TN Cattle Man
Well-known member
This has to be one of my biggest fears... Although I live in Tennessee, we do sometimes get weather cold enough to put a hard freeze on our stock ponds (like this past week with temps down to 1 degree). I saw this article on Facebook and thought I would share:
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/lo...-b6f3-da453807c00f.html#.VK_4RP7aEak.facebook
When our temps get cold and our ponds start to freeze, I am out there with my tractor and loader breaking the ice at a minimum of twice a day. It gets to be where the cattle know what I am coming to do and will drink very soon after I break the ice up. A little back ground story, about 5 years ago the wife bought a beautiful 2-year old Paint mare. The horse was doing great and showing a lot of promise to be a good cow horse some day. We kept the mare with our other older horses in a 5 acre field that had a small but deep pond in it. This particular winter was brutal, and sure enough that pond froze over pretty hard. At the time, I was working at one of our other farms when I got the phone call... It was my wife and she was hysterical! Her mare had wondered onto the ice and broke through. Let me tell you that is a pretty helpless feeling when I knew that I could not get to her in time to save her. As most of you know, it doesn't take long even for large animals to succumb to hypothermia. The horse thrashed around for a couple of minutes, extremely confused and making the situation even worse. The wife did everything that she could to include trying to rope the horse and tie it off to the Gator. It was all over in a very short time.
By the time I arrived, the mare was motionless in the frozen pond. I had to call a friend who owned a commercial wet suit I could borrow so that I could break my way through the ice and get a chain around the horse so I could pull her out of the pond. This was a very painful lesson that I work very hard to never have happen again.
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/lo...-b6f3-da453807c00f.html#.VK_4RP7aEak.facebook
When our temps get cold and our ponds start to freeze, I am out there with my tractor and loader breaking the ice at a minimum of twice a day. It gets to be where the cattle know what I am coming to do and will drink very soon after I break the ice up. A little back ground story, about 5 years ago the wife bought a beautiful 2-year old Paint mare. The horse was doing great and showing a lot of promise to be a good cow horse some day. We kept the mare with our other older horses in a 5 acre field that had a small but deep pond in it. This particular winter was brutal, and sure enough that pond froze over pretty hard. At the time, I was working at one of our other farms when I got the phone call... It was my wife and she was hysterical! Her mare had wondered onto the ice and broke through. Let me tell you that is a pretty helpless feeling when I knew that I could not get to her in time to save her. As most of you know, it doesn't take long even for large animals to succumb to hypothermia. The horse thrashed around for a couple of minutes, extremely confused and making the situation even worse. The wife did everything that she could to include trying to rope the horse and tie it off to the Gator. It was all over in a very short time.
By the time I arrived, the mare was motionless in the frozen pond. I had to call a friend who owned a commercial wet suit I could borrow so that I could break my way through the ice and get a chain around the horse so I could pull her out of the pond. This was a very painful lesson that I work very hard to never have happen again.
