Posted on 12/08/2017 8:02:24 AM PST by Red Badger
Hundreds of elite thoroughbred race horses sprinted away from flames Thursday as one of California's major wildfires tore through a training center in San Diego County.
Not all made it.
There was no official count of how many animals were killed in the hazy confusion as both horses and humans evacuated, but trainers at San Luis Rey Downs estimated that at least a dozen had died, possibly far more.
Horses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars who are usually carefully walked from place to place were simply set free and encouraged to run away as flames engulfed the center near Bonsall, which is just a few miles from where the fire broke out.
Mac McBride, who was working with the center's trainers, said it was "total pandemonium when several hundred horses were cut loose," but he believes most of the about 450 horses stabled there survived. McBride, who works at the Del Mar race track, said some horses were evacuated to the nearby track where many of them compete.
"There was so much smoke it was difficult to see," said horse trainer Dan Durham, who got his 20 horses rounded up and was loading them into vans to be evacuated. "Some of the horses were turned loose so they could be safe. They were scattered around."
San Luis Rey Downs is home to horses that run at nearby Del Mar and other top-flight California tracks like Santa Anita Park. Doug O'Neill, whose horses have won the Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup races, is among the trainers who keep at least part of their stable there.
The sign at the front calls it "Home of Azeri," the now-retired mare who was the 2002 U.S. Horse of the Year who earned over $4 million in her career.
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Kinda makes me wonder about the “break-out” fires.
No insurance issues. Azeri is not there. These were horses currently racing or being trained to race. A real tragedy. Many of them will never be able to race even if they survived. probably a lot of injuries due to them running around in a panic. Plus the damage to their lungs from the smoke. Horses are fairly delicate creatures. Thoroughbreds are really high strung and easy to injure.
There has to be a change to the rules the firemen place on situations like this. Those horses & others near Sylmar didn’t have to die such a painful death.
In Sylmar, a neighbor tried to go & release horses from corrals, and firemen would NOT let her in. 29 horses died there & one was badly burned. 3 family generations of a breeding program. That kind of loss can NOT be replaced.
Burns on quadrapeds are particularly nasty. Burns compromise their blood flow to their legs.
might affect some bug habitat as well...
I have profound sadness for all the animals involved.
This is why evacuation plans are important no matter where one lives. Years ago there was a derailment three miles from my barn and I had a dozen horses. There was a chemical spill and the prevailing winds was moving the toxic cloud towards my barn. I was able to move my horses by foot away within half an hour of the warning. If there had been a fire we could have ridden them away in time.
This fire was being driven by 50 mph winds........................
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