Each year, hurricanes, wildfires, and severe storms force thousands across the country to evacuate their homes. When preparing for a potential natural disaster, it is best to follow the adage of “expect the best but prepare for the worst.” Taking the time now to make an emergency and natural disaster preparedness plan for your family—including your horses and other animals—can be lifesaving.

Startling Natural Disaster Statistics

According to a survey conducted by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), more than one in five pet owners (including horses) have evacuated their homes due to a disaster situation, and of those evacuees, nearly half have left at least one pet behind at the time of evacuation.

Of those who left at least one pet behind, nearly 30 percent cited not having enough time when the disaster struck as their reasoning for doing so, further emphasizing the need to prepare for an emergency in advance.

“We want to remind horse owners to always bring your horses and other animals with you if you need to evacuate,” says Christie Schulte Kappert, senior director of ASPCA Equine Welfare. “Leaving a horse or pet behind can expose them to numerous life-threatening hazards, including the inability to escape the impending emergency—such as flood waters, fires, and high winds—as well as having no access to fresh food and water for an unknown period.”

Horse Preparedness Before the Disaster

Your horses should be as equally prepared for a disaster emergency as your facility. The ASPCA’s Christie Shulte Kappert makes the following recommendations to ensure their readiness:

◆ Horses should be accustomed to wearing a halter.
◆ Practice loading on a trailer during calm conditions so horses are on autopilot during an emergency.
◆ Horses should be accustomed to being handled by strangers.
◆ Work with your neighbors or barn mates to practice loading each other’s horses so they are used to multiple types of trailers and handlers.

Horse Identification

In the case that you and your horse become separated during an evacuation, you will need to mark him with some sort of identification so you can be reunited later.

According to Schulte Kappert, microchips become a vital lifeline after times of disaster or other unforeseen events.

Once a chip is implanted, be certain to register it with the microchip’s manufacturer, as without registration, the microchip is not linked to any useful data. If you purchase a microchipped horse, be sure to update the personal contact info.

If microchipping is not an option, in an emergency Schulte Kappert recommends braiding an ID clip or luggage tag into your horse’s mane or tail or painting your phone number on his side with non-toxic paint.

In instances where microchipping is not available, tattoos can make a good second choice during non-emergency situations.

Emergency Kit

The ASPCA recommends that the following items be included in your natural disaster or emergency preparedness kit:

◆ Contact information for yourself and a confirmed emergency caretaker.
◆ Addresses and directions to local or regional sheltering options.
◆ Tack/equipment checklist, extra lead ropes, and extra halters.
◆ Veterinary records, including a current Coggins.
◆ Paperwork proving your ownership of your horse (branding papers, microchip registration, photos).
◆ A seven- to 10-day supply of feed, medications, and water and clean buckets.
◆ An equine first-aid kit that includes items like bandages, bandage scissors, and any necessary medications.

Faster Response Time

Severe weather events are stressful and scary for people and animals.

“Owners should create an emergency plan customized to their animals, location, facility and the likely scenarios that will cause an emergency; wildfire preparation is very different than a hurricane,” says Schulte Kappert. “Having a plan for your area’s possible scenario(s) will help you stay calm and act swiftly when the emergency arrives. Reach out to your county’s emergency management office or extension agents to follow guidelines about the disasters they plan to encounter and how to respond.”

For example, she says that many counties have designated fairgrounds as emergency shelters; you can use this type of information in creating your plan.

Working Together

Working together with your neighbors can also be extremely helpful. Schulte Kappert further recommends creating a phone tree/buddy system with other nearby horse owners and local farms.

Consider teaming up with other horse owners to pool your resources, including sharing trailer space and hay, and share your evacuation plans in advance.

“This is especially important for owners who board at a public facility or don’t own a trailer,” she says. “If you board, check with the stable owner about their emergency management plans and make sure you and your horse are prepared to respond accordingly.”

Schulte Kappert also recommends having a plan in place in the event you are away from home when evacuation orders are issued.

“Identify an emergency caretaker for your horse and other animals in advance and provide them with your plan,” she says.

Trailer Preparations

Another part of your emergency natural disaster preparedness plan should include making certain that your trailer is ready for transport at any time. Any time you may need to haul your horse, it’s important to inspect your trailer and its tire pressure, brake battery, and safety chains or cables.

It’s critical to have a trailer big enough for all your equines, including a place to tether them inside. If you have advance notice of an impending disaster, hook up your trailer ahead of time.

Act Swiftly

Whether it is you or a caretaker, it’s important to act promptly once evacuation orders have been announced. Schulte Kappert advises planning as if you may not be allowed to return home for at least seven to 10 days. She says that you should follow the instructions of local and state officials and evacuate as soon as possible, as it may take additional time to load your horses, other animals, and supplies.

Emergency and natural disaster preparedness does not have to be a daunting task. Instead, having a plan in place can help to make an emergency less frightening for everyone.

Emergency and Natural Disaster Preparedness with Horses: Key Takeaway

Natural disasters can strike without warning, and preparedness is essential to ensuring the safety of both your family and your horses. By taking proactive steps now to create a comprehensive emergency plan for your animals, you can minimize the risks and stress that come with facing a crisis. Stay informed, stay prepared, and stay safe.

This article about horse emergency and natural disaster preparedness appeared in the September 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Emergency and Natural Disaster Preparedness with Horses appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

In the ninth episode of The Horse Illustrated Episode of Horses in the Morning, sponsored by Title Sponsor Straight Arrow Products, hosts Glenn the Geek and Sarah Evers Conrad chat with Julie Atwood, founder of the HALTER Project, which provides resources and training to help animal owners be prepared for disasters and common emergencies. And Shelley Paulson shares her adventures as an equestrian photographer who is commonly featured in Horse Illustrated and other publications. And Dale Rudin talks about horse training and attending and getting the most out of horse clinics.

Hosts: Sarah Conrad, Digital Content Editor of Horse Illustrated & Young Rider and Glenn the Geek, host of Horses in the Morning

Title Sponsor: Straight Arrow Family of Brands

There’s an App for that!  Check out the new Horse Radio Network app for iPhone and Android. Follow Horse Radio Network on Twitter or follow Horses In The Morning on Facebook.

Julie Atwood, founder and director of The HALTER Project

Julie Atwood is the founder and director of The HALTER Project, which was founded in 2014 to fill a regional need in California’s Northern and Bay areas for information, resources and training to help animal owners be prepared for disasters, as well as common emergencies. This small, grassroots effort is now a global program. HALTER Project provides extensive, free education and outreach resources to organizations, agencies, and individuals. It offers trainings for scholarships to firefighters, search-and-rescue and accountable care organizations, veterinarians, and volunteer animal disaster and advanced technical rescue responders.

The HALTER Project “All Species, All Hazards, All Safe” whole-community approach and attention to under-resourced areas has garnered two FEMA Individual and Community Preparedness Awards. Their semi-annual Home & Ranch Readiness event is the subject of a feature TV documentary, and www.HALTERproject.org is a widely-used resource for animal owners, stable and sanctuary managers, teachers, and community leaders.

Atwood is a lifelong horsewoman and cat-lover in Sonoma County, Calif. She’s a serial entrepreneur with careers in home design, event planning, and philanthropy.

Additional Information: For more on disaster planning from Horse Illustrated, visit When Disaster Strikes.

Disaster Planning Resources  for Equine Owners

◆ Official Website: www.halterproject.org
◆ Equine Rescue and Sanctuary Owner Preparedness Resources
◆ Your LOCAL (County) Animal Control Agency
◆ Your County’s Farm Bureau
◆ Your County’s Agriculture  Commissioner
◆ Extension Equine U
◆ American Association of Equine Practitioners’ Owner Emergency and Disaster Preparedness
◆ American Veterinary Medical Association’s Disaster Preparedness Section
◆ Fleet of Angels
◆ UC Davis Center for Equine Health “Horse Report”
◆ University of Kentucky’s Equine Emergency and Disaster Preparedness Resource
◆ University of Guelph’s Equine Guelph Equine First Aid and Fire & Emergency Preparedness Courses

Equestrian Photographer Shelley Paulson

Shelley Paulson is an award-winning commercial and editorial equestrian photographer based in Minnesota. She has combined her deep love of horses with her passion for creating heartfelt, meaningful images to create a thriving full-time career as both a photographer and educator. Her work has been published worldwide and can be seen in various equestrian publications and in advertising for major equine brands such as Horse Illustrated, Western Horseman, Nutrena, and Farnam.

Additional Information: All of Shelley’s articles and photo stories can be found here, including the article on the Wild Ponies of Chincoteague and Assateague Islands discussed in the episode. Check out some of Shelley’s award-winning shots for Horse Illustrated from the 2021 American Horse Publications (AHP) Awards and the 2020 AHP Awards. And meet Shelley’s new horse, who has her own Instagram page.

Links for Shelley Paulson

◆ Website: www.shelleypaulson.com
◆ Equine Stock Photo Library: https://shelleypaulsonstock.com
◆ Shelley Paulson Education: www.shelleypaulsoneducation.com
◆ Shelley’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/shelleypaulsonphotography

Horse Trainer, Clinician, and Nutritionist Dale Rudin on Attending Horse Clinics

Dale Rudin is the founder of Pure Joy Horsemanship, a welfare-centered, evidence-based, and holistic approach to equine education and care, and Pure Joy Horse Haven, a sanctuary and rehabilitation program for horses who have suffered physical and emotional trauma and abuse. She is the co-founder of Force Free Tennessee, a consumer resource for compassionate animal training and care professionals. Dale is also a Certified Horsemanship Association certified riding instructor, a certified equine nutritionist, and a member of the Pet Professional Guild. She has been working with horses and the humans who love them for over 35 years and offers in-person and remote instruction and consultations in nutrition, equine wellness, saddle fit, behavior, and rehabilitation.

Additional Information: For more on disaster planning from Horse Illustrated, visit When Disaster Strikes.

Links:

◆ Official Websites: www.Purejoyhorsemanship.com and www.Purejoyhorsehaven.org
◆ www.facebook.com/PureJoyHorsemanship
◆ www.instagram.com/purejoyhorsemanship

Title Sponsor

We want to thank our Title Sponsor, the Straight Arrow Family of Brands, makers of Mane ‘n Tail, Cowboy Magic & Exhibitor’s, with over 100 years of grooming excellence. For more information about your favorite products, please visit www.straightarrowinc.com and find Straight Arrow Products at a tack shop near you!

The post Podcast Episode #9: The HALTER Project, Equestrian Photographer Shelley Paulson, and Attending Horse Clinics for January 25, 2022 from Title Sponsor Straight Arrow Products appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

For horse lovers in Southern California, December 7, 2017 was a tough day. A video showing flames tearing through the San Luis Rey Downs racehorse training center in Bonsall was all over Facebook, showing frantic grooms and trainers desperately trying to save scores of panicked horses while the wind whipped and the air was thick with smoke.

In the end, 35 horses died in the fire, and one trainer was burned over 50 percent of her body trying to rescue them. It took days after the fire had passed to locate all of the surviving horses, some of which had escaped to the surrounding wilderness.

Just a few months before, Hurricane Irma had torn through Florida, threatening not only humans but the many horses that live in the southern part of the state. Unable to evacuate north because the storm was predicted to strike there too, many horse owners were forced to shelter in place during the event, hoping their horses would survive the 150 mph winds.

The lesson horse owners learned during both of these tragedies was that disaster planning is crucial. If you think it can never happen to you, think again. Planning for disasters that can happen any time, can benefit your horses, life, and farm.

Planning for Fire

One disaster that horse owners can start planning and prepare for are fires. Horse owner Carrie Garufis of Orange, Calif., watched on September 25, 2017 as a fire burned in the nearby hills of Corona. A week later, the incident prompted Garufis and the other boarders at her community stable to get together to come up with a plan in case a fire threatened their stable. In early October, they were forced to put that plan into place.

“We thought we were prepared,” says Garufis. “Boy, were we surprised by what we missed.”

When news hit that another fire had started in the same place as the September 25 blaze, people at Garufis’ barn started hooking up their trailers.

“Some thought those people were being over-reactive, but when the winds whipped the fire at us faster than any of us imagined, the people who hooked up were ready to evacuate,” she says. “The first round of evacuations went smoothly, but coming back to get the horses left behind was severely hampered, as streets were getting clogged with traffic, including many horse trailers.”

Forced evacuations kept some trailers from returning to pick up horses, so people had to walk or ride their horses to an area to get picked up.

“One stable mate’s horse was picked up by an unknown good Samaritan and taken to an unknown stable,” says Garufis. “We ended up with 12 of our horses in a Trader Joe’s parking lot beyond the evacuation line while we worked at finding a location to get them to.”

Victoria Beelik of Santa Paula, Calif., an equine disaster planner and the author of Plan, Prepare, Implement: A Planning Guide to Safety, warns of the problem Garufis and her stable mates encountered that October day.

“The biggest issue horse owners deal with during a brushfire threat is being able to determine when they are truly threatened,” she says. “Many times, people hear of the fire and know the direction of the winds, but still deny that their property or boarding facility is at risk.”

According to Beelik, once horse owners realize there is a problem, the fire is too close. This causes panic, which transfers to the horses. This frenzy also creates a chain reaction of events.

“Last minute evacuations create panic, which panics the animals,” she says. “By the time they realize they need to leave, both animals and people are being exposed to dangerous smoke and ash. They also interfere with emergency vehicles trying to come in and help, and they have to deal with the traffic from everyone else who waited until the last minute.”

To avoid this, Beelik recommends planning right away, before any potential fire disaster.

“Planning means to start preparing far in advance—like now,” she says. “To prepare is not to plan—it is to get ready to leave. A well-known phrase is ‘ready, set, go.’ Prepare is the ‘set’ part of this saying. If people take the time to plan properly, this allows them to stay calm and minimize panic.”

In Plan, Prepare and Implement, Beelik recommends getting started by planning your emergency contacts. This should include two or more individuals you trust to take care of your animals in case of an emergency. These people should vary in geographical area and location.

“Two should be within proximity of your animals, but should be from opposite directions,” writes Beelik. “By having friends in different directions, you increase the ability to get your animals evacuated, since emergencies usually come from different directions.”

Beelik also recommends planning routes, gathering supplies and emergency items for your horses, and having your trailer set up and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

“Planning for emergencies doesn’t have to be hard work, and can be fun if it’s done correctly,” says Beelik. “Have parties with your emergency contacts and big training days with neighbors or fellow boarders. Make it social and productive at the same time.”

Horse Disaster Planning: Hurricane Prep

Another disaster that horse owners can start planning and prepare for are hurricanes. When Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria struck U.S. coastlines last year, horses were among the most vulnerable residents. While humans can leave the area or shelter inside their homes during a hurricane, horses are harder to move and are exposed to the elements. They’re also subject to the aftermath of the storms, which can be worse than the actual event.

Sára Varsa, senior director of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) Animal Rescue Team, reports that her group experienced back-to-back deployments during Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

“The needs of the horses impacted were similar, but the logistics involved in supplying those needs were vastly different,” she says. “From Texas and Florida to Puerto Rico, the flooding and damage left behind many horses without fresh water and appropriate feed.”

According to Varsa, thousands of horses in all of these regions needed immediate forage and potable water.

“There were also horses with injuries sustained during the storms that needed immediate veterinary treatment and intervention,” she says.

Given the dangers both during and after hurricanes, it’s no wonder horses were in trouble after these tremendous storms.

“Flying debris, power outages and flooding are all concerns during and after a hurricane,” says Varsa. “If you haven’t evacuated and you’re in a position where you may see impact, ensure that your barn tools and hazardous materials are securely tied so as not to become airborne and cause injury or harm.”

If you’re in an area that floods, Varsa says to make sure your horses are not contained in those areas. Rising and fast water can trap them or, in dire situations, cause drowning.

“Power outages during and after a storm will impact wells and automatic waterers, and standing water will likely contain hazardous chemicals and debris,” she says. “Make sure your emergency plan takes into account the need for 10 to 15 gallons of fresh and available water per day per horse.”

According to Heather Davis, executive director of Equi-Health Canada, providers of equine disaster preparedness classes, horse owners living in hurricane and extreme wind-prone areas, particularly the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. and Canada, should take extra considerations when constructing shelters and barns.

“When designing or upgrading barns, resist cost-saving measures that compromise structural integrity,” she says. “Choose thicker support beams; not only on support walls, but as corner posts of stalls, to prevent complete loss in the event of a collapse. Also, locate barns and shelters on high ground in case of flooding, and assess the direction of common prevailing winds to choose orientation.”

Davis also recommends having evacuation in mind when designing, upgrading and maintaining horse properties.

“Ensure barn aisles are clear, and that stall hardware is easily manipulated by firefighters in heavy gloves,” she says. “Ensure trailers and emergency vehicles can enter and turn around easily.”

In order to be well prepared, Davis recommends knowing your local emergency evacuation routes and muster points.

“Think ahead of where you could go to get out of harm’s way if your region is hit by a hurricane,” she says. “You need a place that will be able to house livestock, since most Red Cross-type services can only support companion animals.”

Davis also suggests maintaining information packages on all the horses in your care in case you have to release them or leave them behind.

“Having proper identification, such as photos, any brand information, and heath record documentation that can be easily accessed, will assist in reuniting owners with horses after the storm,” she says.

Davis notes that horses that are difficult to catch or handle will be left behind by first responders and rescue volunteers.

“Ensure horses can be safely handled, and that there is a halter and lead line for every horse,” she says. “These must always be easily accessible to allow for quick evacuation.”

She also advises posting emergency information where it can be easily seen around barns, such as emergency contact numbers, the owner’s name and number, and evacuation plans.

When it comes to saving your horse from a disaster like a fire or a hurricane, preparation and planning is key, according to the experts.

“One reason horse owners don’t take the time to plan and prepare for emergencies is ‘it won’t happen to me’ thinking,” says Beelik. “If you live anywhere there is fire, hurricane, tornado, mudslide or flooding potential, it could happen to you.”

This article originally appeared in the September 2018 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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