The Brief
An Argyle horse therapy facility saw multiple roofs damaged during the Texas winter storm, leaving their horses exposed to the weather and debris.
New Hope Equine Assisted Therapy found roofs damaged Wednesday due to the weight of ice. No horses were injured.
The company is asking for donations to help remove the damage and rebuild sturdy shelters.
ARGYLE, Texas – An equine therapy facility in Argyle is seeking help following shelter damage from the winter storm.
Horse shelters collapse
What we know
New Hope Equine Assisted Therapy runs 50 to 60 rides a week for children and adults with disabilities. This week, they found their horse shelters damaged due to the winter storm’s effects.
“It was two days ago, I just looked out my window from my house up on the hill and I noticed that the horses were going a little crazy down here and the roof had collapsed,” said David Kershen, operations manager at New Hope.
Ice buildup from the storm caused the roofs of multiple shelters to collapse, exposing the horses to freezing temperatures and debris. Thankfully, no horses were injured.
“They were actually just eating in their feed buckets along the front of the fence whenever the roof fell. They turned around, freaked out a little bit and then sort of went back to eating,” Kershen continued.
Kershen told FOX 4’s Amelia Jones they had issues with frozen pipes during the 2021 winter storm. They made sure to take extra precautions for that over the weekend, but he never thought the weight of the ice and snow would bring down one of the roofs.
“It was a few years old,” Kershen said. “But it should have lasted 10 years, and it didn’t.”
Volunteers step in to help
What’s next
Kershen says a team of volunteers and neighbors came to New Hope on Wednesday to help demo the section that collapsed and shore up the remaining roof.
“We got tractors in here, and ladders, and we demoed everything and made the paddocks safe for the horses. We actually even went back through with magnets to make sure there weren’t any nails or screws left in there,” Kershen said.
He says a roofing specialist is set to come out to the property next week, and he hopes to have it all rebuilt by the spring.
“We’ll ensure this doesn’t happen again. We’ll take down any of the remaining structure built like this, and we’re just gonna build it back stronger and something that will stand up even more snow and ice in the future if that were to ever happen,” Kershen continued..
What you can do
New Hope Equine Assisted Therapy has started a GoFundMe to help with rebuilding the shelters.
The Source
Information in this story came from FOX 4 reporting.