Horses offered shelter after Hurricane Ike batters Tennessee and Texas

Horses left homeless after Hurricane Ike battered Tennessee in America last weekend (13-14 September) are being offered temporary housing in the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration grounds.

While there are no estimations yet as to how many horses have been involved in Hurricane Ike, a number of facilities have come forward to help.

The Celebration grounds in Shelbyville will make stables available like it did for victims of Hurricanes Gustav, Katrina and Rita.

The Celebration — which includes horse shows, rodeos and dog shows — takes places every year in late summer on a 105-acre site containing more than 60 barns and over 1,500 stalls.

“We have been in contact with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture to let them know we are available as a point of refuge,” Celebration CEO Doyle Meadows told the Shelbyville Times-Gazette. “It’s important for horse owners to know there’s somewhere to turn at a time like this.”

Animal shelters across the state of Texas filled up before the storm hit on Saturday and the Texas Animal Health Comission and the Texas State Animal Resource Team are still assessing the numbers taken into care.

Brazos County Exposition Complex served as a large animal evacuation centre, which housed around 160 horses during the storm, as well as cows and pigs. With the frequency of storms in the area the facility was rebuilt in 2007 with the weather in mind.

And the Sam Houston Race Park was assessing damage following Ike. Ahead of the storm the track cancelled the final two dates of its Quarter Horse meeting on Friday and Saturday. All horses housed at the park are believed to be unhurt.

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