As I threw sheets on my mares last night around 9, I heard a buzz in my pocket. I pulled my phone out to a text message from our managing editor, Jen Paulson. “Evacuated?” Jen asked.
“Not yet,” I told her, as I peaked through the trees and saw the smoke and orange glow billowing from the mountains to the south.
The Fourmile Fire (called that because it began in Fourmile Canyon) burned throughout the day and night yesterday, casting a cloud of ash and smoke over the Boulder Valley. Of those on staff at Horse&RiderI live closest to the fire, but luckily, it’s still not close enough that I need to load up my horses and move. We’re still miles away from the flames, but for a girl from the East Coast where it rains almost daily and is so humid that wildfire is just a distant, abstract threat, this is scary business.
It’s got me thinking, big time, about what I’d do with my girls (Casady and Naughty, I mean) in the event that a wildfire would wander its way down the mountain and into our backyard. I searched HorseandRider.com and came up with these helpful tips from our sister magazine, Dressage Today.
And all of this has got me very thankful that I’ve got my truck hooked up to my trailer most days, ready for a quick escape (usually for a quick escape to a barrel race, but not in this case). Coggins and health papers at the ready with spare hay in the trailer (and of course food for little Rena, my dog) we’d be ready to roll down the road.
