  Be Prepared so Your Horses Stay Safe this Fire Season Nicole Chastain Price, who has had to evacuate horses seven times in her years as a barn manager, rider, owner, and trainer, has good advice for us, especially after yet another evacuation during the recent Drum Fire from her lovely facility at Pence Winery in Buellton: “The most important advice in fire season—don’t panic. Have a plan. Make sure your horses are TRAINED TO LOAD! I sent horses who knew each other together and to places I knew they would be in stalls and safe. The chaos of evacuating happens when you let horses get taken by just anyone and have no control of the pen, hay, etc. I’ve seen so many horses get hurt through chaotic evacuations that I’ve always vowed it would never happen here.” |
| Here is how Nicole advises us to prepare for fire season: Have a plan outlining where you will take horses in both directions so you can move away from and not into the path of the fire. Make sure all halters are labeled with a tag showing the owner’s name and phone number, and that all halters are easily found on stall doors or near pastures gates. Have a supply of wax crayons on hand in case you need to write owner information directly on the horses in case of emergency. (Remember that nylon halters will melt and burn horses in a fire.) Have someone recording information on which trailer took which horse and all needed contact information. Make sure horses are loaded in appropriate trailers—given the horses at our facility we needed all warmblood-sized rigs. We also had the foresight and time to boot all horses appropriately before putting them on the trailers. Make sure someone is in charge at the receiving end to settle horses in and make sure they get correct feed. Have a plan for moving tack. We had owners with trailers on site as soon as we heard “Fire,” and had so many volunteers show up with trailers we could have evacuated two tack rooms. We chose not to, as firefighters thought our barns were secure by that time. But just to be prepared, I have all of my clients keep smaller essentials inside a carrying case with wheels and a handle, so my tack rooms are super organized and can be cleared quickly in case of a fire. |
