How cowboys and equestrians are rescuing horses from LA’s fires

As the Eaton fire blazed, Philippa and Natasha Price raced to an abandoned stable in the foothills of Altadena, Calif. Power lines fell around them, the sisters later recalled, while they sped into a restricted zone last Wednesday with a horse trailer.

The self-proclaimed “lifelong horse girls" were there to rescue six horses that were trapped in an arena which had been chained and padlocked shut. Firefighters nearby supplied bolt cutters to slice through the chains of the enclosure. One of the horses turned out to be burned and was taken to an equine hospital. It took five hours for the Prices, their father, and other helpers to evacuate the horses. Under the cover of night, they struggled to convince the stubborn, scared 1,000-pound creatures to load into the trailers.

“When horses are terrified, they’re not the most tame animals," said Philippa.

The areas affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires are home to thousands of horses, from hardscrabble backyard steeds to elite equestrian breeds. As residents have been forced to evacuate, they’ve anguished about what to take and what to leave behind. Animals have been a particular challenge, especially those that can’t fit in the back seat of a car. A fervent grassroots rescue network has sprung up to help evacuate, rehouse and rehabilitate the equine population.

While the Prices navigated an increasingly dangerous situation in Altadena, they called on multiple group texts of Los Angeles horse lovers that included “haulers"—folks with coveted horse trailers, veterinarians, animal experts, farmers, cowboys and brave civilians.

Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control has at least 10 horse trailers and has evacuated approximately 230 horses during the ongoing fires. Marcia Mayeda, its director, is happy to see the volunteer response. “If they’re going into places where they’re allowed to go, I think it’s terrific," she said.

The best way to move horses or livestock in an emergency is to drive them out in a trailer. When that’s impossible, some owners open the gates and let their animals free, writing their phone numbers in Sharpie or spray paint on their bodies or hooves to find them later. Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control does not advise letting animals loose. Locking animals up can be lethal.

Not every horse owner has an evacuation plan. Many of these horses were trapped in areas with active fires, or in hard-to-access locations. Other horses are unable or unwilling to enter a trailer. One 16-year-old girl, Kalyna Fedorowycz, rode a horse about 12 miles to safety in the Woodland Hills area when the animal would not load into a trailer.

“A lot of people that own horses don’t know how to care for horses in crisis," said the comedian Whitney Cummings, who evacuated her own horse from Sylmar and has been helping what she calls “the rescue mafia" to get other horses to safety.

One citizen who has stepped up to evacuate horses is Jacob Deutsch, a builder and developer in Beverly Hills, who has deployed his 10-horse trailer to several rescue missions, including one near Topanga Canyon with 100 horses. He said owners often contacted the volunteer haulers through social media, scrambling to reach someone “before things are completely burnt." Deutsch said a huge challenge was navigating roadblocks and fires while also taking care to stay out of the first responders’ way.

Randy Savvy, a founder of the youth-advocacy group Compton Cowboys, has also been pivotal in the rescue efforts. His organization manages horses on a three-acre ranch on historically agricultural land in Compton, with both non-profit and for-profit arms. Their motto is: “Streets raised us, horses saved us." Like Deutsch, it was Savvy’s first time getting involved in an emergency. He put up a post on social media offering his six-horse polo trailer, and the phone started ringing off the hook.

One of Savvy’s hairiest rescues happened in Sunland-Tujunga, a remote area between the Crescenta Valley and the Verdugo Mountains. Driving up the canyon in the dead of night, the power was out, roads were closed and the overpowering scent of fire filled the air. He remembers thinking, “‘Man, I feel like God gave me this truck. It’s time for me to use it the right way, to do God’s work-type s—, you know?" Working with head lamps, he and the horses’ owner painstakingly walked the three horses up to the trailer attached to his vehicle.

People have offered payment to these volunteers, but they say they decline. Some efforts, such as those of the Compton Cowboys, are supported by donations. “I’m doing this out of the love of my heart," said Savvy. “I just want to make sure you’re good, your horse is good."

Deutsch, the developer, has brought animals to his own property in Beverly Hills, as well as to the Camarillo area. The public Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Griffith Park, which is the main equine evacuation area, has taken in 200 to 300 horses in addition to the approximately 500 that already board there. (They’ve also taken in pigs, donkeys and a mini cow.)

As fire-destroyed communities are looted, some raised the specter of horses being stolen in the chaos. “This horse theft thing is a wild west situation," said Brittany Cole Bush, who runs a grazing business in Ojai, Calif., and has been helping with rescue missions. With the highest-end racing and equestrian thoroughbreds going for well over six figures, these horses are potentially big prizes. Mayeda of Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control had not heard of these reports.

During Hurricane Katrina, most horses were able to be returned to their owners easily because Louisiana requires horses to be microchipped when they’re tested for equine infectious anemia. It’s still rare in California for horses to be tagged with microchips, so many of the evacuated or freed horses are unidentified.

Meanwhile, thousands of displaced horses need to be boarded, fed and cared for. “Horses are the most expensive domesticated animal to own, by far," said Bush. Aside from four-figure monthly boarding costs, which in many cases are being waived for now, feed can run up to $500 per month for one horse, plus shoeing, which is about $200 every six weeks. Alfalfa hay is the standard feed, caretakers say, but horses used to orchard grass and supplements may get colic and even die if fed new diets.

Tahlia Fischer, the founder of Bakersfield nonprofit All Seated in a Barn, is one of the people who’s stepping up to provide that feed. In 72 hours, over $47,000 in donations were made to her organization to provide feed, which she’s distributing to evacuation centers.

The public Los Angeles Equestrian Center has taken in 200 to 300 horses in addition to the approximately 500 that already board there.

Winds have kicked up again this week. Mayeda warned that if the Eaton fire blows east, it would go to the San Gabriel Valley, another area full of horses. Those horses would probably be evacuated to the Pomona Fairplex, she said.

Meanwhile, the displaced horses’ owners are often preoccupied with getting their own basic needs met. But for horse people, there’s no delineation between human life and animal life.

Philippa Price, one of the sisters who rescued the Altadena horses, bought a house in that area in 2024 to be near the equine community. When the Eaton fire broke out last week, her neighborhood was, as she put it, “obliterated." She believes her home to be lost. “We don’t really know the full extent of the damage, but I immediately thought of the horses," she said.

The county of Los Angeles gets a bad rap, said Savvy of the Compton Cowboys, “for being a very individualist, ego, selfish, clout-chasing community where everybody’s in it for themselves. But I think this disaster has shown that not to be true."

“The horse people, they don’t play, man," he said.