Horse Lover Magazine

Well, we survived the flood, but boy was it scary. I was so scared and tired from everything that has happened that I have not been able to

put my thoughts together until today. Sonny, Sock, Copper, and I knew we were getting a lot of rain on May 1. It just kept on raining harder

and harder, more and more. 
After several hours of grazing in the rain, the four of us headed into the barn to get a break from the downpour. Sonny wouldn’t let Copper

stay in the barn with the rest of us, so he got caught just beyond the barn on the wrong side of a steady stream of water that had formed

from the front pasture to the back pasture and he would not cross it. I hated for Copper to get stuck like that, but I was really glad to get

myself in out of the rain.

Marla and Chuck came over around 1:30 p.m. that same day and checked to make sure we were all OK. Marla could see that Copper was
stuck, so she went out and brought him in and put him in a stall so he could have a little food and dry out from standing in the pouring rain.

 Even though it was not cold particularly, Copper was shaking. I think he must have been scared or being so wet made him feel cold. 

After she did all this, Marla went on back to her house. I heard her tell Chuck that they would come back by 6 or 6:30 that evening and check
 the status of the river.   I am sure she was thinking that the Harpeth River would take several more hours or maybe until morning to escape

its banks and actually flood the farm since this had seemed to be the flooding pattern here for years. 

Within a couple of hours the Harpeth had climbed out of its banks and flooded the lower pasture by as much as 3 feet of water and was
 rising rapidly. Sonny, Sock and I had left the back of the barn to graze again in the lower pasture before the water began to flood the pasture.

We now had a space of only about 5 feet long and about 18 inches wide to stand in. The water was rising fast and furiously and we were

starting to panic. We weren’t just standing at all; we had begun to pace back and forth trying to find a way out of the rising water. 

The Pachciarz (our next door neighbors) became so concerned for us that they called Marla around 4:15 to hurry back over and get us out
of the pasture! Marla and Chuck arrived back at the farm less than 3 hours after they had left before. 

Marla was so scared for us (I could tell by the look on her face and by the way she was hollering at Chuck to hurry up and get over there and
 help her get us out of the water. He was trying to get his water boots on.). Marla opened the gate to the pasture and told us to come on and

we sure did. We all three ran like lightening as soon as we could.

We ran and we ran some more.  We ran down the street a little way and then ran back and forth and up and down the street for what to Marla

 must have seemed like hours. Finally we settled down and started to eat some grass in the neighbor’s yard (It hadn’t flooded yet.). 

Then Marla and Chuck caught up with us and sent us back toward the barn (We were calmer than before but still didn’t let them catch us!). 

  We couldn‘t go in the barn because it had started to fill up with water.  We just ate some grass in the front of the barn.

Meanwhile, Copper (who was still in his stall) began to pace and started to bang his hooves against the stall walls. Marla put a halter on

him and led him out of the barn.
By then neighbors Cindy Bethurum and Trina Pachciarz and her father John came over and offered to help. 

After some discussion and even more confusion due to Sonny’s becoming very protective of “his” mares, the decision was made to take
us all over to Cindy’s neighboring farm to wait out the storm in safety. (Chuck in the meantime went into the barn, turned off the electricity,

 and gathered up all the feed and the saddles and put them in the loft!)  

 Cindy called her friend Beth Lowery and Marla asked Trina to help too. When Beth arrived, they all began leading the four of us to the
neighboring farm where we have been since Saturday. 

Whew! There is really a whole lot more to this story, but as I said at the beginning of this article, this has all made me so tired I can’t write

much today. I’ll proofread it again tomorrow!

Chuck took some pictures and you can see how things wound up after the flood water came. The water has receded now and revealed

the mess beneath it.

I heard Marla say something about “respecting” water. She is certainly right about that. 

I also heard her say how much she had learned from this and how much she appreciated all who had helped: her husband Chuck,
the Pachciarz, Cindy, Beth, and the folks on the street who stopped their cars and waited or slowed down rather than upsetting us horses

further. 

Sonny, Sock, Copper, and I appreciate them all very much too.  

Sierra