Sand Canyon ranch opened their facilities to evacuated animals

During the recent Santa Clarita wildfires, many homes had to be evacuated as the fire quickly spread. For some of those homes, it was about more than simply gathering the family, personal items, and leaving. Many had horses or other large animals that had to be evacuated.

Without help or a trailer at the ready, it became a challenge to evacuate the animals from properties. And even after getting the horses out of harm’s way, they still had to find a temporary home. There isn’t a hotel or a shelter that is fully able to accommodate a horse, so Alcole Equestrian stepped in.

Mary Beth Coffey, along with Emily Statts, all ranch hands and the ranch owners, Amy and Henry Brandt, jumped at the chance to take their trailers out and get the homeless horses. Several areas were in severe need, and by the end of the day, over sixty horses were calling Alcole Equestrian their temporary home.

With many employees from the Santa Clarita Valley, Mary Beth Coffey says that evacuations are not new, and that’s one reason why they wanted to help. “We’ve been in Santa Clarita for a long time…and we’re happy to help when we can, just like we’d hope someone would help us if we were in trouble,” she said.

Currently, all the horses that were staying there have either returned to their homes or relocated to permanent housing. But several horses have yet to arrive.

Heads up Therapy on Horseback will be housing all of their horses at the Ranch. The Heads Up facilities were located on Bouquet Canyon Road and burned to the ground in the Buckweed fire. Operations manager Jim Tindell was badly burned in the fire, as he was fighting to rescue the horses. You can read that amazing a story of heroism by clicking here.