My ride on Saturday was a complete & utter disaster. No-one else pitched up for the 3pm *social* ride, so I had no choice but to head out on my own. It was the first time I had ridden at this particular farm, so I gave my horse - a sweet but spritely chap, named Febs - a bit of rein & kind of let him "lead the way" (they usually have a well-trodden path they like to follow). Everything was going reasonably well Febs was obedient & responsive, & we were bonding nicely when about halfway into my hour, this mother of all storms blew in. Thunder, lightning, downpour the works. Then to add insult to injury, it started hailing with absolutely no conceivable shelter in sight. When the first hailstones started falling, we found ourselves halfway up a koppie (rocky outcrop), about 100m away from the nearest clump of trees.
A few weeks ago, I had watched a program on TV about lightning. Travelling at 160,000 km per second, lightning is one mean & dangerous mother-fucker. That tree you thought you'd shelter under? It can bounce right off it & into you. Even if you manage to escape a direct hit, it can shoot through the ground & up into your feet. At this very moment there are about 2,000 thunderstorms raging across the skies. 100 lightning bolts are striking the earth every second. And South Africa is a lightning-prone country, with one of the highest stroke densities in the world, which means that we also have one of the highest lightning death rates in the world. According to a leading lightning pathologist, 70% of all people who are struck by lightning do not survive. And those who do survive anything from 5 to a massive 2,000 amps coursing through their body usually have severe disabilities. They often have to re-learn how to walk & speak.
So although I was desperate to escape the increasing hail of icy bullets (no pun intended) that Mother Nature seemed to be so ruthlessly shooting directly at us from out of the sky, I also wasnt prepared to risk seeking shelter under any of those damn trees! Caught between a rock & a hard place we were, my poor horse & I
We had no option, really, other than to hunker down with our rumps turned to the worst of it, & wait it out. Wearing nothing but an old long-sleeved T-shirt & being pelted by a trillion tiny hailstones makes the pain of going under the tattoo artists needle seriously pale in comparison! I swear I have never been so cold & sore & drenched in all my life. Now I know the true meaning of being able to weather a storm 
A few weeks ago, I had watched a program on TV about lightning. Travelling at 160,000 km per second, lightning is one mean & dangerous mother-fucker. That tree you thought you'd shelter under? It can bounce right off it & into you. Even if you manage to escape a direct hit, it can shoot through the ground & up into your feet. At this very moment there are about 2,000 thunderstorms raging across the skies. 100 lightning bolts are striking the earth every second. And South Africa is a lightning-prone country, with one of the highest stroke densities in the world, which means that we also have one of the highest lightning death rates in the world. According to a leading lightning pathologist, 70% of all people who are struck by lightning do not survive. And those who do survive anything from 5 to a massive 2,000 amps coursing through their body usually have severe disabilities. They often have to re-learn how to walk & speak.
So although I was desperate to escape the increasing hail of icy bullets (no pun intended) that Mother Nature seemed to be so ruthlessly shooting directly at us from out of the sky, I also wasnt prepared to risk seeking shelter under any of those damn trees! Caught between a rock & a hard place we were, my poor horse & I
We had no option, really, other than to hunker down with our rumps turned to the worst of it, & wait it out. Wearing nothing but an old long-sleeved T-shirt & being pelted by a trillion tiny hailstones makes the pain of going under the tattoo artists needle seriously pale in comparison! I swear I have never been so cold & sore & drenched in all my life. Now I know the true meaning of being able to weather a storm VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
I will not give into this though, we will have to become more vigilant and the neiborhood will have to get there shit together and look out for one another.
But yep it is the Wild West
I have already begun to put a little more security in place. The one thing I do have to say though, is that Ken's place was always a shambles with people coming and going, so I would not be surprised if it was an inside job. Not that being caged in your own home should be a pre-requisit to being alive.
On that somber note I'm off, don't be a stranger, and get your man to call me, I might need some shirts done for the convention