Bishop, Georgia - A teen saved more than a dozen
Clydesdales, including a 3-week-old foal, from a burning barn about 60 miles
east of Atlanta.
At about 2 a.m. ET Thursday, lightning struck the horse
barn at Classic City Clydesdales here.
“It shook the whole house," said Shannon Martin, who
owns the farm with her husband, Mark. "One minute I am in bed. The next
minute I am standing up next to the bed trying to figure out what bomb went
off.”
It rattled the horses, especially the 3-week-old trapped
inside with more than a dozen others. With flames all around, the barn doors
were locked and the power was out.
“We could not get the large overheads open,” she said.
That's when their 16-year son, Macon Martin, jumped into
action.
“I just ran right out. I had no clothes on, no shoes, no
nothing,” he said. “I just jumped in our Gator and I just ran it right into the
door.”
He used the John Deere utility vehicle like an action hero,
his mom said.
“He busted through like Rambo and opened up the end of the
stalls and said, 'Mom this way,' " she said. "And we were able to
push the horses out that way."
All of the Clydesdales, a breed of draft horse most famous
for starring in Budweiser commercials, are doing fine — including Phoebe. She’s
expecting a foal, and her due date was Thursday.
The barn is a total loss.
“It will take some time to rebuild," Shannon Martin
said. "This was a dream. We saved and built it brick by brick. We’ll have
to start over.”
But their horses, which travel to events and parades across
the USA, will be starting over with them.
“Big horses everybody thinks (are) real tough," she
said. "but Clydes are sort of the beauty queens of the draft horse world.
They can be pretty fragile.”
Tags
Clydesdale, Barn, Horse, Pony, Animal, Classic City
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