Local horse ranch steers toward cleanup

For horse owners at Shadow Mountain Ranch in Thousand Palms, Monday’s storm was a real problem, and now the cleanup effort is underway before riders can get back in the saddle.

Nancy Scatena was at the barn when the storm hit and took dramatic video of water rushing through two stables filled with horses.

“And afterwards we noticed the pastures were gone, the fencing was down,” said Scatena. “I mean just water coming in sideways from everywhere. It was crazy. It was scary.”

All of the horses were okay, but the ranch is not.

“It’s going to be a long process getting it back together,” added Scatena. “There’s a lot of rocks that washed in the arenas. The grass is gone from the turnouts.”

Pauline Kaner came to check on her horse the day after the storm.

“I came out it was really worse than what she had explained to me I was devastated to see what it was like,” said Kaner.

The storm damaged a well on the property, leaving the horses without automatic water.

“Fortunately, they had a water truck that had about 500 gallons to spare so they were able to come in and fill everybodys’ bucket manually,” explained Scatena.

For the riders, there are no rings to ride in.

“I’m a dressage rider and the dressage is absolutely gone,” mentioned Kaner. “The rain just swept it away.”

And the horses — some of their pastures turned to lakes.

“To me I feel like it’s the best part of his day to get out there and just be a horse and have some green grass,” said Scatena.

But these horsewomen are ready to ride away and put this storm behind them.

“It’ll all be taken care of in no time,” concluded Kaner.

“I hope by the weekend maybe we can get back on our horses and business as usual,” said Scatena.