Michelle Skafer, of Stable Hearts, with one of her horses that is getting lots of attention and hugs from its rider. Photo / Supplied
Michelle Skafer, of Stable Hearts, with one of her horses that is getting lots of attention and hugs from its rider. Photo / Supplied
A Hawke’s Bay woman who runs a therapeutic horse centre says she found herself fighting for survival as she desperately tried to save her herd of horses from floodwaters.
Injured, and grappling with grief and despair, she then had to deal with accusations on social media of abandoning them.
Michelle Skafer, who owns Stable Hearts in Pakowhai Rd, has had a terrible few weeks. She’s lost her entire herd of 11 horses and ponies. She tells a harrowing story of her own survival.
But there’s been bright spots too. In some ways she feels blessed.
“The outpouring of love and support has helped me find stepping stones through my grief, disaster and despair,” Skafer said.
“Some people lost their lives. I’m alive and so is my much-loved 84-year-old mother who lives with me.”
Skafer is bold in her determination that Stable Hearts will come through this; that her mum, who is warmly referred to as “the Nana” of the operation, will too.
She then breaks down. It’s not the red-stickered cottage or the loss of all her possessions that brings her to tears.
Skafer is deeply concerned about the impact of the loss of horses on the already-vulnerable children she supports every day.
Stable Hearts offers traditional services such as riding lessons for beginners and Saddle Club on weekends and school holiday programmes for children of all ages.
The core of its business is therapeutic healing where Skafer, a therapist, facilitates personal growth and healing supported by horses.
“I’ve been really mindful when posting on social media that messages often reach already-vulnerable children. The difficulty is staying connected and being as honest as I [Stable Heart] can without wounding the already wounded. Social media can be vicious and hurtful and trying to navigate that for our children has been a fulltime job for my son Hoani, who is mediating our page from Australia.”
When people started accusing Skafer of abandoning her horses and sending her photos of dead horses that she says were not hers, Hoani shut them down.
Describing what happened on the morning of February 14, Skafer says for the first few days after she could only recall events with no timeline or sequence and nothing really made sense.
“I know I feed the six big horses early in the morning as usual and threw hay to the ponies.
“I went to get the wheelbarrow at the back of the stables and noticed a tiny stream forming through the cornfield from the neighbour’s house behind us.
“I was thinking ‘that shouldn’t be happening’ and took a video to show the neighbour.”
Skafer says he opened the stable and courtyard gates as always so the horses could go back to grazing and headed down to the house. She had a couple of conversations with neighbours, all of them trying to ascertain the level of urgency. That took less than 20 minutes.
“I noticed the water was rising quickly into the garage and ran to mum in the house calling ‘get in the car now’. I grabbed the dog and mum’s medication and brought the car almost into the house in the adjourning garage. Mum was able to get in, then I drove out to the middle of the road. I asked her to wait while I opened the gate for the horses.
Michelle Skafer ( middle ) with her sisters in clean up mode at Stable Hearts. Photo / Supplied
“While I was doing that a neighbour on a bike yelled out to me that he had put mum in a police car. He said ‘your mum’s okay’ and came to help me lift the gate off its hinges. Somehow we then made our way upstream of the current to the stables.
“We put halters on the two lead horses, Buddy and Spud. The herd began to follow but then they started acting like snakes and turned back.
What's left of Michelle Skafer's mother's bedroom at their home at Stable Hearts in Pakowhai Rd after the flooding on February 14. Photo / Supplied
“At this point, I remember hearing the neighbour’s wife screaming desperately. I thought if I had the two lead geldings the others would still follow. I said ‘go Al, we are okay’.
“As he was leaving he said ‘no you are not. I’ll come back’. That’s the last I spoke to him that day. I don’t know how he fought the current through the corn to get back to his home.”
By now, she says, the water was waist-deep. Skafer still had Buddy and Spud by their lead ropes. “Then I noticed Teddy, our little mini. He was swimming with the horses. He was going under. I let go of Buddy and Spud as they were swimming and were okay. But Buddy panicked and swam over to the far paddock and back to the house.
“Teddy was swept into the neighbour’s boundary fence and his cover got caught on an overturned quad.
“I went to release him and got caught between him and the quad.”
It was at that moment that Skafer says she came dangerously close to losing her life. Still, she fought to release Teddy’s cover at his chest. “I had him floating with me but he kicked my legs to break free.”
Things went blank for Skafer from there. She says the next thing she remembers is swimming or walking out of the gate to the road. Buddy and Spud were standing by her car. She decided to shelter from the force of the water by her neighbour’s fence. The water was up to her car doors.
She says she knew if she didn’t move soon it would be too late.
“I took a chance and crossed the current and managed to get in the car, start it up and drive about 4m. But the people on the bridge were putting their hands up signalling for me to stop. There were cars and campervans floating past.
“I don’t really remember what happened next. The next thing I do remember is walking with my dog and mum’s medication with a man about 30 years old. He had me linked by the arm. We were about halfway to the bridge when I fell over something. He pulled me back up and helped me to the bridge. He saved my life. A wonderful woman called Shona — I think she was part of the Rapid Response team — drove me over the bridge to the hospital where mum was supposed to be.”
Skafer waited and waited. No one knew where her mother was. “I lost her for four and a half hours.”
“The chaplain took me to the chapel office and we prayed while a nurse dressed the wounds on my knees. Then the police phoned the chaplain asking him to bring me back to the front entrance because they wanted to talk to me. It was in that moment I believed the worst had happened to mum. However, he wanted to talk about the chaos in the street.”
Unbeknownst to Skafer, her mum had been transferred from the police car to a civilian car.
A close family friend found Skafer at the A&E of Hawke’s Bay Hospital and headed to the racecourse, which was being used as an evacuation centre.
“Then I got a phone call from a lovely lady to tell me my mother was with her and she wanted to speak to me. She had enjoyed a four-hour sleep and really wasn’t sure she wanted to be picked up. We did of course, and my friend Marie made a hospital bed in her spare room.”
Today, Skafer is in Auckland with sisters Debbie and Kim following her mother’s surgery at North Shore Hospital.
Her first priority is to support her mother as she recovers. “The surgery went really well. We are all so relieved,” Skafer said.
In the meantime, Stable Hearts is planning visits to their clients and children and the phone is open. Skafer is fielding calls from children and families she works with and or anyone who has been affected by the cyclone.
