A Keuring Remembered – 2004 and Hurricane Ivan

It is a good thing Friesians like rain. Dahlia – 2004 Keuring

People are starting to talk about the upcoming (as in September) annual breed inspections for the Friesian horses. We still use the Dutch word (“keuring” where “keur” rhymes with “her”) for this big event.

This year our family does not have any adult horses to take, and have decided not to take the babies since we do not have any fillies where one might be willing to haul a little one 5 or more hours (babies can be judged as adults when they are 3 so a foal keuring is nice, but not mandatory).

Anyhow, today I was thinking back to 2004 when Dahlia went as a 3 year old to her adult inspection. We also took Hiltje and daughter Marigold. For these horses, it was a very good result – Dahlia made ster and Marigold was 1st premie, champion filly.

But otherwise, it was a frightful, dangerous event.

The night before the keuring Hurricane Ivan went through western North Carolina with 90 mph winds. This was one of the worse hurricanes in US history. Our family drove 4.5 hours to get there in the rain the day before, and missed the worse of it. But some people drove 10 or more hours to get there. One woman had a limb come through the her pickup truck’s back window as she was coming down the highway with her horse in tow. It is a miracle no one was hurt.

The next day, which was the morning of the keuring, no one knew what the heck to expect. We were just hoping the barn (with our horses) was still standing. Indeed, it was still there and over 30 horses had come. You see, no one expected the storm to come this far west and once you had been on the highway 6 hours or so, what were you to do but continue on? In the barn there was no electricity and thus no lights. And our host was late – her house had been hit by 2 falling trees (yes, a great deal of damage but again – amazingly no one was hurt). Her brother Dan had to get out the chainsaw just to open a lane to drive out of the driveway.

It was still pouring rain and the ring – all we had were outdoor facilities – was a pool of mud. We left it to the judges as to whether or not they wished to continue. It was obviously treacherous for the runners. They all talked amongst themselves and looked over at the faces of all of us. Well, they said, if you call can drive 14 hours to get here, the least we can do is inspect your horses.

During the event everyone pitched in to help each other with prepping horses, leading them, cheering each other on. I have never been so proud of a group of people in my entire life. One fellow pulled his horse trailer over by the ring so the judges had a dry place to keep their notes. A few of us shot video from inside the trailer. Not a single runner or horse slipped or was hurt in any way. The whole thing was, well, surreal. Had I not been there, I would never have believed it.

Tonight I dug through old video tapes and found Dahlia’s. Probably about the only video made that day. I’ll swear, I think if I squeezed the cassette, water would come out.

So, here ya go. A keuring in a hurricane.