“It’s a feeling, it’s a family, it’s everything, it’s so much more than just a building,” Julia Collins, the coach for WCU’s collegiate equestrian team said, about her barn in Candler, NC.
Collins has owned Over the River Farms for 25 years. For eight of those years, she has worked with WCU students riding in the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association.
Working with horses comes with its own set of challenges but the past month has challenged the farm in a unique way.
Collins’ farm is located next to a small creek. The creek, typically a source of beauty, caused mass destruction in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
As the storm approached Western North Carolina, Collins assembled a team of students and riders to assist in evacuating the barn’s 14 horses. Finding a place to house the horses was a complicated task.
The Smoky Mountain Event Center in Waynesville provided dry stalls on high ground for the horses.
“They were phenomenal for us,” Collins said.
With the stalls and pastures evacuated, waters rose ferociously, washing mud and debris through almost every inch of Collins’ farm. Long after the water receded, a foot of thick mud lingered on the barn floor.
Most of the property was nearly unrecognizable, though the barn still stood. Taking in the damage, a question hung in the air for Collins, “how do I recover from this?”
“Everything is destroyed, and this strong barn is just standing was first of all what motivated me to try,” Collins said.
She organized a barn cleanup a week after the storm tore through Buncombe Couty. People showed up with gloves, shovels and determination.
“For me that was a huge, big deal that so many people showed up and not just showed up and were here but showed up and worked their butts off,” Collins said.
For student and non-student riders the barn is more than a building.
Maggie Whelan is a co-captain of the WCU Equestrian Team. The barn means a lot to her, offering sanctuary and escape.
“It’s a really big form of stress relief and being mindful and finding peace,” Whelan said.
Even covered in a layer of dust and mud, the farm offers beauty and solace. University riders and those boarding horses there seek refuge amongst a group of people tied together by a common passion.
“This flood, I realized it’s actually more that’s getting destroyed, it’s not items, it’s a barn community,” Collins said.
Seeing her community pull together inspired Collins to recover her farm sanctuary.
People come to her barn to learn riding skills, but Collins says they gain so much more.
Peace, purpose, work ethic, people, home, the barn offers a lot.
And Collins gets a lot out of it too.
“My life is fuller and richer from knowing these people that a lot of people would just write off, as they’re just a college kid,” Collins said.
A month after Hurricane Helene changed the landscape of Collins’ farm, her horses have returned. WCU student riders have saddled up and taken to the arena to begin preparing for their upcoming show at UNC Greensboro Nov. 9-10.
“Hopefully this will pull us together and you know we all share a passion, and we all have a lot of similar goals, and we all love horses and to compete,” Whelan said.
Recovery is a long and costly process. For continued updates follow equestrian.club.wcu on Instagram. To help Over the River Farms and the WCU Equestrian Team visit their GoFundMe https://gofund.me/e1e93b39 and make a donation towards recovery efforts.
