TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
Angela Baugh pets Cassini's Angel, a competitive show jumper, at Del Mar Fairgrounds on Saturday in Del Mar, Calif. The facility has taken in around 900 horses displaced by wildfires.
With dozens killed and hundreds others injured, horses across the region have become victims of the raging wildfires engulfing southern California, but people who love the animals are uniting in a widespread rescue effort.
Trainers risked their lives to release their horses into a trailer — or the wild — if it meant giving the animals a fighting chance at survival.
Fire evacuees didn’t know if they would have a farm to return to, but many already knew where to go: Del Mar Fairgrounds.
San Diego County farmers established the site in the 1930s at the mouth of the San Dieguito River for a county fairgrounds. Soon after, the Del Mar Turf Club leased the racetrack to host horse races, according to the fairgrounds website.
Amid the blazes, the old fairgrounds has become a refuge for horses and a gathering place for hundreds of volunteers who want to help.
A groundswell of support
Organizations in and out-of-state have donated supplies ranging from food, drink and medical supplies for humans and horses alike.
Volunteer Coordinator George Bradvica’s job is to keep the calm amid what many have described as tragedy and chaos.
For days now, he’s been in charge of telling hundreds of people with different sets of skills where they’re needed most while ensuring every admitted horse is accounted for and tended to.
But Bradvica maintains that the overwhelming support makes his work a breeze.
“I hate to say this because it sounds Pollyannish, but the willingness, the cooperation, the love of horses, the desire to help in a critical situation makes it so easy,” Bradvica said. “It’s so easy — all I have to do is ask.”
Bradvica said the fairgrounds officials turned to social media, asking locals to help them prepare for the impending stampede.
About 175 volunteers showed up on Thursday to welcome the roughly 900 horses that arrived. Another 300 arrived on Friday, Bradvica said.
“The outpouring has been unbelievable,” he said.
David Calbert, a volunteer taking a break from unloading bales of hay, said social media was instrumental during the evacuation process.
“Facebook is actually a really big tool in this entire process because you have people with horses and people with trailers on Facebook, posting, ‘Who needs help? When do you need help?’ and posting locations,” he said. “So if people have a trailer that they don’t need to use they’ll go pick up people’s horses and bring them here.”
Mei Mei Zhu, a professional rider who competes internationally, said drivers with horse trailers poured into her farm after she asked for help on her local Facebook page. Her colleague called a friend with a semi-truck designed for transporting horses, however, so Zhu redirected other drivers to nearby desperate farmers seeking help.
‘Can’t say enough good things’
Horses of different breeds and sizes were stabled in Del Mar.
But many owners offered a single sentiment — shock at the overwhelming wave of support from strangers.
Britt Harley, a trainer at Mountain Meadow Farm in Escondido, said volunteers took care of nearly everything without her having to lift a finger.
“I can’t say enough good things about how Del Mar has handled everything,” Harley said.
Volunteers ensured the horses were groomed, hydrated and fed with donated feed worth thousands of dollars.
When Rancho Dos Palmas — a stable with 45 horses and only 20 trailers — needed help evacuating, Demi O’Brien, said a fleet of volunteers answered her call for aid.
“To use the best phrase, in about 40 minutes it looked like ‘Field of Dreams,’ ” O’Brien said. “I just can’t imagine how good it felt to see all these horse trailers, all of a sudden, turn into that property and pick up our horses and just be there for us.”
O’Brien described volunteers spanning numerous counties preparing stalls with water and bedding to offer some relief to the frazzled horses.
“They always say that horse people are crazy,” she said. “They are, but just, they’re crazy awesome. I just can’t even say enough about them.”
Triage amid the trauma
Natasha Lefkowitz, a veterinarian with the San Diego Humane Society, said her staff treated horses with cuts and abdominal pain.
But anxiety, she said, was the most rampant injury.
“The problem when they get really nervous is a lot of them don’t drink, so that’s why we’re sedating them to try to get the nervous system down a little bit so they’ll eat and drink,” Lefkowitz.
Lefkowitz, who said she’s working with around 20 other vets, said disease was the greatest danger to the evacuated horses.
“I think biosecurity is going to become more and more of a concern,” she said. “So what we’re trying to do is limit the amount of people going back to the barns because people are going back, they’re feeding, they’re petting horses.”
“We’re worried about transfer of diseases. We’re about unvaccinated horses that are going to spread diseases to other horses,” she said.
Horses with severe burns or requiring surgery were transported to nearby animal hospitals for treatment.