On October 25th our ranch was contacted to help haul 80 bales of hay donated to the Emergency Animal rescue location in Ramona who helped over 300 horses evacuated from the fire in Ramona California. Ramona is roughly 3 hours from our ranch and traffic was tough through the closed roads. We had access to areas that were burned out completely. Where once beautiful ranch homes stood now were just a pile of ash and smoke. Like our friend Carol said "This is like a war zone." we drove past dairy farms with smoldering manure piles, family homes with just the iron gates left, burned out trees, and mountains to come upon our end destination. Our hearts went out to every family we saw along the way who were standing in a daze as they cleaned up what was left of their homes. We asked those with horses along the way if they needed any hay. Everyone was ok at least for now.

We donated our services, hauling hay, loading and unloading it, walking horses, feeding carrots, photography services for identification, and general kindness. All the horses were in the wonderful hands of EAR when we arrived. Water had arrived a few days before so the horses were starting to perk up.
Many had already been identified by owners who had to evacuate so fast they didn't have time to take their horses with them.

One family looked for four days before finding their horses and were so happy to just sit in an arena and share the peace with them again.
While my photography was no longer needed for ID purposes (thank goodness!) I photographed my experience and our journey through the aftermath and smoke to a lovely ranch where the horses were safe and the firefighters were smiling.

Thank you to the wonderful folks from EAR, Rebecca the Hay coordinator, East Valley Feed, and the wonderful people who donated time, money, love, and kindness to the horses from Ramona. We wish you all the best you are awesome!
For more information on how you can help please contact
http://www.cacares.net
http://www.emergencyanimalrescue.org
Enjoy!
Rachael