I have a more than healthy respect for lightning. I think my Corgi is smart for getting under the bed when she hears the first rumble of thunder. I’m tempted to do that, too.

But I know plenty of people who take lightning for granted. Because it’s something we experience frequently, it’s easy to get complacent about it. I want to remind you that lightning is deadly. Last year in a town nearby, two kids were killed during soccer practice when a storm came up suddenly.

Most people don’t realize that lightning can appear ahead of rain, and in fact, many lightning strikes occur before storms or after the storm seems to have passed.

I have two friends who have been hit by lightning when out with horses. Fortunately, they lived to tell their tales, but both still deal with after effects. The first was driving an Arabian on a pretty day. He can’t remember what happened next, but the horse ran back to the barn with burn marks on her legs, having broken free of the cart. They found my friend out cold and the shattered cart strewn around in the field. (I’m sure his guardian angel was back in heaven in ICU).

My other friend was leading a horse in during a storm when lightning struck. The horse was killed, and he was knocked to the ground and his leg injured. Another horse, farther out in the pasture was killed during that same storm. Most of us who have been around horses for a while know stories of horses being killed by lightning. It’s a bad deal.

So I watch the weather pretty closely, ready to bring horses into the barn. It’s a lot of work for a false alarm, but I figure peace of mind is worth it.

This past week, I saw a severe thunderstorm warning on the radar. I knew the farm owner was about 30 miles away visiting friends, so she wouldn’t be aware of the danger. I headed over to the barn as the sky got darker. I thought through my plan.

Once the storm was there, I was not going outside to get horses. My friends’ experience taught me that lesson. I didn’t have much time. How was I going to determine which horses to bring in first, in case I didn’t get everybody inside?

Rather than think about which horses had the most commercial value, I immediately thought about which horses were most likely to self-destruct, running through a fence if lightning hit a tree nearby. And I evaluated which horses would represent the biggest emotional loss to their owners. Nobody wants to make that kind of a call, but I really didn’t think I could get everybody inside in time.

As it worked out, here in the foothills of the mountains, storms often take paths slightly different than you might expect. Maybe it was wind currents, or maybe it was really God answering my prayer, but the storm circled around, so to speak, buying me time. Everybody made it inside, including me, by the time the storm hit.

This is the beginning of lightning season, and I don’t want any of my faithful readers or horses to be added to my list of war stories. Please take the threat of lightning seriously. So what if you make extra work for yourself and the storm never materializes? It’s better than the alternative.

I’ve done a lot of reading and interviews about lightning over the years, and the experts all agree, “When thunder roars, go indoors.” (If you want to read up on lightning, go to http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov.)

P.S. Want to tell me your lightning stories to add to my collection? Feel free to comment below or send an email to my website, http://www.inspiredbyhorses.com