RODEO RIDER AND HORSE KILLED BY LIGHTNING STRIKE IN NEBRASKA LAST WEEK
Lightning is one of those fascinating and dangerous things that everyone knows about. Most of us see dozens of flashes every year, sometimes even in a single afternoon. I had to jump out of a pool just the other day after a flash in the distance got the lifeguard’s attention. So I’m certainly familiar with lightning like anyone is. I’ve heard a strike in the distance, even felt the sound wave. But I’ve never really been close to, or seen lightning strike close. I know it’s a powerful phenomenon, as I’ve seen shattered trees on country drives, and I’ve heard many a story of course. But I’ve never heard of someone riding their horse killed by a lightning strike like one just did to a rodeo rider in Nebraska.
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TERREL VINEYARD WAS RIDING HIS HORSE IN AN OPEN AREA CHECKING ON CATTLE WHEN LIGHTNING STRUCK
The rodeo rider and competitor’s name is Terrel Vineyard. The competition veteran was out on his horse checking on cattle on June 21st near Oshkosh when they were struck by a bolt of lightning. Officials arrived at the scene after getting a call about the strike at 2 PM and found the 27-year-old Vineyard was dead from the blast. And the horse he rode in on, as well. This is a scary, intensely random way to die, to say the least. Lightning isn’t predictable at all, beyond knowing it tends to hit objects that attract electricity, and usually higher than not. This is why lightning rods are prominently placed at the top of structures, to channel all that power into the ground.
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RODEO RIDER IS NOW THE 6TH FATAL LIGHTNING STRIKE IN U.S. THIS YEAR SO FAR, NEBRASKA’S 1ST
But when lightning strikes people, it is often -though not always- deadly. It doesn’t happen all that often, either. Between 2013 and 2022, only 223 people in the United States have been killed by a lightning strike like this poor rodeo rider riding in an open area in rural Nebraska. In this current year, he marks the 6th fatal lightning strike in the US, and the only one in Nebraska so far. But Vineyard’s death feels even more random, as there was only a 30% chance of thunderstorms the afternoon he died. He leaves behind a wife and their 3 daughters.
