A barn fire is every horseperson's worst nightmare.
The barn is our safe haven. Those scents and sounds of clean shavings, fresh hay, and happy horses immediately center our minds and calm our souls.
Memories are woven across every inch of time-worn wood: horses' names painstakingly etched across the fronts of the stalls, the revered old bridle of a treasured mount hanging from tack room's corner hook, and a faded old photograph with a dusty ribbon on the shelf.
For all those reasons, we will never forget the morning of Feb. 27, 2022, when River View Stables, a 36-stall boarding operation based at Stone Place Farm in Prospect, Ky., burned to the ground.
Neighbors said it happened fast, flames engulfing the facility in the early hours of the morning before the fire department could arrive. The fire claimed the life of one horse; an unfathomable loss.
It also claimed the contents of four tack rooms: tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and the bits and pieces of triumph and heartache embedded therein.
What's more, the fire threatened to take away that feeling of peace we each found every time we stepped through those barn doors.
To stand with our friends around still-smoldering embers of that sacred place, gazing across the contorted sheets of blackened metal, the scorched earth and that acrid smell, knowing the full extent of the destruction… it should have been devastating.
And yet, in the midst of all that tragedy, we found that our support of one another meant more than what we had lost.
Horse people have such an incredible capacity for caring, albeit usually for our four-legged friends. In the face of heart-shattering adversity, we turned that caring toward one another and became a family.
Everyone focused on how to move forward; we came together instead of falling apart.
Even before the fire was out, the farm's part-time employee loaded up his truck and trailer for a 12-hour haul to pick up temporary stalls. Our neighbors showed up immediately to provide us with basic supplies like halters and water troughs. Horse owners and farm managers alike came out to spend the day helping care for the horses, theirs and their friends', holding onto borrowed lead ropes while each horse was brought out of its field to be fed and checked over individually.
A large hay shed was cleared out, and by early the next morning limestone had been delivered and was being spread across the dirt floor base. A long-time farm employee built us a brand-new wash rack near our new temporary home. Volunteers and their non-horsey family members helped set up the stalls in record time. The local feed shop donated shavings, and dozens of other local horse people donated buckets and hoses and wheelbarrows and pitchforks and hay.
The donations continued: blankets, bridles, saddles, brushes, anything and everything a person might need to care for their horse. The outpouring of support was incredible; from physical donations to acts of service, nothing was left undone.
By the second morning after the fire, all the horses had a clean, dry stall to come home to, and our barn family had organized a potluck dinner for that same evening as a way to say thank you and to celebrate the life of the mare we lost.
We remain incredibly grateful, beyond humbled by the support of our friends, our families, and our community.
“Overwhelmed is my new most-used word,” said head coach/barn manager Deborah Snyder, voice heavy with emotion as she addressed the entire group that evening. “I am overwhelmed by love, gratitude, and gratefulness.
“I'm sure you all were scared or upset and shed some tears, but you must have done it behind closed doors because (co-manager) Sarah (Younger) and I didn't see a single one. You all let us lean on you, and we just want you to know that we couldn't have gotten through these last 48 hours without you.
“I am continually impressed by everyone who has gone above and beyond so that we didn't feel the loss. Instead, we feel like there is nothing that will hold us back!”
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