In just four minutes, almost $200,000 in damage was caused by a microburst to the Thunder Bay Therapeutic Riding Association’s indoor arena and barn just before the Labour Day long weekend.
“It took us four years to raise enough money to put up the arena…and the wind took it down in four minutes,” said barn manager Maureen Downey.
The Thunder Bay Therapeutic Riding Association has been operating on the Downeys’ property on Calvert Road in Murillo for 18 years and they have about 15 riders every Tuesday and Thursday evening.
The organization offers horseback riding lessons to physically and mentally disabled participants.
Six weeks after the damaging storm, Downey is ready to rebuild. Insurance will cover most of the damage, but there are items like fencing that aren’t covered. Even the association’s ramp and lift used to place the children on the horses were damaged by the Sept. 2 storm.
Everything is gone; everything is destroyed,” Downey said Thursday morning.
The hail that came with the microburst flattened the indoor riding arena to the ground – the structure was 50 feet by 100 feet. Then the winds picked up the pieces of steel and blew it into the 88-year-old barn, destroying the back half of it.
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The storm must have sounded like four minutes of a freight train ripping through the barn, Downey said, adding that most of her horses are still traumatized.
“They’re still not normal,” she said. “They’re scared. They’re chewing on the walls. They’re kicking at each other. They’re fighting. It’s quite unusual for these horses to be that grumpy, but it has been a shock to them.”
The riding association has closed for the remainder of the year and Downey hopes reconstruction will be finished by December.
“We need it up so quickly because behind me there is a big void,” she said. “We have about 650 acres behind us and the winds come pretty quickly.”
The association is holding a spaghetti supper to raise funds to cover some of the damage costs on Oct. 23 at the Italian Hall. They also hold a pancake breakfast the first Sunday of every month at the Murillo town hall.
For tickets to the spaghetti dinner call the Thunder Bay Therapeutic Riding Association at 472-5650.
