Diabolical Air Quality In NE Hampers Hay and Horses

Unless you've been living under a rock, which might actually be the best place to be right now, you will be experiencing the negative affects of significant air pollution from the Canadian forest fires in the North-East and beyond.

New York City was the most polluted city in the world on 6/6/23

 

It is stunning to be checking your phone for updates on the AQI ( air quality index) on an hourly basis when you usually enjoy the usually clean, fresh mountain air in the Catskills. 

Horse farms necessarily involve a lot of strenuous work outside and health experts telling us all to stay inside to protect our lung and heart health is not an option.

In recent years we have all learned a lot about mask wearing. Ironically now we find ourselves wearing ours between exiting the vehicle or house to get in to an air-conditioned shop where we remove them rather than the other way around a few years ago. Where the public places were where we'd put them on.

For the past few days the air quality has been so poor, nearly 200 AQI, that we have been wearing masks all the time we are outside with the horses. We have taken the precaution to stop working the horses altogether, both for their sake and for ours.

Thankfully our ongoing film production crew that were here at the farm for The Horse Studio/Horse in a Kilt Media shoot of Dressage 101 - Starting The Young Horse, in the past few weeks on and off had already left due to predicted cloudy weather.  

Turn out times for the horses have been limited and scheduled around when the better air quality hours may occur, be that inconvenient very early morning hours or whenever. The barn doors are kept shut to try and mitigate the air flow of polluted air down the aisleway. Thankfully the weather is cool so the barn does not need them open for cooling though we have been reluctant to close all the windows. 

Thankfully horses have a long neck that helps protect their respiratory system from airborne particles but according to the health experts the pollutant particles are of a size that our bodies cannot easily clear them and they will settle in our lungs.

Haymaking hadn't begun on our organic hay farm at Willowview Hill Farm, due to the lack of rain and lack of growth of the crop. This weather hasn't helped much and we will certainly wait for Mother Nature to come wash down all the grasses of particles of ash that we have actually seen floating down from the sky.

I feel sorry for those in the horse community who have events planned, competitions lined up and expenses to cover. 

The adverse air quality and lack of rain is not the only problem folks are facing. The pop up thunderstorms producing golf ball size hail in parts of Upstate New York and I'm sure elsewhere have damaged much agritourism produce. The nursery businesses have all their stock outside and set up ready for the big sale season and much stock that simply could not be moved inside has been decimated by the storms.

Oh Canada..

 

But to keep all this in perspective we must remember the people in Canada that have lost much more. Their homes and livelihoods. 

And if we step just a few thousand miles away to Ukraine, or even further afield we can see a completely other level of suffering.

We shall all weather this weather. But it is a stern reminder that we should not take our oxygen or our water for granted.