Colorado Horse Rescue connects horse owners with volunteers during wildfires
It's at the Colorado Horse Rescue in Longmont where horses like Blackjack and Woody are finding comfort amidst the chaos of the ongoing Stone Canyon Fire. That fire has burned 1,548 acres since Wednesday and was 20% contained as of Thursday morning.
"We have taken in five horses from this current evacuation," said Katherine Gregory, CEO of the Colorado Horse Rescue.
Gregory credits these five successful evacuations in part to a tool created by her rescue called HorseAlert.org, which was launched this spring to connect horse owners with people willing and able to help get them to safety.
"It's been critical for the horse community because the only resource there has been in the past is Facebook," said Gregory.
Interested volunteers with trailering capacity who can transport horses can sign up for free on the HorseAlert site. Then, volunteers will be connected with horse owners who go to the site and request help.
"The drivers that are the closest to the horses needed to be evacuated, they get texted first and they can accept those horses and let the owners know they're on their way," said Gregory.
While Gregory says her rescue is currently filled with the five horses who have already evacuated, horses are also being taken to other safe locations, like the existing fairgrounds that have activated to take in livestock. In some cases, owners may ask for help getting their horses transported to a family member or friend's home away from the fire.
The site already has more than 350 volunteers willing to help when needed.
"Within five minutes of signing up for the app, we had found a person to help," said Blake Holliman.
Holliman volunteered to help bring Blackjack and Woody to the horse rescue on Tuesday.
"It was pretty easy in comparison to helping people through Facebook and such," he said.
Gregory has been working to help connect volunteers to horse owners despite having to go through the process of evacuating from her home in Lyons amidst this fire.
"It was a bit stressful to get my dog and my cat out, and thank goodness my daughter's off at camp so I didn't have to worry about her," she said. "Until you're actually in the middle of it, you don't really realize what it's going to take and how stressful it is deciding what's going to go in your car."
Gregory is feeling grateful some mandatory evacuation restrictions have been lifted as the fire moves away from the town of Lyons. Yet, she still remains on alert as things could change at any time and she hopes other horse owners also practice caution.
"Have a plan. If you don't have a trailer, have a plan of people that will help you or sign up on horsealert.org to have people ready there to get you out," said Gregory.