Helpful Tips - Volume 16, Number 3, July 1998
UC Davis
Horses and fire danger
The heavy rains from El Nino resulted in a lush grass cover on the west coast. As the grasses dry over summer, the fire danger will be acute.
Here are some tips to help horse owners prepare for and deal with the danger of fire.
1. Take photographs of your horses and prepare written descriptions of each of them. Put these in a safe place such as a bank safe deposit
box, away from where the horses are kept, so that you can provide identification information to animal control personnel should your horses
become lost or separated from you in a major fire.
2. Place an identification tag on the horse itself with the horse’s name, your name, address and phone number. Cattle ear tags can be
secured around the horse’s neck and the information written with an indelible ink pen, or write the information on a piece of duct tape and place it
on the halter.
3. Make sure that all your horse transporting equipment is well maintained and ready to be used on a moment’s notice and be sure your
horses are well schooled in trailer and/or van loading.
4. You should have a halter and lead rope readily available for every horse. There won’t be time for a return trip
5. Plan for an alternate exit on foot with your horses if roads are blocked by fire.
6. Keep the area around your barns and corrals well cleared of brush and other combustible materials (at least 30 feet).
7. If you must evacuate your horses from a burning barn, close the stall and/or barn doors after you exit. Panicking horses have been known
to run back into their stalls if they get loose during a fire. In major fast moving barn fires where a lot of horses are involved, you may have to lead
the horses out of the barn and turn them loose if as many as possible are to be saved.
8. If your horse is burned in a fire, you should seek veterinary medical attention for that animal as soon as possible. A burn is always a
serious medical condition, regardless of how it initially appears. Burns to large areas of the skin allow for easy bacterial invasion of the body and
seriously burned animals usually have damage to their respiratory tract due to smoke inhalation. Often, the respiratory damage is the eventual
cause of death in severe burn patients.
9. Do not treat your horse with any topical preparations if it has been burned before your veterinarian arrives. The wrong choice of treatment
may do more harm than good.
10. Take the time to make a plan for what to do in the event of a fire. Discuss the plan with everyone on the farm or at the stables, so that
everyone knows what to do. There won’t be time to figure it out once the fire starts.
UC Davis
Horses and fire danger
The heavy rains from El Nino resulted in a lush grass cover on the west coast. As the grasses dry over summer, the fire danger will be acute.
Here are some tips to help horse owners prepare for and deal with the danger of fire.
1. Take photographs of your horses and prepare written descriptions of each of them. Put these in a safe place such as a bank safe deposit
box, away from where the horses are kept, so that you can provide identification information to animal control personnel should your horses
become lost or separated from you in a major fire.
2. Place an identification tag on the horse itself with the horse’s name, your name, address and phone number. Cattle ear tags can be
secured around the horse’s neck and the information written with an indelible ink pen, or write the information on a piece of duct tape and place it
on the halter.
3. Make sure that all your horse transporting equipment is well maintained and ready to be used on a moment’s notice and be sure your
horses are well schooled in trailer and/or van loading.
4. You should have a halter and lead rope readily available for every horse. There won’t be time for a return trip
5. Plan for an alternate exit on foot with your horses if roads are blocked by fire.
6. Keep the area around your barns and corrals well cleared of brush and other combustible materials (at least 30 feet).
7. If you must evacuate your horses from a burning barn, close the stall and/or barn doors after you exit. Panicking horses have been known
to run back into their stalls if they get loose during a fire. In major fast moving barn fires where a lot of horses are involved, you may have to lead
the horses out of the barn and turn them loose if as many as possible are to be saved.
8. If your horse is burned in a fire, you should seek veterinary medical attention for that animal as soon as possible. A burn is always a
serious medical condition, regardless of how it initially appears. Burns to large areas of the skin allow for easy bacterial invasion of the body and
seriously burned animals usually have damage to their respiratory tract due to smoke inhalation. Often, the respiratory damage is the eventual
cause of death in severe burn patients.
9. Do not treat your horse with any topical preparations if it has been burned before your veterinarian arrives. The wrong choice of treatment
may do more harm than good.
10. Take the time to make a plan for what to do in the event of a fire. Discuss the plan with everyone on the farm or at the stables, so that
everyone knows what to do. There won’t be time to figure it out once the fire starts.
Joe's Thoughts -
Horses released onto the public roadways are very likely to be struck by emergency vehicles due to visibilities
being reduced by smoke. At the very least, they will block the road or driveways and may panic and injure fire
fighting personal (Our friends and neighbors). In addition, evacuation from the Morgan Territory area by horse
trailers will slow or prevent fire equipment from arriving on scene. The horses at Rocking Z Stables are in dirt
paddocks with plenty of room to move around. There are no guaranties, but the safest place for your horse is right
where they are. If they're in the barn, in an emergency they can be moved to any paddock or to the sand arena.
Horses & Wildland Fires
Rocking Z Stables