Emergency Preparedness

Equine Emergency Preparedness

At a time when the wildfires are devastating the west, including Colorado, it seems that we should ALL look at dealing with natural disasters. There are a lot of great articles at www.aaep.org and www.ncagr.gov – worth taking the time to look at. I’m in North Carolina, and we have to deal with everything from tornadoes to floods to hurricanes.

I have summarized their disaster plan as follows:

1. Disaster Type. Familiarize yourself with the disasters that could occur in your area, with a written plan of action for each type of disaster. Review this with everyone involved in the plan and make sure emergency contacts are posted in your barn.
2. Evacuation/Confinement. Survey your location for the best site of animal confinement for each type of disaster. Identify food and water sources that don’t rely on electricity. Know where your horses would go in case of evacuation.
3. Identification. Photograph each horse from the left, right, face, and of any specific markings. Make sure you have a photo of you with your horse to identify you as the owner. Keep a copy of any registration/identification information with the photos and consider tattooing, branding or microchipping for permanent identification. Remember that if you know in advance, you can always do temporary identification such as contact information on the halter (duct tape is useful), information pained on hooves, or specialized clipping jobs (i.e. hip number).
4. Health Records. Keep vaccinations and Coggins up to date, and record any special dietary products, medicines or supplements the horse might need.
5. Transportation. Keep your trailer and towing vehicle in good working condition and insured. If you don’t have your own trailer, make sure you know who would evacuate your horses!
6. Feed. Have adequate hay and grain on hand, preferably at least a 3 day supply.
7. Medical Supplies. Keep emergency medicines on hand, and consider having a tranquilizer that you know how to administer if you need it. Make sure to have both a people and horse first-aid kit.
8. Barn Supplies. Make sure each horse has a designated lead rope and halter (needs to be break-away or leather in an emergency situation to make sure the horse doesn’t get caught on something). Make sure to have adequate water and feed bowls, preferably one for each horse. Don’t forget bedding, blankets in winter, and shovels/wheelbarrow, etc. if there is space.
9. Labeling. Keep tags on hand that you can easily attach with your name, address, horse’s name and description, vet information and special needs.
10. Planning. Know what horses are going where in case of evacuation, and which ones are going first, i.e. who can travel with whom? If everyone can’t get out, who gets to go? Better to have made these hard decisions in advance.
11. Map. Know the area around your evacuation site!
12. Review. Revisit your information at least annually to make sure it is still up to date.
13. Marking. Specially mark your horse, either with auction paint or by shaving your phone number on the horse’s neck. Consider putting a plastic baggy with information duct-taped to the horse’s halter and a luggage tag with information braided in the mane (but not tied around the tail!).
14. Remember that in the worst case, your horse or livestock may be just turned loose to fend for itself, and the more ways there are to identify it, the better chance of a return home!

Image Below Courtesy of http://www.wftv.com/ap/ap/agriculture/colorado-wildfire-now-50-percent-contained/nPY9C/; 140 of the horses displaced by the fire.