anyone else heard of this happening?

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splashnutti1

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so a few weeks ago we had thunder storms here due to the heat, one night the storm was particularly bad. The next morning a friend of mine went to fetch her horse to find him laying dead in the field having been struck by lightning:(

this is something i have never heard happen in all my 28 years of owning horses? so sad even more so as two days before his field mate had to be put to sleep due to breaking his leg in the field:(

has anyone else heard of this before?
 
My OH once rode a horse called Lightening, named because he'd been struck by lightening! :eek: aparently he was fine but he looked a bit scraggly, poor lad.
OH was really excited thinking it would be a mighty steed that would go really fast till they wheeled this sweet old horse out :)

So sorry to hear about your friend's horse, that's devastating! :(
 
Sorry to hear of your loss,its never easy to deal with the loss of your best friend.
This has never happened to me but over thirty years ago one of the horses at the yard used to go mad every time there was thunder and lightning. We were told that her field companion had been struck and she didnt get over it.
Sorry that you have had to go through this as well
 
Yes, this happened to a horse my sister sold. He was turned out with his companion, who was struck by lightning and killed and the horse was badly injured, I don't think he was ever ridden again.
 
I used to run a riding school in Kentucky in the US, all the horses were turned out at night and one morning I arrived to find 7 horses dead under a big tree. There had been a huge thunder storm the night before and they had huddled together for shelter. You could see where the bolt had struck one horse on the ear, run through the bodies of the others and grounded itself through a hind shoe. All the horses were shod, BTW.
 
Yes at least one at a livery yard I was at it happened *just* before I moved on so didn't know exactly what had happened but I think a couple were injured too.
There was one reported in H&H not long ago and I have read about a few others, possibly also in H&H. One was a multiple strike around a ring feeder.
I think it probably happens more than we think.
 
sadly a yard I used to be at lost several horses to being struck by lightening over the space of the few years I was there. 2 were found dead in their field and the other had broken her neck but was also struck.
 
Many years ago I heard of a girl who was competing her horse in a hunter trial during a thunder storm and she was wearing a cross and chain aroun dher neck. The lightening caught the cross and chain and badly burnt her chest and neck and unfortunately
killed her horse as it earthed itself through the horse with his metal shoes.
 
Yes I have heard of this before. A family member rented a large field and lost horses two years running by being struck by lightening during thunder storms. I am not sure what made that particular field more susceptible to this, or was it just a billion to one chance it happened there two years running? Whatever the
reason behind it he gave the field up after the second incident.
 
yes, a young horse was killed a couple of years ago near here. Even more recently, 16 cows were killed in one storm and my SA saddler said its a well known risk on the plains out there.
 
yes a horse i used to ride was killed in the storms last june , there are some impressive pics of the lightning hitting the tyne bridge and the strike before that killed the horse :(
the girl who had him on loan at the time was incredibly lucky she wasn't also killed , she was stood about 100 yards from him on her way to get him in out of the rain when the lightning struck so it could have been a whole lot worse
 
I would imagine unshod horses are also at risk as a field of cows along the road from me died last year after being struck by lightening and they definitely were not shod!!
Q
 
Well anything can get struck by lightening, cattle is a common one and they can stand in very large "huddles". :eek: but its not that common that I'd worry too much!
 
A per last poster, very sad but thankfully not actually that common. I suspect even some of the stories posted could well be about the same incident
 
Gosh didnt realise it was quite so common had never heard of it happening before.

Was just such an awful thing to happen. must say my friends horses will now bring hers in if there is a storm. Dont think she could go through that again :(

sorry to hear of everyones losses x
 
Yes I read a story once in a horsey magazine about a woman who lost 3 horses in one go due to a storm and they were struck by lightning in a field, if you watch horses when there is a thunder and lightning storm most will not stand under trees they must have a natural instinct not too.
 
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