This winter has had some extraordinarily bad weather for many of our readers, culminating in a blizzard that is currently hitting the northeast and mid-atlantic US. Click here for video of the storm. At my home in Virginia, a few inches of snow per winter has been the norm over the last few years, and this winter has already seen several feet of snow. One reader sent us the following description of the situation at her farm:
"My first email now that we have electric back, I did not want to use battery power in case the electric stayed off, and there is no guarantee it will be on much today. Did get all 9 horses watered up as soon as the power got back on and filled extra tubs and buckets in the barn in case. This is the most snow I have ever seen in my life. We put the tractor in the barn last night and he got it out this morning and it took almost two hours to push enough out of the way to get 175 feet to the barn from the house. I have piles in the back yard about 6 feet high right now. We did not do much more than pick stalls and cut the grain because we are not likely to get the horses out for another day yet, and then, the paddocks out the back of the barn are probably not going to be accessible. Thank god I built a bigger barn than I needed (all vehicles parked under cover right now including tractor) and that I built a new paddock out the front door this summer, since it looks like that might be the only way we get horses out when it stops. And there is no end in sight.
We have probably 20 to 25 inches and it is snowing hard and has been since daylight. I was in the barn two hours and it snowed two inches on the deck I shoveled off when I left the house. This is no question an epic storm. We live 3 miles from Greenwood Fire Company so if we need more water I suppose we could obtain it there, but getting there -- wow. We can hardly get from the house to the barn. We are in a flat part of Delaware, and the wind is howling. We have a drift on the left side of the house (prevailing wind is blowing from east to west, unfortunately, off the ocean which pumps moisture and snow) that looks to be about 10 feet at this point. There is no way Delaware is going to handle this kind of hit, so I am emailing now in hopes that we can continue to give reports. Not likely to have electric. My location is about 25 miles from Rehoboth Beach Delaware and 48 miles from the Bay Bridge and Annapolis, Md., and about 80 miles south of Philadelphia, PA. I'll be blogging and pix will be there: retreadeventer.blogspot.com"
We are thinking warm thoughts for all of Eventing Nation in that region, including all of the horses, and we hope that everything clears up soon. Go eventing.
-thumb-350x318-986.jpg)
We are at about 2'7" at my house/barn in central MD (judging how high the snow is up to on our fences). My OTTB eventer has ventured out into the snow 3 times and only got about 4 feet out before turing around and going back. This is not going to help my plan to move him to a barn with an indoor for the rest of february...