Healthy horse standing in pasture with environmental water conservation symbols, promoting sustainable horse keeping practices.
Helping Horse in the Path of Hurricanes & Wildfires
A wildfire with thick smoke rising behind a barn and trees, highlighting land management challenges and the importance of sustainable practices for horse owners and escape prevention.

Evacuations from widespread fire continue across the Western United States, along with hurricane evacuations and damage in the South. We hope that horses and their humans in the path of these disasters can stay safe. Here’s a few resources that may help answer immediate questions.

Wildfires

HCW Livestock Evacuation checklist and articles:

How to help horses deal with smoke from UC Davis: Wildfire Smoke and Horses
U.S. air quality monitoring, current conditions: AirNow

Wildfire status by region: 

Livestock relief and resources for disaster victims:

Hurricanes

Texas Hurricane livestock information and relief: 

Florida Hurricane livestock information and relief: FloridaHorse.com

American Association of Equine Practitioners: Hurricane relief, services, donations

Emergency Communication

Find your local fire departments, law officials, and news agencies on social media and sign up for all available alerts.

From the EPA web page: Know how to get emergency alerts and messages before you need them:

  • FEMA Wireless Emergency Alerts – FEMA works with US cell phone carriers to send free emergency texts to cell phones (that can get text messages) within range. You don’t have to sign up to receive the messages.

  • Emergency Alert System – is a public warning system that uses existing TV, radio, cable, and other systems to send critical messages to the general public. Messages are local or national, depending on the situation.

  • NOAA Weather Radio – is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information directly from the nearest National Weather Service office. NWR broadcasts official Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

To help with relief efforts, please contact a local, reputable coordinating agency. Ask before sending items or volunteering so as not to disrupt current efforts. Local food banks and animal rescues are great places to contact, in addition to The American Red Cross and other agencies—ongoing help will be needed and very much appreciated.

Picture of Alayne Blickle
Alayne Blickle
Alayne Blickle is a lifelong equestrian, ranch riding competitor, and the creator and director of Horses for Clean Water. Well-known for her enthusiastic, down-to-earth approach, Blickle is an educator who has worked with horse and livestock owners since 1990, teaching manure composting, pasture management, mud and dust control, water conservation, chemical use reduction, fire preparedness, and wildlife enhancement.  Blickle and her husband raise and train their mustangs and quarter horses at their eco-sensitive guest ranch, Sweet Pepper Ranch, in sunny Nampa, Idaho.
Picture of Alayne Blickle
Alayne Blickle
Alayne Blickle is a lifelong equestrian, ranch riding competitor, and the creator and director of Horses for Clean Water. Well-known for her enthusiastic, down-to-earth approach, Blickle is an educator who has worked with horse and livestock owners since 1990, teaching manure composting, pasture management, mud and dust control, water conservation, chemical use reduction, fire preparedness, and wildlife enhancement.  Blickle and her husband raise and train their mustangs and quarter horses at their eco-sensitive guest ranch, Sweet Pepper Ranch, in sunny Nampa, Idaho.

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