Winds and Fires in Los Angeles

L.A. Fires

Our hearts have been heavy in watching the destruction of the fires in L.A. and seeing the loss of both property and of life. We know firsthand that evacuations are incredibly frightening and stressful, and the aftermath of an evacuation can be as stressful as the evacuation itself. So many people and animals are displaced and their world has been turned upside down.

We have fielded several phone calls from people who were looking for placement for their horses. By now most people who need to evacuate have found placement, but if you still need shelter, you can call the following:

North County: (562) 940-6898

South County: (661) 940-4191

Carret Rescue has been helping with transporting horses.

We know that several people want to help. You can call (818) 378-8995 to get information about which shelters need volunteers. Fleet of Angels has helped to get several hundreds of bales of hay to displaced horses.

The American Humane Society has also been helping take in displaced horses and other animals.

If you know of other organizations who are helping support the evacuees, please email us at info@hanaeleh.org and we can update this post with their information!

Winds in Orange County

We are so thankful that we have been safe from the fires, but we have still been dealing with 80 mph winds- to give you an example of the ferocity of these winds, these would be equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane.

Although we did what we could to prepare for the winds, at some point they were just so strong that there was very little we could do. The shelters in Venus and Andromeda’s stall completely tore out of the ground and bent the galvanized metal poles that held them up. Several of the Rubbermaid feed bins were completely torn apart (we never did find one of the lids), and all of the sand in the arena and round pen completely blew away. Much of the mulch that we just put down was blown away as well. The patio cover over by the trailer blew over, and the door to the trailer completely flew off of its hinges. We spent several hours looking for the pieces of the ranch that blew all around and into the street.

While this was frustrating and tiring, we have been very thankful that the horses are all safe and have been doing very well. We put fly masks on the horses to help protect their eyes from the dust and dirt that is flying around, and for the most part the horses just put their backs to the wind. Everyone had a great appetite, although they were a bit perturbed when their hay kept blowing around! We did put their hay in the feeder, but the winds were so strong that some of it blew away while we were taking it from the hay shed to the stalls, so we made sure to give them extra to compensate!

We put what we could back together over the week, and on Saturday we put Venus’ shelter back up- we had some extra poles for such an emergency, but not enough to put up two shelters. We decided to put Venus’ shelter up first because Star has another shelter in her paddock. Once we get new poles for her shelter and fix some of the sheet metal on her shelter, we can put that one back up. We had to cut the water line to put up the shelter because the pipe was in the way, but we were able to get that fixed immediately. Venus’ waterer was cracked when the structure came down, so right now she just has a large bucket of water and we will replace the waterer this week.

The winds also picked up the shelter in Ladybug’s stall, but we were able to get the shelter back in place with several very strong volunteers.

We also have to get a welder out to fix some of the pipes that fractured when the structures fell over, but we were able to at least cover any sharp points so the horses wouldn’t get hurt.

We are very thankful for the amazing work that everyone did at the ranch this past week- everyone worked together and we were able to get things back to normal in a very short amount of time! Things could have been so much worse, but because of everyone’s help we were able to keep all the horses safe and sound!