Living With Wildfire: A Nevada Horse Owner’s Guide to Fire Season

Unfortunately, wildfires are a part of living in Nevada. Hundreds of wildfires occur throughout the state each year. Years of dry conditions and the spread of invasive plants like cheatgrass have left the state particularly vulnerable to dangerous fire seasons. Often crews are able to knock wildfires down quickly, but when conditions are poor they can become especially devestating, burning millions of acres, prompting evacuations, and destroying structures.

No matter where you live in Nevada, if you have horses it is important to consider and plan for wildfires. A regular person can throw a go-bag in the car in five minutes. A horse owner may need to hook up a trailer, catch and load several animals, coordinate additional trailers, find somewhere that can accept them, and then find a way out. If you have horses, your evacuation timeline starts earlier than your neighbors. Here is a Nevada horse owner’s guide to fire season:

Make Your Horse Evacuation Plan Before You Need It

During a wildfire is the worst time to start thinking about how to evacuate. And, “I’ll just load them up if I have to” isn’t really a evacuation plan at all. It takes time to load horses, decide where to take them, and navigate road closures – all while animals and people are frightened, flames and smoke are barreling toward you, and all your neighbors are trying to do the same thing. Before fire season starts, sit down and consider:

• How many horses can your trailer can safely haul? What is your plan if you own more horses than you have trailer spaces?
• Do all your horses load realiably? An evacuation is not the time to teach a horse to load.
• Where are possible evacuation destinations? These can be private properties, community livestock shelters, etc.
• What if you are at work, traveling, or unable to get home? Identify someone in advance who can evacuate your horses and make sure they know where all your stuff is!
• Physically stand outside on your property and ask yourself, “If I had ten minutes and couldn’t get the horses out, where would I put them?

When wildfire season does kick off, you can ramp up your preps by:

• Keep your truck fuelued up.
• Keep your trailer accessible and ready to hook up. Don’t let it get blocked by equipment, hay, or other obstacles.
• Coordinate evacuation plans with surrounding horse-owning neighbors.
• Keep halters and lead ropes where they’re immediately accessible.
• Keep current photos and identifying information for every horse.
• Keep veterinary records and medications together and accessible.
• Have several days of feed, buckets, and basic supplies ready to travel.

Don’t Wait Too Long to Leave

You don’t have to wait for an official evacuation order. If fire activity is increasing nearby and you have the ability to safely relocate your horses before an evacuation order is issued, consider doing so. Moving horses takes time. Waiting until roads are backed up, visibility is poor, or an evacuation becomes mandatory can put you, your animals, and emergency responders in greater danger. When it comes to livestock, leaving early can be enormously safer and less stressful.

Remember: Always let someone know when you do evacuate. It could be a friend, family member, or random horse community aquaintance. Just let someone know so that the possibility of a missing person is not added to the load for emergency responders.

What Goes in the Horse Evacuation Kit?

Your evacuation kit also includes your truck and trailer, and that is why regular maintenance on them is so important. A mandatory wildfire evacuation order is a particularly terrible time to discover a flat spare, dead trailer battery, bad lights, or questionable tires. Those things won’t stop you from evacuating of course, but your truck and trailer should be one less thing to worry about when things get crazy.

If You Can’t Evacuate Every Horse

Wildfires can grow extremely fast or shift directions quickly. It’s a nightmare scenario but it happens: sometimes it’s simply not possible to evacuate every horse. It’s important to make the decision that will give horses the best chance at survival. That might mean turning them loose, but it could also mean sheltering them in place.

Sheltering In Place

Depending on your property, the fire behavior, fencing, surrounding fuels, and instructions from emergency personnel, it might be safer in the long run to leave horses confined on the property. If so, move them to the safest available enclosure – that could be an irrigated pasture, tree free zones or other places cleared of flammable vegetation, or a corral. Generally barns contain a lot of combustable material so avoid leaving horses in them. Give animals what they need to remain there for several days, identify each horse, and then get yourself out.

You’ll want to provide several days of feed and water. Don’t assume that automatic waterers will still work. Power and wells can and do got out in fires. Fill as many large troughs as you can. Be thoughtful about where you put feed. Hay is highly combustible. Try to put feed away from the primary safety zone, while still being accessible for the horse.

Make sure every horse can be identified. That might mean painting your phone number directly onto the horse’s body or hooves, or braiding in a tag into their manes, or even a permanent microchip. You should also have current photographs showing each horse’s distinguishing features and markings.

Tell authorities that horses remain on the property. Police, fire, and animal services agencies will be stretched thin, overwhelmed, and busy, but it is important to let them know anyway. Don’t assume you’ll be allowed back in. Once an area is under an evacuation order, access may be restricted for hours or days. Never bypass a roadblock or re-enter an evacuation zone without authorization.

Turning Horses Loose

Turning horses loose from their normal enclosure can expose them to traffic, firefighters and emergency vehicles, fencing they don’t recognize, and the fire itself. It may also make them extremely difficult to locate afterward. Still – sometimes it is the best option to give animals a chance of survival.

If you must turn a horse loose, make sure they can be identified. Write your phone number on the horse with livestock-safe paint/marker, attach identification securely to the mane, or use another temporary ID method. Photograph both sides of the horse, plus distinctive markings, scars, brands, whorls and markings on the face and legs. Keep registration, brand inspection, and/or microchip information available as proof of ownership. Don’t leave halters on unless they are breakable, and if you do, NEVER leave a lead rope attached.

If you turn animals loose, notify emergency personnel and animal services. Tell them how many horses were released, where they were last seen, their descriptions, and your contact information.

(Note from the author: We keep I.C.E. UltraLite clips on hand for this exact scenario and that is why we stock them in our online store!!)

Where to Get Reliable Information

Misinformation can spread almost as fast as a wildfire. It is important to get up-to-date information from reliable and official sources. Before the fire season, you should bookmark your local county emergency alert systems, local sheriff/fire agencies, and:

There are also several horse-related Facebook groups throughout Nevada for information on community-organized livestock evacuation efforts, temporary boarding and shelters, and supply/donation drives. But please remember that user submitted information may be unreliable.