Page 1 of 1

Barn fire-Update on horse

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 2:30 am
by goldhorse
I tend to not read barn fire stories because they're so heartbreaking. Today, it happened to me. End of story first: Barn ok, no one hurt, all horses ok.

I was finishing up barn chores today and noticed that some horses at the end of the barn were agitated. I looked out the end of the barn and saw strangers with hoses and I thought WTF, that's strange? So I peaked my head out and saw the barn help's trailer engulfed in flames. A total loss. It sits on a hillside near the barn and under many trees. This is in N. California in drought/wildfire territory so could have quickly engulfed the barn. I turned right around and yelled, "fire, get the horses out."

We immediately started pulling horses out of stalls. Geldings went into the arena and mares went into a turnout far away from the barn. 2 horses are nutcases so they went into the end stalls far away from the fire and got heavy doses of Ace but were easily evacuable if needed.

So purpose of this post:

1) Have a plan. I can't stress this enough. My trainer and I rehearse evacuation plans every time we drive to UC Davis. Usually, these involve wildfires which would have been a different scenario than today. Today, was just get the horses the F*** out of the barn

2) Every horse needs to have a halter and lead rope that functions. I had so much trouble today with the halters with the throat latch clips. I'm not used to putting the halter over the ears and then doing the throat latch. Not my thing. And sh!tty lead ropes. Come on? Also one horse had a halter that barely fit.

3) Even if you're just a boarder like me, have an idea of which horses are ok for someone to handle and which are @$$holes. I ended up directing traffic so I had to make the decisions for which horses could go out together.

4) Strangers show up out of nowhere. They want to help. See #3

5) Thank your firefighters. Bow to them. Kiss their feet.

6) 9 months of rehab probably down the drain. But heck, he's alive.

Re: Barn fire-Nothing bad happened

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 4:45 am
by heddylamar
Aaaaah scary. So glad it ended well!

Every time I read about a barn fire, I think about adding sprinklers to our future barn.

Re: Barn fire-Nothing bad happened

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 1:33 pm
by Tuddy
Glad everyone is okay! and I hope the rehab isn't a loss....

Re: Barn fire-Nothing bad happened

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 4:23 pm
by PhoenixRising
So happy everyone is safe! How scary!

Re: Barn fire-Nothing bad happened

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 2:23 pm
by angela9823
Was this a trailer that someone lives in or horse trailer? If horse trailer, I'd add check the brakes to that list. I saw a report recently where horse trailers were having more fires due to brakes dragging creating friction.

Very happy to hear this ended well and good words of advice!

Re: Barn fire-Nothing bad happened

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 3:56 pm
by goldhorse
Barn hand's living trailer.

Re: Barn fire-Nothing bad happened

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 5:00 am
by Quelah
Just saw this post, haven’t been on board in a while. I was listening to the scanner when this was happening (I’m on the BoD of a local fire district and have gotten to be a bit of a radio addict). I was so relieved to hear it was “just” employee trailer. I’d already called some friends with the “shit there’s a lot of horses over that way, let’s get rolling” It originally dispatched as a vegatation fire so I had visions of hills on fire.

I’m glad you and yours are safe and I will jingle, sound. All good lessons learned. Very good point about the throat buckle halters. I’ll add to that, since a year ago I was catching my own horses up the middle off the night as fire was coming on to our property, if you only always do crown over ears then snap throat latch and the ears are snapped hard forward at the approaching fire and the horse is tall (#Shires) it can be bloody difficult to get the halter on even if they’re being perfectly behaved and totally reasonable given the situation ( again #Shires ). Our fire likewise turned out ok, we got a great bar story out of it. Maybe when fire season is over this year (sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas if it’s like last year) I’ll put the whole thing to paper so to speak.

Re: Barn fire-Nothing bad happened

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 3:21 pm
by goldhorse
Much as I would like to meet you in person, Quelah, let's hope it happens at a horse show or bar or non-event :lol: And a big thank you to all your friends preparing to haul us out. Seeing the water copter on the ridge made it all too real. We dodged a bullet.
Horse has been on walk only since the fire. Recheck is on Wednesday. I'll post the outcome of that. In the meantime, found a horse to look at in Washington. Enablers are welcome.

Re: Barn fire-Nothing bad happened

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 2:25 am
by piedmontfields
I appreciate you sharing this info and perspective, goldhorse. Fire is just super scary.

Re: Barn fire-Update on horse

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 3:02 pm
by goldhorse
After a long day at UC Davis, it was determined that his stifle suffered no damage from the big gelding party indicating that it's healed. Got the ok to go back to work!!!!!! We may be able to get one show in this fall for his para rider. And the outpouring of support for our barn hand has been amazing.

Re: Barn fire-Update on horse

Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 11:50 pm
by Chisamba
Glad horse is ok

Re: Barn fire-Update on horse

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2018 3:38 am
by Moutaineer
Nice to have some good news, Goldhorse!