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Letter to the editor

Lightning kills 4 horses out grazing in pasture

By JACKIE RIPLEY
Published July 4, 2004

ODESSA - The deadly and arbitrary nature of summer thunderstorms became all too real last week for students and staffers at Avalon Riding Academy when four horses were struck and killed by lightning.

Honey, a 2-year-old foal that had been rescued and cared for by the students, was among the four horses killed Tuesday evening as they grazed in a pasture.

"It sounded like a giant was running across the roof of the barn," Avalon owner Pam Roush said, describing the sound made by lightning as it apparently hit a lightning rod on one side of a barn before homing in on the four horses.

"It couldn't have been more horrible. But at least they died instantly."

Roush said the storm, which came through around 6:30 in the evening, had calmed to a drizzle when the bolt hit. It missed another group of horses grazing nearby.

Honey was a pregnant-mare-urine foal, one of thousands of foals born each year to mares that are kept for the sole purpose of using their urine in production of Premarin, a widely used hormone replacement drug.

These mares are impregnated and confined to their stalls so their urine can be harvested. Their foals are often auctioned and slaughtered for meat-packing plants.

An organization called the PMU Adoption Network rescued Honey and about 30 other foals and brought them from Canada to Gainesville.

Before Roush, the owner of Avalon, bought Honey in January, she got the academy's youth group of about 50 teen and preteen girls to agree to groom and train the mare.

Roush's personal horse, Avalon's Picasso, was struck Tuesday, as well as two horses used for lessons, Hawkeye and Raja.

That day, summer camp students had braided the horses' manes and tails with ribbons, Roush said.

"We called everybody involved last night and this morning so the parents could help," Roush said. But "how do you tell 8- and 9-year-olds something like that?"

Roush said the children agreed to buy a tree for each of the horses and to plant them at the site.

- Jackie Ripley can be reached at 813 269-5308 or ripley@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 3, 2004, 09:02:07]