Eta drenches horse barns
Owners scrambling to find dry land after storm’s floodwaters soak South Florida
“I’ve worked for Davie Fire Rescue 18 years, and I’ve never seen the magnitude of this.”
— Davie Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Chris Abramczyk.
DAVIE— South Florida’s horse owners didn’t think Tropical Storm Eta posed much of a threat. Their horses had lived through countless hurricanes in barns made of concrete, or open fields where they could run away from any danger.
They weren’t prepared for floodwaters that drenched their horses’ stalls with water nearly up to their knees and turned their pastures into ponds.
It left them scrambling to evacuate their 1,200pound animals through 2 feet of water to temporary dry stalls in the middle of a pandemic — even as rain kept falling the rest of the week.
“It cameout o fno where,” said Alexandra Khenenou, who moved her three horses to a temporary barn in Cooper City on Wednesday. “The landowner atmy barn contacted me saying ‘your horses are standing inwater. What do you want to do?’ So Iwas scrambling all morning trying to find different farms, different locations where I can put them.”
Itwas any horse owner’s worst fear, she said.
“Horses expect a certain level of care, especially if that’s how they’ve been treated,” she said. “For me, my horses aremy children. So for me to see my child just kind of looking at me for help and standing in water, I wanted to burst into tears.”
Those who found their horses in similar predicamentsknew they had to act fast.
Flooded stalls and pastures are more than just a burden for horse owners — floodwaters can damage horses’ delicate feet and legs. Diseases can fester in moist hooves, and stubborn fungus or rain rot can rankle the sensitive skin on their legs and cause excessive swelling.
It can even deteriorate the structure of the hoof wall, said Dr. Carole Holland, an equine sports medicine veterinarian, acupuncturist and chiro-
practor based in Wellington.
“You’re dealing with a foot encased in a hoof that’s similar to our fingernails,” Holland said. “The horses need the structure of their hoof to support their weight. When it gets soggy, the structure starts todeteriorate and the ho of wall can separate from the bottom part of the foot. Then bacteria and fungus can start to creep in between the bottom of the foot and the hoof wall.”
Horses’ legs are also much more prone to infection when their skin is constantly soaking in bacteria-ridden floodwaters.
“That leads to white line disease, laminitis and foot abscesses,” Holland said. “Laminitis can cause you to have to euthanize your horse, and it’s definitely career ending for any athletic performance. It’s better to keep them high and dry.”
On Thursday, a horse ventured too far into the thick mud of a flooded pasture in Southwest Ranches and got stuck. Luckily, rescue crews wrestled the muscular mare named Moonie out of the mud. She got scraped up from submerged tree branches in the tussle.
Horses and other big animals can exhaust themselves trying to escape and end up drowning, said Davie Fire Rescue battalion chief Chris Abramczyk. It was the fourth animal his crew rescued from the mud this week, he said.
“I’ve worked for Davie Fire Rescue 18 years, and I’ve never seen the magnitude of this,” he said.
Fire rescue usually only deals with the ones who make it out alive. The owners usually call out a veterinarian or other disposal service for those that perish.
In Davie, horse owners can register their horses with the town during hurricane season in case their barn collapses or their horse escapes. The horses are usually released in an enclosed area such as Robbins Lodge, and owners often braid name tags into their horse’s mane or spray paint their phone numbers on their side.
The town waived the registration fees for the program after Eta and kept registered horses in dry stalls at the Bergeron Rodeo Grounds on Davie Road.
Jamie Diersing signed her 15-year-old horse Kirby up for the program. The rodeo grounds were one of the only areas that didn’t flood, she said.
“I’ve never seen the stalls
get wet like that before,” she said. “The water wasn’t draining fast enough, and at some points it was up to past my calf.”
She grew up in Davie and has had horses since she was 11, she said. The area is known for retaining water, but she said she had never seen the flooding this bad before.
Just around the corner
from the rodeo grounds, horses waded through a paddock that was still underwater Thursday at Ranchero Gonzalez.
Juan Gonzalez, the barn manager, said he lost about 20 boarders just this week. The whole property was flooded with at least 10 inches ofwater, he said.
“The owners said one or two days is fine, but when
it goes to aweek, the horses can have problems with their feet,” he said. “It’s been a headache. I’ve been around here 22 years and I’ve never seen it this bad.”
Gonzalez had just started managing the barn under his family name on Nov. 4, he said. Previously itwas called M&M Stables, a popular property right in the heart of downtown Davie.
“Definitely we’ ve got to do something with the water situation in this area,” he said. “Right now, if it keeps going like this, the new Fort Lauderdale beach is gonna be right here.”