By Shala Watson
Communications Specialist

Many farmers and ranchers across Texas are coming together to provide shelter for horses and livestock that have been displaced by Hurricane Harvey.

More than a dozen horses that were trapped in rising flood waters near Conroe are now safe and dry because of efforts by Madison County ranchers.

Kevin Counsil, one of the ranchers who traveled to the flooded area, navigated around flood waters on I-45 from Madison County to Conroe to help the rescued horses find refuge.

He said, at the time, I-45 was six to eight inches from having water rise over it at the Bedias Creek bottom.

Counsil said the horses were only a quarter mile from the San Jacinto River that would be flooded from the Lake Conroe water release. He said the horses were “in quick sand up to their knees.”

“We just made a choice to go down and pull them out and bring them up here where they were on a dry hill,” Counsil told the Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) Radio Network.

During the trip to Conroe, the group was delayed some by water on the roads and many service stations were closed or running out of gas.

Counsil said there were emergency management workers monitoring water levels, and he wanted to be sure they made it out safely.

Counsil loaded 15 horses in his trailer and his next door neighbor brought 10 horses back to Madison County to the 50-acre ranch his neighbor owns.

The group of rescue horses varied from miniature horses all the way to race horses, according to Counsil.

During transport, Counsil said the horses were a little shaken. But once they arrived in Madison County on dry ground, they were in a better disposition.

Other neighbors in Madison County have also offered to provide hay for the horses if they need it.

“For us to be stewards of the land and stewards of the animals… that’s what we all have to do,” Counsil said.

Counsil, who also serves on the Madison County Farm Bureau board of directors, knows ranchers in the Dayton area who have had more than 39 inches of rain.

He said it is going to take everyone pulling together to help farmers and ranchers recover after the hurricane.

“It’s unprecedented and unbelievable what you see,” Counsil said. “What you see on TV and on the news is a fraction of what is going on. It’s going to take everyone in Texas to pull together to get everyone through this.”

More of Counsil’s comments can be heard on the TFB Radio Network.