Have you paid your bill?

Do you know if you have fire protection? If you don't pay for fire protection through your taxes, you may not get service when you most need it! Take a few minutes to verify that (a) you are paying for fire protection through your local taxes or that (b) you have paid or should be paying your fees to a private fire agency. Call your township or village hall to find out ASAP for your peace of mind.

About Heat Lamps--Who Really Needs Them?

I'm looking at two news reports of fires involving heat lamps, and I'm heartsick over the loss of newborns because of something someone thought they needed when they really didn't. . . . On February 26th, a mare and her hours-old foal were killed. On March 6th, nine newborn kids (goats) died at Heifer International's Overlook Farm along with other occupants of the building. Neither fire had to happen.

The old-timers provided heat to a stall by packing the manure flat and covering it over with straw. The resulting decomposition of the manure generated heat. Every occupant was nice and toasty warm even if the stalls became somewhat rank smelling. Nowadays, it seems, every barn needs a heat lamp. Why? Is it because we have become too quick to personify our animals? We're the ones without natural temperature protection, not our animals. Mother Nature has done a fine job of fitting her creatures to normal weather conditions--weather that is normal for the place on the planet the animals were designed to populate (for example, a polar bear is not going to manage very well in Miami Beach). In most cases, if herd animals are permitted to be in a herd, they will instinctively gather for protection and they will make sure their young have adequate protection from both weather and predators.

When we interfere, with our dangerous heat lamps, we are setting the stage for disaster. Horses in a stall, where they are protected from wind DO NOT NEED EXTRA HEAT!!!!! If they have been clipped and the temperature in the barn is less than about 40 degrees, put a blanket on them. The worst thing that can happen is that they rip the blanket. The blanket won't radiate heat to combustibles (hay, straw, shavings) or tip over and provide direct contact. Blankets don't cause fires.

If there is one single cause of the increase in horse barn fires caused by heat lamps in recent years (by recent, I mean within the past 20 years or so) it's because of our insistence on keeping the January 1st birthday for horses that are exhibited, either in racing or shows. In the wild, horses are not born until the winter storms are past and the new grass has begun to grow. Foals are nursing from mares who are being nourished by fresh grasses, not processed grain and dry hay. Mares and foals derive strength and health from the spring and summer sun. It is my firm belief, after being in the politically vicious business of showing halter horses (weanlings, yearlings, 2 year olds and up) that we must get rid of the artificial January 1st birthday and allow our horses to be born when Mother Nature intended. Then, and only then, will we be able to get breeders to stop using heat lamps--think how many lives that will save. . . .

Fence Charger Problem

I recently learned of a barn fire caused by a fence charger that shorted out. The charger was defective and--as the narrator described it--had "melted down." I'm not enough of an electrician to actually know what "melted down" means, but when I told my friend, Ron, about it, he said he was going to install a GFI outlet for his fence charger, which is in his barn. That way, should there be a problem with the charger, the GFI will cut it off before any damage can occur. Seems like a good solution.

Safety? Release

I'd like to comment about a product on the market called the Safety Release Stall Closure. This product allows a stall door to open when more than 200 pounds of pressure is applied. The company propounds this as a means of freeing horses so they can escape from a fire. Most horses will not bolt for their stall door in an emergency requiring evacuation. They may bounce off one wall or another in their anxiety, but if they happened to release a stall door it would be pure luck. Further, horses that are prone to leaning against their stall doors, should they once discover the small amount (for a horse) of pressure needed to open their door--well, guess who's going to be wandering around the barn all night. Also, should a horse release the door in a fire situation, that horse is probably not going to flee the barn but could be running up and down the aisleway, impeding the evacuation of other horses that are, correctly, being led from the barn by a handler. While you never want to lock a horse in a stall, you still want to be the person who decides when and how a horse leaves a stall, especially in an emergency.

A little bit of history

February 3, 1906

East St. Louis, Illinois

The Union Elevator, containing one million bushels of wheat, erupted into flames and the fire spread to adjoining stables of the St. Louis Transfer Company. The entire stable building, including 200 horses and 200 wagons was lost.