.
I mean, the good news is that we’re far enough inland to not get the bad hurricane shit like storm surge or the super extreme wind speeds. The bad news is, right now we’re in the spot to get all the rain and storms in the north east quadrant, so it should still be a lot of wind and rain. Right now the forecast has wind speeds up to 50mph and rain up to 9″, but it’s still changing a lot day by day, so we’ll see.
For us the wind in the storms is the biggest threat. It takes out trees, which takes out power. After one particularly bad storm a few years back, the power was out at the farm for 2 weeks. We’ve got a well, so no power means no water. Obviously that’s problematic on a farm with 40+ horses. I’ve been stockpiling water as much as possible (no empty container is safe from me) and we’ve got enough feed and hay for at least a couple weeks. We also got groceries, water for the humans, and topped off our propane. I’m hoping that since we’re prepared, it’ll be unnecessary. Growing up in New Orleans means that this isn’t my first rodeo with hurricanes, and I’m also still carrying the trauma from when Texas froze over and we had no power and water, so. Yay?
Shame about that hurricane, because otherwise it’s been just gorgeous here. Highs in the mid-80’s, sunny, and not really all that humid. I’ve been trying to keep all the horses worked in anticipation of missing some days this week, and they’ve all been pretty darn good. Presto’s persona of the week (I swear he shuffles through them like a deck of cards) was “half-dead lesson horse”. Like he kept trying to go to the shade, stop dead, and put his head like a foot off the ground as if he could not possibly go one more step. Which is of course a complete and total lie, as evidenced by the yeehaws when the neighbors rolled up with a trailer full of cows. I dunno how it’s possible to be this lazy yet this chaotic all in one horse… he is a case study in contrasts.
I did a course at home yesterday that was 3′-3’3″, the first time I’ve done like complete full courses on him by myself with no adult (er, professional) supervision, and he was super. Like 10 cookies. He’s getting more rideable, and he’s completely not at all bothered when I make a mistake. Which I do plenty.
I also did at least pretend to do some due diligence and look at the Novice dressage test. Which, ok I will admit that it’s been like 6 years since I really looked at one of these (ok I did do a N test with Henry last summer but I couldn’t tell you a thing about it) but like… this is interesting.
I don’t hate it (aside from the first turn from centerline to then go directly across the diagonal, and that 10m half circle onto center line – bc hello I ride a limousine) but I feel like my brain remembers Novice tests being like 20m circle, cross the diagonal, 20m circle, canter, 20m circle, walk, cross the diagonal, trot, canter, 20m circle trot, halt, boom done. Like when in doubt you just made another circle or crossed the diagonal, extremely basic. This one is quite different. Legit had to pull up a video to make sure my brain was understanding a couple parts. I think I like it though?
Otherwise this week we’ll be doing more hurricane prep and battening down the hatches around here. Fingers crossed Ian turns away, or at least isn’t too angry by the time he gets here…
breedrideevent.com 
Wells really suck come storm time, don’t they?
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I have to agree with you and Sarah about the negatives of being on a well system when the power goes out. That’s what I’ve got at my place too. I also lived in New Orleans and had some practice evacuating ahead of a hurricane. No fun. Let’s hope Ian is more bark than bite.
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I am in the Orlando area and watching the weather closely, along with everyone else. Had to move my trailer to a safer spot yesterday. It was parked in front of a clump of pine trees which are the first to topple in a storm. At least the barn is concrete and has a full time staff that lives in apartments above so horses will be well looked after. Though farm is on a well, they have huge generators to power everything, if power goes out. Now, just hope our home fares well, if it gets bad. Stay safe.
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Wish we could take some (but definitely not all) of that rain, Montana needs it! I’ve always lived in the west so our threat is fires….so I have a fire evacuation plan. Which basically involves chucking my horse and whatever other horse I come across first (I have a friend with 5 horses and no trailer) on my trailer, with some hay, leaving, and then coming back for my friend’s other horses. At least with hurricanes you have some notice? Disasters of any sort aren’t fun, for sure.
As for the Novice test, I highly recommend you look up a diagram of where those serpentine loops are supposed to be in a 20x40m ring. They REALLY messed with my brain, in no small part because I was used to riding the 3-loop serpentines in USDF Training 3 in a 20x60m ring! Once I saw the diagram I was like “Ohhhhh that’s what it’s supposed to look like.”
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I saw the title and thought “she’s mad at Ian Stark who helps the team???” LOL I hadn’t been following the weather channel as I should.
Good that you are up on hurricanes already, it’s a rough learning experience. With luck it will avoid y’all … except it will probably veer west and hit us! LOL
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Highly recommend a generator to keep the well running. I’m in the midwest and we get plenty of tree-crashing windstorms here too. Generator has saved my patootie several times over.
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Our area in Atlantic Canada was hard hit with Hurricane Fiona. I highly encourage you to get a generator. Over 72,000 households in my province are without power (down from 82,000) and while we can’t run our well pump, we have been able to run the fridge and a few other things.
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Finger crossed for you and critters.
I’m up here Prince Edward Island Canada. Day five after Hurricane Fiona.
Still no power. We are lucky only minor damage and shit ton of trees down on the farm.
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1000% agree. Genorater is key.
Farm has one so it on few times a day.. Keeping fridges freezers cold. And important water for horse’s 😁
Pro tip: Also have stock up on fuel for genorater.
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I am in PEI (central, close to Charlottetown) as well, and feel that we have faired the same. Some roof damage, but no leaks. Lots of trees down around the property, but none on the house. Hopefully power will be restored in the next couple of days..
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