FIRE PREVENTION

5. Expect less.

Our lives with horses...

Our lives with horses are rich with feeling. You know this if you've ever.... choked back tears watching a new foal wobble to his feet for the First time ...or watched your good horse wobble to his feet after surgery.... or seen the ends of the reins float straight out as a reining horse spins beneath them . . or chuckled to yourself as you watched a tiny tot on a patient pony trot through a barrel pattern at a saddle club payday ... or felt the building tremble as an eight-up hitch of feather-legged giants towed a hand-carved beer wagon into the arena ... or had your heart stop when you saw your horse lying motionless in the pasture on a sunny day and waited breathlessly for an ear to flick ... or cheered at the screen when 'The Man From Snowy River' slid Dennie down the mountainside, .. or when Seabiscuit made his final surge to beat War Admiral ... or cruised along the highway and seen a horse in a pasture and wondered what he's like to ride or pictured him as a prospect ... or sucked in your breath as a horse and rider approached a six-foot wall ... or sworn a solemn oath to your horse that together you would triumph ... or flipped through the TV channels and stopped when you saw a horse even when it was a commercial ... or laughed aloud when you rubbed your horse's face and he rubbed back ... or gotten chills hearing Dave Johnson's 'and DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME!' (or 'Run for the Roses' circa 1980 ish?)
... or stood in awe at your horse in morning play as he sprinted around the pasture, then stopped, head erect, and snorted defiance at the rest of the world
... or been thankful to see wild horses grazing casually at the foot of a hill ... or felt calmed by the sleekness of a silky
haircoat beneath your hand ... or felt your jaw drop as you watched a Lipazzan
perform a capriole ... or if you've ever seen someone in the grocery store wearing a certain kind of hat, or boots, or buckle, or have a certain cut and length to their jeans, and felt some remote kind of connection ... or felt warmed by a soft nicker greeting as you entered the barn ... or slid your hand under your horse's blanket to straighten it out, only to pause in the glowing feeling that you get when you touch the
warmth of his coat... or riding on a trail with your horse, thinking how that trail over there looks nice and almost without asking, your horse has sensed your slightest movement in the saddle and he's now taking you there. ... or pulled up to your barn where you board and only your horse greets you with a welcoming hello from the sound of your car or your voice.

HEROES AND HORSES

SOME NOTABLE HEROES AND THEIR HORSES ARE MENTIONED AND WE KNOW YOUR HORSE IS YOUR HERO AND VICE VERSA.

1. Kanthaka - Buddha's horse, the one he used when he was still Siddhartha the prince, to escape from his father's palace and begin his journey toward enlightenment. Kanthaka's hooves made no sounds as they fled together and he is often depicted being lifted on his four feet by benign spirits.

2. Pegasus - the mythical winged horse parented by Neptune and Medusa and ridden by Bellerophon to rid the world of Chimera, the monster. Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, was able to capture and train Pegasus when he allowed her to place her golden bit in his mouth.

3. Phosphorus (Light Bearer) - the great Roman racehorse immortalized by the 4th century Roman poet Ausonius (at the emperor's request) in a beautiful eulogy: Fly with haste to join the wing-footed horses of Elysium; may Pegasus gallop on your right and Arion as your left-wheeler, and let Castor find a fourth horse for the team.

4. Babieca - famed white gelding of El Cid, Rodrigo Diaz of Bivar, the Spanish hero who united Christians and Muslims against a Moorish onslaught from Africa. Babieca lived to be 30 years old and carried El Cid into all his battles. Babieca means "crazy" as Rodrigo made a crazy choice since the colt was the runt of the herd.

5. Bucephalus (Ox-head) - beloved horse of Alexander the Great who bore the Macedonian hero on his back from Greece to India. Odds against a horse living past 20 in that era were great, but Bucephalus, in his 20s, endured until he fell in battle in India.

6. Sleipnir - the eight-legged war horse of Odin, the Norse god, was able to fly without wings and shape-shift.

7. Balios and Xanthos - a grey and bay, both sired by Zephyros, the West Wind, who together pulled Achilles' chariot.

8. Vivasat - a Hindu sun-god who often took the form of a stallion.

9. Al Burak - Mohammed's horse, on whose back he ascended to heaven, was brought to him by the archangel Gabriel

10. Chiron - the centaur who taught Achilles, Jason and the first physician, Ascelpius, all he knew.

11. Rakhsh - blue-eyed and dappled red horse of the legendary Persian warrior, Rustam. Rakhsh was highly intelligent and saved his sleeping master from a lion's attack, killing the predator.

There are many more famous mythical and real horses and we will be adding to our list. Can you help us add to this list?. thank you Harmony Horse Works.

The question is not: "do you support horse slaughter."

The question is: "do you support the cruel, terrifying transport for days without food and water in their journey to death?"

The question is: "do you support the torture and abuse of the killer chutes, even for crippled horses, pregnant mares, wild horses, protective mares with foals by their sides?"

The question is: “Do you support the horse slaughter factories that lie to their consumers about the many chemicals that taint the horse meat, and call it Organic?

The question is: do you support the breeder who breeds hundreds of horses just to pick out the good ones and cash in the rest to the killer buyer?

The question is: Do you support the person who uses the horse its whole life and when it gets to an old age sends it to slaughter as a thank you?

The question is: “do you support the slaughter workers who cheer a horse on that struggles extra hard for its life?

The question is: Do you support the killer buyer who not only buys up the strong, fat and healthy horses and leaves the meek weak and unhealthy for society, but also bids against the good homes and horse rescues?

The question is: “Can you see though the lies of the ones who stand to loose a buck with the end of horse slaughter?

The question is: Do you support ripping the last of our wild horses away from their families and peaceful lives to be slaughtered?

The question is: As a nation, can we allow this to continue and still call ourselves a civilized country?

The question is: "Can you look at the footage of innocent horses with their eyes gouged out, hooves ripped off, legs broken, beaten by the workers, faces smashed in from being on the transport trucks, horses stabbed in their spines, horses conscious for the entire killing process and do nothing?

That is the question, so what is YOUR answer?

Resolve to make the world a better place for animals (credit: PETA)

	If you haven't already done so, have the companion animals who depend on you spayed or neutered. These simple procedures help protect your furry friends from many types of cancer and prevent thousands of animals from being born only to end up abandoned on the streets or dumped at severely crowded animal shelters.
	If you live with a dog, pledge to walk him or her every day, even when it's cold outside and you'd rather hide under a blanket. If you share your home with cats, set aside some "kitty (or horsey) quality time" every day to play with, brush, and bond with them. It's sometimes too easy to overlook our feline friends, but they can get bored and lonely too.
	If there is a lonely "backyard dog" in your neighborhood, try befriending his or her guardian. Start by politely talking to him or her about the dog's needs, such as companionship, daily portions of fresh food and water, and a weatherproof doghouse filled with straw. Many lucky dogs have had their lives changed because someone like you cared enough to intervene.
	If you're shopping for yourself or buying holidays gifts for your loved ones, stay away from fur, wool, leather, and companies that make or sell products made from the skins of animals.

NOTE: Crossed Sabers can not fully guarantee the accuracy of every page on this website which is huge (38,000 files and over 300 pages). We do not have the personnel or time to keep it up to date and accurate for every situation as this Stable and all its programs have always been a dynamic entity, ever changing and improving itself to meet the needs of horses and horse people. We do try to make sure each page is up to date and accurate but the best thing to do If you have a question, is email or call us. Additionally Crossed Sabers can not guarantee anything that anyone says about us on line, we have no control over other people and their websites, forums or ads, all we can tell people is if you do not know the person, their name, address and their experience, age or history/background/education and location do not trust what they say. That is true for everything on the internet. Some things said about us have been grossly inaccurate and did not come from CSS, some come from past employees we fired for cause (for hurting horses or stealing from us), people that are pro-slaughter and hate our mission and what we do for horses enjoy trying to make us look bad, some are horse traders that we've helped put out of business and some are people we helped put in jail on neglect cases. Again, if you have questions about us, our services, our company structure, how we are licensed, how we pay taxes, how we do things or anything at all, please feel free to contact us, just don't assume that all you read on another website is accurate because 99% of it is not true, especially if you read it on a forum, blog or chat room and don't assume that it came from us, just call 304-873-3532 or email us at secondwindadopt@aol.com, or better yet, come and see our operation and you will see how we do things. I can guarantee it's 1000 times better than what the liars and frauds say who are jealous of our work. All programs and services listed on this website, including SWAP is a part of Crossed Sabers Stable which has been licensed in WV for the last 13 years. The Mountain State Horse School and Second Wind Adoption Program, Inc. and Crossed Sabers International Horse School, Inc. was incorporated on 4 Sep 08 to address the education needs and life challenges of people and horses.

Buyer and Seller Beware!! Update on the Robin Hollingsworth of Blacksburg, SC (she has several alias's and about 10 fake names) fraud case for those of you who have been asking. The SC prosecutor accepted a plea bargain from her and dropped the case if she paid the people she ripped off (the people she took money under false pretenses from when she sold them horses she did not own), she did that so she was let go but the 3 arrests will stay on her record and the record of what she did to all those people is still on the books and will stay there. If she is caught again I'm certain she will go to jail but people who are cheated by her must stand up and testify.. If more people that she ripped off would have not chickened out and backed out because of fear (Quote from them was we are scared of her, she is crazy) she would be in jail right now but beware, she is still loose and still taking free horses or companion horses that have things like ringbone and navicular and drugging them and then selling them as high level jumpers and competition horses on the internet. Her daughter works with her, Amanda or Mandy, she helps her rip people off. Beware, I'm getting calls almost every month where Robin has committed more crimes against people, taking horses, not paying for them, bouncing checks, buying vehicles and horse trailers and not paying for them. BEWARE OF THIS WOMAN!! If you want her history or to check a person's name against our black list (our do not adopt to, do not sell to, do not buy from, do not hire or even rent to list), then contact us.

BEWARE: Do not buy a horse from anyone you do not know, ESPECIALLY ON THE INTERNET, unless they have websites like ours, their names and addresses listed and they show they have a long long history on their website and do not buy unless you go to see the horse and have it vet checked and you have contact with the vet, not the seller or even trainer telling you what the vet said. DO NOT GIVE YOUR HORSE OR SELL YOUR HORSE WITHOUT A WRITTEN AGREEMENT AS TO WHAT IS TO HAPPEN WITH THE HORSE, RESELLING, USE/LIMITATIONS, FACILITIES NEEDED, ETC. It you sell or give away a horse with no agreement, they could go to slaughter the same day you release them or they could be sold and misrepresented, living a life of neglect, abuse, over use and miss use the rest of their lives. We hear stories all the time where a best friend or neighbor, the nice lady you gave the horse to sent the horse to slaughter or is neglecting it and there is not a thing the owner can do now because they no longer own the horse and they made no written agreements signed by both parties. If you need help doing written agreements, back ground checks on buyers and sellers, just contact us, that is part of our 'SAFE SELLING' SERVICES. Your horse's life depends on you being safe and thorough!

BEWARE: People are selling horses on the internet that don't even exist so beware, the horse industry is full is liars, cheaters, and thieves, even we have had to deal with them from potential adopters who were in jail applying to adopt, to employees and former trainers who totally ripped us off by stealing tack and tools, asking for huge advances and then leaving after they get them, people who don't even know us or had any experience with us slandering us on forums, harassing us and our supporters, interfering with company operations and even adopters who don't think twice about breaching their contract or forging their vets signature on applications & annual updates or even selling their adoption horse to programs like ours and even 501c3's public charities selling horses to slaughter auctions or being put in jail for neglect and animal cruelty. We are bringing each person that has wronged our horses to justice one at a time and winning all our cases but that does not protect the general public from these liars, thieves, con-artist and cheaters. Your horses life can easily be ruined forever, they could end up in a fate worse than death so buyer and seller beware, your horses life depends on you keeping them safe and you being thorough with doing things like getting references and making sure the people have stable employment, that they really own the farm they say they do, doing background checks to check for criminal records. The horse world is full of dishonesty which ruins it for honest people that really care and always try to do the right thing, such a shame. Just be very careful and get proof that your horse is going to a good home, get more than a feeling because we promise you about 50% of the time when it comes to horses, your feeling that its a 'nice' person or a 'good' person' is wrong. And even when you pick a good home, they can turn around and sell or give away to a bad home.

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches and negative people pull you down. People who like to cause trouble will shorten your life and make you just like them... miserable.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.'

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen.. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Every Dream Starts with a Single Step, Take Your Step Today!

Women from History Who Dared To Change the World (credit: O Magazine)

600 B.C. TO 200 B.C.: Tribes of statuesque women (and men) roam the Eurasian steppes. The fearsome Amazons of myth? Not exactly. But archeological evidence suggests that among these nomads, the women were the warriors.

Circa 39: Dynamic sister duo Trung Trac and Trung Nhi amass a Vietnamese army in a revolt against Chinese rule. For four years, they lead the rebellion.

Circa 395: Fabiola, a Roman aristocrat whose divorce and subsequent remarriage were condemned by Christian society, founds a hospital for the poor and other outcasts of her city. It's likely one of the first hospitals in the Western world.

Circa 1001: Murasaki Shikibu begins writing The Tale of Genji, an epic portrait of court life (twice as long as War and Peace), considered by many to be the greatest masterpiece of Japanese literature and possibly the world's first novel.

1429: Peasant girl Joan of Arc commands the French army in a series of victorious battles to liberate her homeland from the English; she is burned at the stake for her trouble.

Circa 1579: Grace O'Malley, a swashbuckling Irish pirate known for raiding ships, fights off an English government expedition sent to stop her.

Circa 1613: In her graphically violent painting Judith Slaying Holofernes, Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi slays the ideal of submissive womanhood: Her heroine is fierce, powerful, and ruthless.

1777: Teenager Sybil Ludington rides all night long through a storm to alert the 400 men in her father's militia that the redcoats are coming. She's called the female Paul Revere—but Paul rode with two of his buddies. And he was captured by the British.

1805: Sacagawea joins Lewis and Clark as their expedition's interpreter, traveling thousands of miles across the Rockies with her newborn babe strapped to her back. Who says life ends when you have kids?

1814: As the British torch Washington, D.C., First Lady Dolley Madison remains in the White House long enough to rescue historic valuables—running out moments before the soldiers charge in.

1862: Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, just 19 and dressed as a man, enlists in the Union Army. In a letter home, she assures: "I don't fear the rebel bullets nor I don't fear the cannon."

1867: Ida Lewis rescues three drowning men from wind-whipped swells in Newport Harbor. Then she rows back to save their sheep. Ida later becomes the country's first female lighthouse keeper.

1872: Victoria Claflin Woodhull becomes the first woman to run for president. A colorful candidate, she advocates for free love.

1906: Madam C.J. Walker hawks shampoos and serums door-to-door. The orphaned daughter of former slaves, she becomes one of America's wealthiest businesswomen.

1912: Astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovers the period-luminosity relationship (later used to calculate the distances between Earth and the stars).

1914: Barnstorming adrenaline junkie Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick makes the first-ever free fall from a plane.

1916: In a tenement neighborhood in Brooklyn, Margaret Sanger opens the doors of the country's first birth control clinic. Outside at least 150 women are waiting.

1916: Movie star Mary Pickford insists on becoming her own producer. America's Sweetheart is no sucker.

1937: Amelia Earhart disappears on the ultimate adventure—her attempt to fly around the globe. In a note to her husband, she explains: "I want to do it because I want to do it."

1938: Anna Mary Robertson Moses sells her first paintings, at age 78. Known as "Grandma" Moses, she continues to paint for 23 years, becoming one of the century's most renowned folk artists.

1941: Protofeminist superhero Wonder Woman first appears in a comic book, fighting off Fascists in star-spangled hot pants.

1946: Super-geekette Dorothy Hodgkin cracks penicillin's chemical makeup with an X-ray crystallographer. (Eighteen years later she'll earn the Nobel Prize.)

1953: Jackie Cochran flies an F-86 Sabre jet through the sound barrier. She learned to fly so she could travel around selling cosmetics, but it turns out trashing speed records is a lot more fun.

1959: On the edge of the Serengeti Plain, Mary Leakey digs up and pieces together a 1.7-million-year-old hominid skull, one of the most important finds in the history of archeology.

1960: At the Rome Olympics, Wilma Rudolph (left)—once partially paralyzed by polio—earns three gold medals in track-and-field, the first American woman to do so.

1963: Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first female to fly a spacecraft around the globe.

1967: Kathrine Switzer dares to run the all-male Boston Marathon, while an irate race official chases her.

1981: Alexa Canady becomes the first black female neurosurgeon in the United States.

1985: Just 175 miles from the Iditarod finish line, Libby Riddles heads into a blizzard when other mushers opt to stay in camp; this gives her a six-hour lead and, ultimately, the win.

1989: Performance artist Karen Finley smears her body with chocolate to illustrate that women are treated like, you know, dirt. The National Endowment for the Arts rescinds her funding, but she ultimately gets it back.

2005: Roz Savage quits her corporate job, leaves her unraveling marriage, and rows across the Atlantic by herself. Midlife crisis averted.

2008: Sandra Andersen, a barista at a Starbucks in Tacoma, Washington, learns that one of her customers needs a kidney to live. So she gives the woman hers.

2009: Navigator Ann Daniels leads the Catlin Arctic Survey, a 74-day journey from the Arctic Ocean to the North Pole to measure the thickness of sea ice.

**************************************

The Warmth of A Horse

When your day seems out balance...
and so many things go wrong ...
When people fight around you
and the clock drags on so long ...
When some folks act like children
and fill you with remorse ...
Go out into your pasture and wrap
your arms around your horse.

His gentle breath enfolds you as he
watches with those eyes ...
He may not have a PhD but he
is, oh so wise!
His head rests on your shoulder
you hug him good and tight ...
He puts your world in balance
and makes it seem all right.

Your tears will soon stop flowing,
the tension will be eased ...
The nonsense has been lifted.
You are quiet and at peace.
So when you need some balance
from the stresses in your day ...
The therapy you really need
Is out there eating hay!

Preventing barn fires

by Reid Folsom
Article donated by the mane points horse resource center.

When flames reach the highly flammable hay, feed, and bedding in the presence of terrified animals, you have a crisis like no other.

Unfortunately, stable fires are not rare. Wet hay storage, overloaded or damaged electrical systems, careless smoking, improperly operated heaters, and improper storage of oily rags are just a few of the causes.

Prevention, however, is simple if you understand the threat.

For convenience or cost reduction, hay is stored with the horses, usually with no problems. However, many barn fires are caused by storing damp hay.

Too many barn owners do not realize that improperly cured and baled hay -- or even a leaky roof above good hay -- can cause a fire. The best way to prevent a hay fire is to put up dry hay and keep it dry. Better yet, keep hay in a separate barn or storage shed.

Other significant causes of accidental fires and their prevention include:

	Overloaded extension cords -- Do not use extension cords. If you must, use industrial-grade cords and do not plug more than one appliance into a cord. Never use lamp cords or the light, home-use variety.
	Rodent-damaged electrical wires -- Replace damaged wires. Never wrap an injured cord with tape. Put electrical wire through metal conduits, not plastic or PVC pipe.
	Dust -- Hay or bedding dust collecting on fans and other electrical appliances starts many fires. Clean out the interior parts of electrical appliances as a preventative.
	Wire strung over nails -- The swaying of wires that pull and release as the building "breathes" will wear away the insulation and can start a fire. Install wiring in a metal conduit and never put an extension cord over a nail.
	Smoking -- Do not allow smoking in or near the barn. Smoking, if permitted at all, should be done at least 15 or 20 feet away.
	Heaters that are not properly used -- Portable or space heaters can cause fires when they blow directly on bedding, cleaning rags or hay. These fires can be more severe, because often the heaters are left unattended and no one is around when the fire starts. Read heater directions carefully.
	Oily tack or hoof cleaning rags, soiled paper towels -- Rags or paper towels soiled with oil or petroleum products, including tack and hoof-cleaning products, can go through a "heat" and catch fire. Don't pile rags and towels in a heap. As long as the heat of decomposition of these materials is dissipated into the air, there's little risk; piling up means there is no place for the heat to go, and a fire can result.

Early detection and quick response can save lives and property. Barns are airy and filled with combustible materials, so they burn easily and quickly. Response time is so important that many insurance companies consider a building more than five miles from a fire station essentially unprotected.

Smoke detectors are important because many fires smoke and smolder before bursting into flame. As a general rule, smoke and gases are given off long before the fire begins to heat up the interior air of the barn to the point where a heat detector is activated.

Once the fire has been detected, rapid response is essential. Detectors can be connected to the nearest fire-fighting organization for automatic alarm. This can involve automatic dialers or other kinds of message-sending devices.

What to do

	Call the fire department or 911. Make sure the person you talk to understands you have a fire and the address of your location. Do not hang up the phone until you are certain the other person absolutely understands these things.
	Warn all humans in this and adjacent buildings of the fire.
	Get all horses and animals out of the burning building and all nearby buildings. Turn them loose in pastures.
	Turn off electrical power to the burning building.
	Begin to fight the fire with whatever you have set up in your fire plan. Your objective is to hold the fire until the fire trucks arrive.
	Focus your efforts.

Fire prevention checklist

	Clean the dust out of electrical appliances such as fans and heaters.
	Remove all lightweight, lamp cord-type extension cords.
	If extension cords must be used, buy industrial-grade ones.
	Store hay in a separate hay barn or shed and buy well-cured, dry hay and keep it dry.
	Do not pile up or cover tack-cleaning cloths and paper towels/tissues or other rags and paper products that have been used with petroleum or oil-containing products (including vegetables oils). Store them in a separate shed, if possible.
	Do not run electric cords over nails as supports or hangers.
	Make sure all electrical wiring is encased in metal conduits to prevent rodent damage or electrical short circuits.
	Cage all electric light fixtures to prevent damage.
	Do not store bedding materials in the horse barn.
	Situate new buildings at least 50 and preferably 75 feet or more from each other to reduce the chance of a fire in one building spreading to another.
	Install a frost-proof water hydrant at the entrance to each barn or large building.
	Install a water hose long enough to reach to the opposite end of the barn from the hydrant.
	Post the farm fire plan and ensure all regular occupants are familiar with it.
	Modify your electrical system to allow turning off power to buildings without turning off power to your water pumps.

Safety

Safe farm operations are essential for a successful horse

boarding business. On a regular basis, inspect and evaluate

the entire facility for potential hazards to horses and people.

Fire prevention is a major concern and the following

practices are recommended:

■ Regularly inspect electrical wiring.

■ Install lightning protection devices.

■ Properly store fuels and combustible materials.

■ Post “no smoking” signs.

■ Have fire extinguishers readily available throughout the

facility.

■ If possible, store hay in a separate barn away from heat

and electrical sources.

More information on fire safety in stables can be found

in Horse Facilities 2: Fire Safety in Horse Stables.

Other safety recommendations include the following:

■ Provide safety training and supervise employees,

customers, and visitors.

■ Regularly maintain facilities, machinery, and equipment.

■ Remove trash from the barns and elsewhere on the farm.

■ Install fencing around the perimeter of the property,

if possible.

■ Fence all hazardous areas, such as ponds and lagoons.

■ Store machinery in locked buildings, or if facilities are

unavailable, store outside with keys removed, brakes

locked, and wheels blocked.

■ Store chemicals in secure areas.

■ Post “no trespassing” signs to discourage unwanted visitors.

No other word in the English language can strike more fear than the cry, "Fire"! And the thought of a fire raging through a stable full of horses is doubly terrifying. Horses plunging and fighting for freedom from the searing flames as handlers and owners make valiant attempts to save the animals they have come to respect and love, are sight and sounds one never forgets.

Some horses in a barn fire may be saved - but others will die an agonizing death, as their stalls fill with smoke, and then the intense heat of the oncoming flames causes the bedding to flash into one huge fireball, engulfing all and everything it touches.

Stables' construction, their location, hay storage, tack area, and horses' comfort are always considered in the building plans for any barn. But what about fire prevention? Shouldn't the thought that goes into the building be expanded to include fire prevention? And for barns already built, what precautions should be taken to prevent fires? And what measures taken if fire does strike?

In the 1970's, Union Carbide Chemicals Company's Fire Protection Engineering Division conducted fire tests and studies on race track stables for the New York Racing Commission. Later the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association and the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association issued a joint report on a study of California race track stables. Then, the national Fire Protection Association published an "Occupancy Fire Record" (FR 63-2) describing the results of fires in race track barns and stables. These combined findings were interesting and, in some cases, startling, in facts and figures!

Of the fires investigated by the aforementioned agencies, 90 percent were located at race tracks. But fires are not limited to race track stables or barns. Race track fires were investigated because of insurance requirements before payments were made for property damage reimbursement - and because they received national newspaper coverage.

But what about the average stable or riding academy? They, too, suffer fires, which in some cases are more disastrous then race track fires. One fire in Oregon completely razed a riding academy housing 75 horses. All horses were burned to death - and the holocaust wasn't discovered until the next morning when the owner came to feed the horses and found the barn in ashes with dead and dying horses still in burned-out stalls!

Unlike race tracks, which have grooms living in quarters, not all stables and riding academies have on-site residents. People come and go as they like - feeding their horses, riding, and enjoying their mounts. So like the Oregon stable, a fire can rage out of control with no finding out until it's too late.

Most stables are long and narrow containing from 10 to 60 stalls, and have Dutch door arrangements with the lower half of the stall door closed, leaving the top half open for ventilation. Some have open rear doors leading from stalls to paddocks of various sized.

Tests in a 12x12 foot stall, using two bales of fresh straw, showed that in fast fires in one minute's time, temperatures reached 375 degrees F, 15 feet above the floor. The clean-burning fire raised air temperatures rapidly.

A similar test, using slow burning straw, did not develop noticeable quantities of smoke, and the temperature 15 feet above the floor reached only 150 degrees F, during the first one and one-half minutes. As the fire continued to burn, dense smoke developed, and in three minutes 30 seconds, the temperature reached 250 degrees F.

An animal will be able to survive a fire less than one foot in diameter and/or temperatures at the 15-foot level of less than 150 degrees F. However, if a fire starts in a horse's stall, the animal in that stall seldom has more than 30 seconds to be rescued, before suffering fatal burns of smoke inhalation. It has been proven that in one or two minutes, a burning bed of straw will generate more heat than a pool of burning gasoline! Horses in adjoining stalls have have up to five minutes to be rescued, depending upon stall construction and separation.

For some reason, stable owners don't consider putting in an automated sprinkler system. A sprinkler system suspended in each stall and down an alley way will save the barn and horses. Most stable owners look at the initial cost and shake their heads. What they fail to realize is that with a wet sprinkler system, their yearly insurance premiums can be cut as much as 50 percent. When you figure that out over five, ten or 15 years, you're talking about quite a chunk of money - thousands to be exact. The original cost of sprinklers can be spread over a three- or five-year period. Some stable owners try to build a stable as cheaply as they can. And about the only argument you can say to those people is, what do you figure the life of a horse is worth?

Building to protect against fire is an ideal solution, but for stables and barns already built, common sense rules will help to minimize the danger of barn fires. Let's face it - horses don't start fires, people do! And in the hot, dry summer climate of California, wild fires are a guaranteed annual event.

Every barn should be off-limits when it comes to smoking. "No Smoking" signs should be placed on entrance doors, plus a couple in the barn to help people who forget to remember. For those that must smoke, a smoking area should be established complete with sand buckets for cigarette butts. A cigarette ground out in the arena dirt may not be out. It can smolder for hours and days among shavings and straw before flaring up into a possible holocaust!

"Cleanliness next to Godliness" should apply to the barn. Aiselways should be kept clean of paper scraps, litter and spilled hay. Tack boxes should be placed against the wall, so aisles are clear for quick exit in case of an emergency.

Never use rubber- or plastic-covered wiring. Horses and mice can create havoc with it. Use metal or PVC conduits. If wiring is already installed, check it periodically for worn and hot spots.

Overloaded fuses are a menace. Coffee pots, clippers, and electric heaters all running at the same time can blow fuses. Don't overload electrical outlets, and if extension cords are used, use the heavy-duty ones and check for rubbed and cracked areas.

Never store flammable liquids in closed tack boxes or tight spaced where they might get hot. Aerosol spray cans left in the sun can build up pressure and heat, and literally explode!

Fire extinguishers should be charge and checked to make sure they work, then hung in places that everyone knows about for emergency use. It does no good to have a fire extinguisher, if no one knows where it is or how to use it.

Ideally, there should be a telephone on the property, with emergency numbers clearly posted on it.

Leading a horse out of a burning barn is not easy. A saddle blanket, shirt, sweater, etc. should be placed over the horse's eyes. The animal can then be led to safety, with a belt or piece of rope. Smoke doesn't frighten horses; it's the sight and sound of flames that panics them. Once the horse is outside, if a corral, pasture or arena is far enough from the flames to be safe, turn the horse loose there. But beware; a loose horse will return to its stall regardless of the flames around it. In the mind of the horse, that stall is a haven of safety.

It's a good idea to state periodic fire drills, so people know what to do in case of fire. Or at least tell everyone what to do in case of fire. First, notify the fire department (directions to the barn can be typed on cards, inserted in a plastic holder, and tacked to the wall by the phone, so it's easier and faster to give directions to the fire department dispatcher). Secondly, start to remove as many horses as possible from the immediate danger area. Don't play hero by trying to rescue horses trapped in burning stalls. Sadly enough most of those will die from smoke inhalation, even if freed. Rescue only those horses you can get to safely.

Saving horses is case of a fire depends upon quick action. But preventing fires is still the best method - and prevention is everybody's responsibility!

PreventingBarn Fires
Barn fires are horribly destructive - and usually preventable. Take action now to protect your horses and property through proper fireproofing.

By Jane L. Seegal


	© FEMA

Karen Waldron was at dinner in town the Friday night of Memorial Day weekend 1999 when she had what she describes as "one of those weird senses that you need to go home."

As she neared her farm, Bent Tree Farm Ltd., in southwest Virginia, she could see why. The red sky in the distance was directly over her property. "I crested the hill and saw flames topping out of the roof [of the main barn]," she recalls. "I was literally screaming."

Maryland resident Miki Carroll was sitting by a window in her kitchen with her adult daughter, Dawn, looking at photographs of some of their horses. The Carrolls' downstairs tenant, Greg Gibson, was there, and they were talking about foaling. It was 10 p.m. on a bitterly cold February night four years ago. Suddenly Carroll saw a glare in the sliding glass. "Greg hit the phone to call 911," she recalls. "My daughter and I hit the door. We each pulled on shoes and one coat. The barn was fully engulfed."

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Allen and Marian Belt, also Marylanders, were asleep when a neighbor banged on the front door after midnight in midsummer of 1996. One of two 60-year-old former dairy barns out back was ablaze.Sixty-five hundred bales of timothy hay had just been put up in the barn. And Tess, a young Quarter Horse mare, was inside recuperating from jaw surgery.

"Nothing is worse than a barn fire," says Don Faison, head of equine insurance for the Markel Insurance Company, one of the country's largest insurers. Yet by one estimate, more than 4,500 barn fires, most of them preventable, break out each year in the United States. Responsible horse owners, who are fastidious about protecting their horses from injury and illness, too often leave fire prevention entirely to chance.

"It's in God's hands" is how one longtime horse owner puts it. Peter Winants, a lifelong rider and past editor of The Chronicle of the Horse, admits to suffering that same sort of inertia in dealing with his century-old Virginia horse barn. "I'll go home and see wires looking frayed and not do anything about it," he says. "I'm typical of the breed. Having reported on a lot of these fires, I should be more sensitive."

Face the facts

"Even well-protected facilities aren't fireproof. People just need to be far more aware of safety," says Waldron, a real-estate developer who breeds, trains and shows Hackneys, Saddlebreds and Friesians. According to the investigating fire marshal, lint buildup, smoldering in the barn dryer since that morning's use, had ignited the fire that consumed the 22-stall barn 12 hours later. A fire-protection security system alerted nearby farm staff, who were able to pull out eight horses, seven of whom survived. The show string had been shipped to a Devon, Pennsylvania, show that morning, but other horses had been moved up to the main barn for a few days. When Waldron got to the farm, she got to work. "There was an assembly line going that was unbelievable," she says. "It included help from the community and the nearby Virginia Tech veterinary school. But 11 horses died, most of them young Hackney ponies bred on the farm."

Carroll says that she and her daughter "did the wrong thing" that bitter night in 1997 when their barn burned: They opened the sliders and were thrown back 30 feet by a back draft from inside. The outide air oxygenated the fire, allowing the back of the barn to fall in. Joined by her tenant and her husband Alan, Carroll brought out four horses, induding two who planted themselves in the backs of their roomy box stalls and had to be wheelbarrowed out.

"We had rafters fall on us. My coat was on fire," Carroll recalls. "The noise-it's like a rumble; it's wavery. The roar of a fire is something you'll never I forget." Six horses in the Carrolls' barn died; three survived but endured long recovery periods. One of the victims was Chester, a champion large-pony hunter who, says Carroll, taught 5O or 60 kids to ride. "He was 32 years old and healthy, and he didn't deserve to die that way."

Tess, the Belts' Quarter Horse, was able to survive burns that blanketed her back, mainly because her lungs weren't damaged. After Allen Belt unlatched her stall and had to run out of the barn, Tess ran from window to window before managing to escape. The chestnut mare cooperated through months of diligent and, no doubt, painful care; her back is too sensitive to be ridden; the Belts plan to make her a broodmare.

Fire safety boils down to two key principles: First, keep heat and burnables well separated from each other; second, be prepared and preemptive when emergencies do occur. Certainly, barn fires are less likely today than in the era before electrification when, as California horseman Terry Akins remembers of his Mississippi childhood, kerosene lanterns were routinely used to light the way during predawn and evening barn chores. Electric lighting is safer, but electrical appliances continue to be among the primary igniters of barn fires. They're just different heat sources allowed to get too dose to the combustible materials inevitably part of the stable environment.

A serious risk-reduction effort begins with a written fire-safety plan for the property-written so you will be more conscientious about carrying out the changes on the to-do list. Ask your insurer or an expert from the local fire department to walk through your barn with you to identify hazards and to give suggestions for reducing fire risk. Some large riding and show facilities are inspected at least twice yearly, and you may want to have regular inspections, too, even if you have a small operation.

In addition to defining the steps you need to take to improve fire safety, such contacts familiarize emergency personnel with the location and layout of your place. Don't assume, however, that one walk-through puts your facility on the fire department's map in perpetuity. Personnel change; memories fade. The fire-safety recommendations that follow range from simple housekeeping improvements to major building overhauls. If you institute these safeguards, you'll never know exactly how much property was spared or how many lives were saved by them, and that is a blessed state of ignorance. Just ask Waldron, the Carrolls and the Belts.

Eliminate burnables

With all that flammable bedding, hay and structural wood contained within most stables, horses and combustible materials would seem to be inseparable. Additionally, many of the normal elements of stable surroundings -- landscaping plants, dried vegetation, bedding-filled manure heaps and gasoline-powered machinery -- provide ready tinder for fires started elsewhere and spread by wind. One of the most read- ily accomplished fire-prevention measures, then, is to reduce the potential fuel for a barn fire inside and outside your buildings.

	Start with a spring cleaning of your stable, even if it isn't spring. Remove refuse, chaff and other barn wastes that can feed and spread a fire. Check storage areas for flammables, such as pesticides, cleaning fluids and paints, and dispose of unneeded items according to your county hazardous-waste guidelines. Store necessary flammables in approved containers well away from heat sources.
	When possible, store hay and bedding away from the stabling area. Keep only a certain amount in the main barn, and replenish it when you need it, insurance agent Faison advises.
	Clear shrubbery from around the barn, and keep surroundings mowed or trimmed to eliminate flame-spreading dead vegetation. Tim Collins, an emergency-rescue expert based in California, where wildfires are a problem, follows this guideline from a U.S. Forest Service staffer: Clear a distance around your buildings that is three times the height of the burnable material plus 10 feet for every 15 degrees of slope on the land. Thus, if the vegetation is eight feet tall (3 X 8 = 24) on a 30-degree slope (30 + 15 = .2 X 10 = 20), you would clear a radius of 44 feet (24 + 20 = 44) around the barn.
	Consider removing railroad ties in the surrounding landscaping. Some wood treatments, including the creosote used on railroad ties, accelerate combustion.

Prevent ignition

Human intent and human error are the two major causes of barn fires; electrical failures and lightning strikes are the next most common fire starters. Even with minimal flammables in and around your stable, you'll still be only half protected if possible ignition sources remain.

	Minimize opportunity for human error. Forbid smoking in and near the barn, and exercise extreme caution in allowing mechanical heat sources, such as welders and propane torches, to be used for repairs and construction around horse stabling. A discarded cigarette can smolder unnoticed to ignite bedding, hay or yard litter. A welding spark or torch flame may touch off an immediate conflagration in a chaff or litter-filled area.
	Treat every gas-burning vehicle and machine as if it were a lighted match. For the same reason fire departments warn against parking vehicles on leaf piles, avoid parking tractors or other farm equipment near piles of bedding, hay or litter in which hot engines can spark fires. A barn fire in Santa Ynez, California, last October reportedly started after a hay truck backed up to a hay pile and the hot exhaust pipe ignited the hay. Also, park all internal-combustion machinery and store all fuel outside the stable at all times. The convenience of having the machinery nearby is not worth the risk of engine heat, backfires and gasoline spills.
	Thoroughly check and immediately correct weaknesses in the electrical system, and make sure the work is done by a licensed electrician who knows how the system will be used. Frayed wiring, short circuits and other electrical problems cause one out of every seven barn fires. In addition to deterioration due to aging and weathering, wiring that does not run through metal tubing, called conduit, is subject to direct damage by chewing rodents (and sometimes horses), equipment collisions, and wear and tear. Have additional electrical outlets installed on new circuits instead of relying on extension cords. For the utmost safety, have all wiring run through conduit and operating on circuit breakers that, unlike fuses, can't be reset until the triggering electrical problem is fixed. In wash stalls and other watery areas, have ground-fault circuit interrupters installed. If living quarters are part of the barn complex, include those electrical and heating systems in your maintenance program.
	Keep stable appliances to a minimum. Do not use space heaters in the tack room or barn. Some barns restrict radio use to battery-powered models. Overloaded electrical circuits can heat wiring to ignition levels without your being aware of the failure. "I thought my barn was fire safe," says Maryland race trainer Nancy Heil, whose barn burned in January 1995. "When I flicked the switch off at 11 one night, I never thought we'd have a fire." The blaze in her 3-year-old barn likely started because the wiring could not support several stall fans that had been connected to a single circuit. Heil's replacement barn has beefed-up wiring, and she allows no electrical appliances in her barn except for a few fans in summer and a plug-in radio that's used only when someone is present. The lightbulbs are caged to prevent breakage; switches are covered so roaming horses can't turn them on. If you want to have a laundry center in the stable, install and vent the dryer well away from combustible materials, and keep its vent lint-free.
	For protection against nature's fire starter, install lightning rods on your stable and outbuildings, and check them periodically to be sure they're in good condition. Lightning rods on rooftop high points are connected by cables that run to ground to divert the energy of a strike away from the structure itself. Some barn owners choose not to use lightning rods, mistakenly believing that they attract lightning, but the devices simply conduct lightning that would have hit a structure anyway. Kenneth Howard, a research meteorologist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Oklahoma points out that lightning rods, which have been used since colonial days, require proper installation and grounding to carry out their purpose. Inadequate cables, wrongly placed rods and grounding failures all interfere with the system's ability to relay the voltage into the ground. A vehicle parked against a system cable interferes with the grounding, as do phone cables, television antennas or satellite dishes connected to it. If you consider having lightning rods installed, contact your local fire department or county extension office for references to reliable services.
	Guard against spontaneous combustion. Self- ignition can occur in large masses of organic material, such as piles of wood shavings, manure piles and tightly packed stacks of insufficiently cured hay. In damp hay, for example, decomposition begins near the center of the mass but, because there's no ventilation, the heat thrown off by the process builds until the ignition point for the drier surface hay is reached. The spontaneous fire that erupts may occur several days after the storage area has been filled. If you store large amounts of new hay during the summer, be sure it is well cured before it gets into your loft. Also avoid leaving piles of other organic material undisturbed for long periods of time.

Meet emergencies fully prepared

Human error and plain bad luck happen, making fire a very slim but still real possibility in well-managed stables. Reducing the chance of a barn fire includes preemptive strategies to hit the fire before it can take hold and emergency actions to ensure that the barn's most valuable contents -- the horses and people -- come out intact.

	Install a warning system. Consult with a fire-safety expert and electrician about the most reliable sensing system for your stable. The choice is between smoke detectors and heat sensors. Both sound alarms at the first flicker of fire but heat sensors may be more reliable in dusty stable conditions where smoke alarms may read the particles as smoke and give off false alarms.
	Mount fire extinguishers at key points around the stable. Although extinguishers are useless against established fires, they are effective at ignition. Consult with a fire-safety expert for recommendations on the optimum number and placement of extinguishers, which should be the "all-purpose" dry-chemical ABC type. Inspect them at the intervals described in the operator's manual, and have them recharged immediately if they fail a routine check. Captain John Feissner of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Fire Department emphasizes the importance of learning safe, effective extinguisher operation in advance and cautions against placing too much confidence in the devices. In an emergency, call the fire department first before picking up an extinguisher. Even when you think you've snuffed a blaze, notify the local fire department immediately -- a requirement of some local fire codes -- because 5 percent of barn fires result from rekindling of a fire believed to be extinguished.
	Make your property accessible to emergency services. See that your street address and/or name is clearly visible at the entrance to your property and large enough to be noticed by drivers of speeding emergency vehicles. Check to see that your lanes, gates and stream crossings can accommodate fire trucks and that there's a clear right-of-way for them to reach all your buildings.
	Equip your building with lifesaving tools. Keep a halter and lead shank on every stall door, ready to lead your horses to safety. Have a fully charged cell phone on the premises so you can call emergency services even if your phone lines burn out. Consider installirig a backup generator to light the barn aisles and/or pump well water even if your electricity is cut off. If you have water tanks on your property for fire protection, keep them completely full at all times, both for the water they provide and to prevent their destruction by a nearby blaze.
	Familiarize your horses with emergency procedures. The more obedient your horses are to all the general handling expectations of leading, standing, loading and so forth, the better control you'll have over them during unsettling circumstances. Practice evacuating your horses from the stable, and make the experience as close to the real thing as you can. "A lot of what we do with our horses is on the ground," says Collins in explaining his emergency-preparedness lessons for horses. "You're de-spooking your horse before an emergency." Wear a big hat around your horse. Approach him with a flashlight in case that's the only light source during an evacuation. Put on a crinkly coat or a trash bag with holes in it for your head and arms so you'll sound like a firefighter. If you intend to blindfold your horses for evacuation, practice covering their eyes and leading them to see how they react and expect them to be less cooperative during an actual time of panic.

Build in safeguards

No barn can be 100 percent fireproof, but yours can be constructed or retrofitted to make safety the foremost concern. Upgrading your buildings' fire resistance is likely to be a major expense, but insurance savings can help lessen the bite. According to Faison, a sprinkler system can result in a 10 percent discount in an insurance premium. Mickey Nussinow, owner of Best Insurance Brokerage Ltd. in Huntington, New York, says that multiple safety improvements can increase that discount to 15 to 20 percent, depending on the company and the safety features you've implemented. Fire victim Waldron advises barn owners to reevaluate their insurance coverage periodically. She thought coverage was being regularly upgraded for her horse barn, as it was for the rest of her property, but she discovered at claim time it was not.

Select building materials with low flammability. Wood is the most burnable material. With Carroll's barn, an old cattle run-in, "What burned fast was the beautifully seasoned hardwood," she says. If you do choose wood, opt for heavy-timber construction, and check out fire-retardant lumber. Metal and masonry are far less flammable building choices, though they're not as "kind" to horses stabled in direct contact with them. You may need to devise a buffer system of padding or separate interior stall walls. A metal barn costs a few hundred dollars more to construct than one of wood, says Carroll, who investigated a half-dozen choices before building an eight-stall metal replacement barn. But, considering the total construction cost of tens of thousands of dollars, a few hundred more for greater fire safety isn't much of an add-on.

Investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of a sprinkler system for your setup. "Sprinklers have been around more than a century and operate by simple mechanical principles," says Phillip Brown, manager of codes for the American Fire Sprinkler Association. "If a fire starts, heat causes a sprinkler head to open up and control the fire. Sprinklers are designed to control, not extinguish, a fire. Usually only two or three sprinkler heads close to a heat source will go off." The sensors are not wrongly triggered by dust or fumes, Brown says, with the odds of failure occurring during a system's 4O-year life span being one in three million.

"Sprinklers are incredibly effective if properly maintained, installed and inspected," says Feissner. But, despite their good reputation, they are rarely found in boarding stables and private barns. Richard Forfa, DVM, a Maryland veterinarian whose practice covers about 1,000 horse operations, recalls seeing no sprinkler systems. One reason for the scarcity, according to insurance broker Nussinow, is the installation expense. Retrofitting a stable with a sprinkler system costs perhaps as much as $2 per square foot, according to Brown, depending on the structural circumstances and water availability. The systems are less expensive if included as part of new construction. Waldron, who fitted her new barn with sprinklers, concedes they were "a huge cost factor, but nothing compared to the value of the horses."

Another facility that's sold on sprinklers is Hastings Park, a racetrack in Vancouver, British Columbia. Every stall, sleeping room, tack room and feed room is equipped with sprinklers, says Ross Mansell, manager of racecourse operations. They are water-filled in summer and air-filled in winter, when they might otherwise freeze, ready to be flooded with water. The track is satisfied with the safety devices despite the occasional accident. "We've had them hit by hay trucks," says Mansell. "They really do throw off a lot of water. It does make a lot of mess. But it is worth it in a stable with straw and loose hay. It's ridiculous if you don't have a system like that."

Horse-barn owners who have been through a fire are understandably more vigilant the second time around. Waldron, the Belts and the Carrolls have all changed the way they run their operations. All of them have ceased storing large quantities of hay in the same buildings with their horses; even Carroll, whose hayloft was empty when her barn burned, built a loftless replacement.

Waldron researched all the safety angles before rebuilding her 16-stall barn. Completed in October 2000, the stable contains a sprinkler system. Exits are plentiful, with eight sets of exterior doors instead of five, as in the previous building. Stall doors are easy to open, requiring just the removal of a pin. A backup generator is in place to provide lighting in the event of fire. The barn has no stall guards Of tail boards, which had hindered efforts to evacuate horses quickly. And there's no clothes dryer in the place.

In Carroll's new stable, the only appliance is a wall heater in the tack room set at 40 degrees to prevent freezing of water pipes. In addition to rebuilding with metal rather than wood, Carroll installed sliding Dutch doors that allow direct exit to the outside from every stall. Investigators believe rodents might have chewed a microwave cord, causing a fire-starting arc that wasn't detected by the barn's electrical sensing system. Carroll says she and her husband had been planning to install a circuit breaker on that line. Now, she says, "I will never have one piece of wire in my barn that is not in secured conduit to prevent inadvertent movement and wear."

Even four years later, Carroll and her family sometimes stand on the back porch at 2 a.m. to look at the barn just to make sure everything's okay. "I'm not going to re-live what I lived through that night," she says. She was meticulous about safety even before the fire, but now her full focus on fire safety in the aftermath make a new disaster even more unlikely.

This article appeared first in EQUUS 280.

Disaster Preparedness for Horses

Why Horse Owners Need to Be Prepared

Disaster preparedness is important for all animals, but it takes extra consideration for horses because of their size and their transportation needs. If you think disasters happen only if you live in a flood plain, near an earthquake fault line or in a coastal area, you may be tragically mistaken. Disasters can happen anywhere and can take many different forms, from barn fires to hazardous materials spills to propane line explosions, and train derailments—all of which may necessitate evacuation. It is imperative that you are prepared to move your horses to a safe area.

During an emergency, the time you have to evacuate your horses will be limited. With an effective emergency plan, you may have enough time to move your horses to safety. If you are unprepared or wait until the last minute to evacuate, you could be told by emergency management officials that you must leave your horses behind. Once you leave your property, you have no way of knowing how long you will be kept out of the area. If left behind, your horses could be unattended for days without care, food, or water. To help avoid this situation, we have prepared information and suggestions to help you plan for emergencies.

Barn Fires: The Leading Disaster for Horse Owners

Preventing barn fires and being prepared in the event of a fire can mean the difference between life and death for your horses. Knowledge of the danger of fires and how to deal with them are of the greatest importance and should be an ongoing concern to horse owners.

Fire Prevention Is Key

	Prohibit smoking in or around the barn. A discarded cigarette can ignite dry bedding or hay in seconds.
	Avoid parking tractors and vehicles in or near the barn. Engine heat and backfires can spark a flame.
	Also store other machinery and flammable materials outside the barn.
	Inspect electrical systems regularly and immediately correct any problems. Rodents can chew on electrical wiring and cause damage that quickly becomes a fire hazard.
	Keep appliances to a minimum in the barn. Use stall fans, space heaters, and radios only when someone is in the barn.
	Be sure hay is dry before storing it. Hay that is too moist may spontaneously combust. Store hay outside the barn in a dry, covered area when possible.

Be Prepared for a Barn Fire: It Can Save Your Horse's Life

	Keep aisles, stall doors, and barn doors free of debris and equipment.
	Mount fire extinguishers around the stable, especially at all entrances.
	Have a planned evacuation route for every stall in the barn.
	Familiarize employees and horse handlers with your evacuation plans.
	Post emergency telephone numbers at each telephone and at each entrance. Emergency telephone numbers should include those of the barn manager, veterinarian, emergency response, and other qualified horse handlers.
	Also keep your barn's street address clearly posted to relay to the 911 operator or your community's emergency services.
	Be sure your address and the entrance to your property are clearly visible from the main road.
	Consider installing smoke alarms and heat detectors throughout the barn. New heat sensors can detect rapidly changing temperatures in your barn. The heat sensors should be hooked up to sirens that will quickly alert you and your neighbors to a possible barn fire.
	Host an open house for emergency services personnel in your area to familiarize them with the layout of your property. Provide them with tips on horse handling or present a mini seminar with hands-on training for horse handling.
	Familiarize your horses with emergency procedures and common activities they would encounter during a disaster. Try to desensitize them to flashlights and flashing lights.

New Products Help Prevent Barn Fires

Mattituck, NY (January 29, 2002)-A barn fire is every horse owner's worst nightmare . . . and a nightmare that comes true all too often. Most barn fires have tragic consequences - in the destruction of buildings, equipment, records and irreplaceable items. But they are most devastating when they involve the loss of precious human and animal lives.

We've all seen the tragic headlines. We've all heard the horror stories of horses being burned in their stalls. And we all understand that when flames rage through a barn in the presence of panicked horses, you have a crisis of huge proportions. But did you know that more horses die in barn fires than all other disasters combined?

Anyone who has ever experienced a horse barn fire will tell you that PREVENTION IS PARAMOUNT. Now, thanks to Equine Scientific Products, the horse industry has an affordable and highly effective way to help prevent the devastation of barn fires. Equine Scientific is the exclusive distributor of a line of UL tested and classified fire retardant and flame-proofing solutions called the Adkins' Security ZONE™. These state-of-the-art products are the result of 20 years of intensive development and on-the-job experience in the fire prevention industry. They have been used successfully for years in nursing homes, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, office buildings, etc. For the first time ever, these potentially life-saving products are now available to the equine industry.

The cornerstone of the Adkins' Security ZONE line of products is designed for application on wooden surfaces - like the boards you traditionally find in a stall. Wood properly treated with Security ZONE will not support flame. This unique product is highly effective, long lasting, easy to apply, colorless, odorless, non-staining, non-toxic, environmentally friendly, and safe for humans and animals. Additional fire retardant products in the Security ZONE line will be introduced in the near future. Fire safety experts tell us that once a fire starts in a horse's stall, there is only a window of about 30 seconds to rescue it before the animal suffers fatal burns or smoke inhalation. Horses in adjoining stalls have five to eight minutes to be rescued, depending on stall construction and proximity to the fire.

These same experts say that 80-85% of horse barn fires are caused by electrical malfunctions or by human error and carelessness (smoking, forgetting a water-bucket heater, overloading electrical connections, etc.). This sobering statistic points to the fact that the majority of all barn fires are the result of a lack of understanding of what Equine Scientific calls the four "Ps" - Prevent, Prepare, Plan and Practice.

In an effort to help educate horse people on the importance of fire prevention and the significance of the four "Ps," Equine Scientific is in the process of developing an instructional pamphlet on the subject. They are collaborating on the contents with equine industry leaders as well as fire safety and fire fighting professionals. The pamphlet will be available free-of-charge beginning in August 2002. Watch for further details.

Meanwhile, it goes without saying that horse owners need to prepare for the eventuality of a fire by eliminating all sources of fire risk in and around the barn. They also need to have an emergency plan of action - including an evacuation plan - and to practice the plan ahead of time. But even more importantly, they need to take the preventative step of making their horses' environments as fire retardant and flame proof as possible.

Equine Scientific believes strongly that horse people need to "Be Proactive, Not Reactive" when it comes to the proper care of their horses. This adage is particularly appropriate for the Security ZONE line of products, because taking a proactive role in fire prevention is every horse owner's responsibility.

Adkins' Security ZONE is available nationwide in tack and farm stores. To place an order, or for further information about all of the innovative and life-enhancing products offered by Equine Scientific, contact them toll-free at 877-362-2285.

DISASTER PLANNING FOR HORSES

Why Horse Owners Need to be Prepared

Disaster preparedness is important for all animals, but it takes extra consideration for horses because of their

size and the requirements for transporting them. If you think that disasters can’t happen in Vermont, you may

be tragically mistaken. Disasters such as barn fires, hazardous materials spills, propane line explosions, ice

storms, floods and train derailments can happen anywhere. All of these emergencies may necessitate

evacuation, so it is imperative that you are prepared to move your horses to a safe area.

During an emergency, the time you have to evacuate your horses will be limited. With an effective emergency

plan, you may have enough time to move your horses to safety. If you are unprepared or wait until the last

minute to evacuate, you could be told by emergency management officials that you must leave your horses behind. Once you leave your property,

you have no way of knowing how long you will be kept out of the area. If left behind, either loose in a field or in a barn, your horses could be

unattended for days without care, food, or water. To help you minimize the risk of this happening, we have prepared information and suggestions

to help you plan for emergencies.

B a r n F i r e s : T h e L e a d i n g D i s a s t e r f o r H o r s e O w n e r s

Preventing barn fires and being prepared in the event of a fire can mean the difference between life and death for your horses and also for those

people trying to help. Knowledge of the danger of fires and how to deal with them are of the greatest importance and should be an ongoing

concern to horse owners.

F i r e P r e v e n t i o n I s K e y

· Prohibit smoking in or around the barn. A discarded cigarette can ignite dry bedding or hay in seconds.

· Avoid parking tractors and vehicles in or near the barn. Engine heat and backfires can spark a flame.

· Also store other machinery and flammable materials outside of the barn.

· Inspect electrical systems regularly and immediately correct any problems. Rodents can chew on electrical wiring and cause damage that

quickly becomes a fire hazard.

· Keep appliances to a minimum in the barn. Use stall fans, space heaters, and radios only when someone is in the barn.

· Be sure hay is dry before storing it. Hay that is too moist may spontaneously combust. Store hay outside of the barn in a dry, covered

area when possible.

B e P r e p a r e d f o r a B a r n F i r e -- I t C a n S a v e Y o u r H o r s e ' s L i f e

· Keep aisles, stall doors, and barn doors free of debris and equipment.

· Mount fire extinguishers around the stable, especially at all entrances.

· Have a planned evacuation route for every stall in the barn.

· Familiarize employees and horse handlers with your evacuation plans.

· Post emergency telephone numbers at each telephone and at each entrance. Emergency telephone numbers should include those of the

barn manager, veterinarian, emergency response, and other qualified horse handlers.

· Also keep your barn's street address clearly posted to relay to the 911 operator or your community's emergency services.

· Be sure your address and the entrance to your property are clearly visible from the main road.

· Consider installing smoke alarms and heat detectors throughout the barn. New heat sensors can detect rapidly changing temperatures in

your barn. The heat sensors should be hooked up to sirens that will quickly alert you and your neighbors to a possible barn fire.

· Host an open house for emergency services personnel in your area to familiarize them with the layout of your property. Provide them

with tips on horse handling or present a mini seminar with hands-on training for horse handling.

2

· Familiarize your horses with emergency procedures and common activities they would encounter during a disaster. Try to desensitize

them to flashlights and flashing lights.

I n t h e E v e n t o f a B a r n F i r e

· Immediately call 911 or your local emergency services. Keep that number clearly posted.

· Do not enter the barn if it is already engulfed in flames.

· If it is safe for you to enter the barn, evacuate horses one at a time starting with the most accessible horses. Be sure to put a halter and

lead rope on each horse when you open the stall door. Be aware that horses tend to run back into burning barns out of fear and

confusion.

· Blindfold horses only if absolutely necessary. Many horses will balk at a blindfold, making evacuation more difficult and time consuming.

· Move your horses to paddocks close enough to reach quickly but far enough from the barn that the horses will not be affected by the fire

and smoke. Never let horses loose in an area where they are able to return to the barn.

· After the fire, be sure to have all your horses checked by a veterinarian. Smoke inhalation can cause serious lung damage and

respiratory complications. Horses are prone to stress and may colic after a fire.

H o r s e E v a c u a t i o n T i p s

· Make arrangements in advance to have your horse trailered in case of an emergency. If you do not have your own trailer or do not have

enough trailer space for all of your horses, be sure you have several people on standby to help evacuate your horses.

· Know where you can take your horses in an emergency evacuation. Make arrangements with a friend or another horse owner to stable

your horses if needed. Contact your local animal care and control agency, agricultural extension agent, or local emergency management

authorities for information about shelters in your area.

· Inform friends and neighbors of your evacuation plans. Post detailed instructions in several places-including the barn office or tack room,

the horse trailer, and barn entrances-to ensure they are accessible to emergency workers in case you are not able to evacuate your

horses yourself.

· Place your horses' Coggins tests, veterinary papers, identification photographs, and vital information-such as medical history, allergies,

and emergency telephone numbers (veterinarian, family members, etc.)-in a watertight envelope. Store the envelope with your other

important papers in a safe place that can be quickly reached.

· Keep halters ready for your horses. Each halter should include the following information: the horse's name, your name, your telephone

number, and another emergency telephone number where someone can be reached.

· Prepare a basic first aid kit that is portable and easily accessible.

· Be sure to have on hand a supply of water, hay, feed, and medications for several days for each horse you are evacuating.

· It is very important that your horses are comfortable being loaded onto a trailer. If your horses are unaccustomed to being loaded onto

a trailer, practice the procedure so they become used to it.

Fire Season in Horse Country - A Prevention Guide, by Carolyn Burch

"Safely out of the barn", digital painting by Stacey Mayer

Fire season can be one of the most frightening times of the year for horse owners. Each fire season brings with it horror stories of loved livestock lost forever.

Over the past ten years in the Calfornia and Oregon areas of the West Coast, brush fires have become a continuous threat to many areas and in other parts of the country barn fires are the main fire-related danger. But whatever the destination and cause, fire is of immanent danger to horsemen of all breeds and disciplines.

There are things that can be done to prepare in advance should the unthinkable occur. "Be prepared" is a motto not just for boy scouts.

The seven top reasons why horses perish in fires of all kinds can be divided into several main direct causes.

They are all preventable.

Hard to catch horses

Absence of halters and leadropes or insufficient quantities of either

People who are not around enough to notice the first signs of danger

Lack of smoke detectors and/or fire sprinkler systems

Highly flammable materials stored in and near barns and horse sheds, high brush

Lack of trailer or trailers sufficient to remove horses

Difficult to load horses

The number one reason why horses die in fires is hard to catch horses. Often we underestimate the importance of horses having good manners such as catchability, but really we must consider the fact that in nine out of ten cases, the hour in which fire or disaster strikes, someone other than you will be handling your horses. No less important is the fact that in disasters of sudden onset, volunteers are often those people. And many times a volunteer may be someone who’s never haltered or led a horse in their life.

Your horses should be easy to halter and catch, lead, load, etc. if for no other reason but for their own safety.

Teaching a horse to be caught easily is just a matter of repetition of good stimulus every time you catch and halter, so isn’t really all that difficult to achieve. Generally horses who’ve learned to dislike being caught associate haltering with work, farriers, or vets: none of which make the idea appetizing. There are even a few who think it’s just plain fun to watch the human get a workout, in which case reverse psychology is in order. The next time old Ibn waits for you to get almost to him with the halter and then makes great popping motions with his eyes and demonstrates his best trotting motion, be prepared to give him the workout he deserves. Chase him continuously until he visibly makes a change and comes to you. Several excellent videos on this technique can be found in the Ray Hunt and Buck Brannaman collections.

There is simply no reason why any horse from the age of six months and up need be difficult to catch.

Barn safety generally recommends that halter and leadropes be kept locked up for horse theft prevention. However, in several cases in the press recently, the simple lack of access to these items prevented fast and total evacuation of several facilities. Many facilities are making what is called a Total Retrieval and Access Plan (TRAP) for farms and stables housing more than a few horses. In a Total Retrieval and Access Plan, a written guide is spelled out and mapped, naming and locating specific horses on a piece of land, by stall if stalled, where all leads and tack are kept, and providing emergency phone numbers and information for the owners, and the most crucial item: keys to all gates, tack rooms, and locked gates on the property. This information pack is duplicated, given to the horse club secretary that the owners belong to, and also to the local law enforcement office closest to the property to be filed in case it is ever needed.

In this way, when emergency strikes, even if you are absent, there are at least two groups of people likely to know and be able to save your horses. And information such as "In the wooded pasture in back of the house there are four grey horses and one bay" can be lifesavers when minutes count.

Often what saves the most horses in fire situations is the nearness of people to their location. Night watchmen are responsible for saving several horses in a recent fire in a country club that burned to the ground just a month ago. A barn or shed should be where it can be seen, and if not by sight, then by camera. Many, many horse accidents and tragedies have been prevented or curtailed early by installing one of the many monitors made for such purposes on the market. Relatively inexpensive, such systems let you be where you cannot be and can give you at least a little peace of mind. While they won’t put the fire out or let you know it’s there without looking, they do prevent a walk out in the middle of night that you might not take otherwise.

Smoke detectors are unfortunately one of the most underutilized items in barns and horse environments. While it is understandable that installation of sprinkler systems is not done much due to cost prohibitive reasons, (the average automated systems cost in the range of $30,000 to install in a 12 stall barn) battery operated models of the standard household smoke detector cost so little and are so simple to install that it’s amazing that they aren’t used more. Will it scare the heck out of your horses if it goes off? Probably, but so will fire, right?! And it may alert you or your neighbors to impending danger you would not have known about otherwise. False alarms are infrequent in barn situations anyway due to plentiful airflow. But even if you don’t have a barn, install one in your feed room and tack room. Smoke can be deadly just twenty or thirty yards away to a foal.

Highly flammable materials doesn’t just mean gasoline. A heavily saddle-soaped old leather saddle will burn to ash in fifteen minutes, sending flames eight feet high in some tests. Most people don’t realize the highly flammable contents of their tack rooms. All types of saddle greases, vegetable oils used for feeding, hoof conditioners, grooming supplies, anything in a pressurized spray can, saddle blankets and tack made of synthetic materials, and even some vitamin supplements and grain can be highly volatile and even explosive in a fire. For this reason, no feed or tack should really ever be stored in the same building as the horses. Alfalfa hay, for hundreds of years has been known to spontaneously combust due to the curing process, and can produce internal heat in excess of 100 degrees in most cases, sometimes in the dead of winter. Stacking new Alfalfa bales in a tight square with no "chimney" or open area in the middle of the stack has been known to cause such combustion by not allowing the release of gasses and heat.

In addition, all brush should be cleared from barn areas, and even overhanging trees that we often keep because they yield shade can be our worst enemies in the case of a brush fire which send great flaming cinders out ahead of it into those very trees. When after a short while the leaves dry from the heat, catch fire, and begin to drop onto our roofs, a barn can become an inferno in a matter of minutes.

In many communities, the problem of having one trailer to haul ten horses is a very real threat to the lives of many of the horses who will have to wait their turn as they are evacuated. Many horse owners don’t kept their trailers at home or don’t own one, so the challenge of moving horses out rapidly in the case of a fire can be a very serious problem. Many horse clubs have formed networks for this purpose, lifelines of sorts in the case of disaster. Not unlike the TRAP, notes are made on which horses are where in the community and then volunteers in the neighborhood make themselves available to haul in an emergency situation. Most often there are still not enough trailers to go around in one round, but it’s a start, and a much more effective way to plan ahead for when disaster may strike.

There are no sure-fire ways to be certain that your horses will be safe from harm. But with good and careful planning, safe flammable material handling, community action plans like these, and teamwork from our fellow horsemen, we can sleep a little bit better knowing our friends are protected in every way possible.

Stable technology: most stables contain plenty of hay, sawdust and other flammable materials, providing ideal conditions for very rapid fire spread. Early fire detection is absolutely essential, especially when the stables in question are home to some of the most valuable racehorses in the world - Fire Safety Solution
Fire, August, 2003 by Peter Fox

Some of the finest horses in the world are owned by the Godolphin Horse Racing Team and their stables are now protected by Airsense Technology. Owned by the Maktoum family, the Godolphin Horse Racing Team consists of some of the most expensive racehorses in the world. Its top mounts are kept at the Al Quoz stable in Dubai between October and April, with facilities such as a private training track and equine swimming pool.

Given the immense value of the horses, fire safely is of paramount importance.

Sawdust, hay and other flammable materials are present in abundance and electrical fires and carelessly discarded smoking materials carry an ever-present risk, while the unusual environment encourages corrosion in most fire detection products. As fire can spread very quickly in such conditions, it is vitally important that very early fire detection can be offered.

Flame detection is inappropriate for providing incipient fire warnings, as it is only able to detect flames at a late stage of fire development, which is obviously not quick enough. Lonisation smoke detectors are unable to provide reliable warnings due to wind passing through when doors are opened, and the very high levels of dust present affects optical type smoke detectors and has caused nuisance alarms in the past. The solution lies with aspirating technology. Aspirating smoke detection systems offer the earliest warning available, providing an opportunity to allow manual intervention, inspection and fire prevention.

The major benefit of this type of system is its extremely high sensitivity achieved without fear of nuisance alarms. A comparison with traditional type, or 'point' detectors reveals that photoelectric 'point' detectors typically operate at sensitivity values of between three per cent to eight per cent obscuration per metre. What does this figure actually mean?

If a light beam is shone over a one metre length, the amount of smoke needed to trigger an alarm would be such that between three per cent to eight per cent of projected light does not reach the distance of one metre. By comparison, a sensitive aspirating detector such as the Stratos-HSSD system, is capable of responding to changes in smoke density as low as 0.003 per cent obs/m Literally, more than 1,000 times more sensitive than the most sensitive conventional 'point' type detectors.

High sensitivity/early warning to fire is afforded by laser interrogation of a sample of air, positively drawn into a centralised detection cabinet via strategically positioned, perforated sampling pipes. The airflow is monitored for small variations which could be caused by partially blocked sampling points, broken pipes or faulty aspirator.

The Strotes-HSSD system, manufactured by AirSense Technology Ltd has been used for protecting racehorse stables for many years, and is also installed in Godolphin's Al Quoz group stables. In employing a full Artificial Intelligence (AI) system, called ClassiFire, it can continuously adjust the system's operating parameters to match the day-to-day (and day-tonight) changes in the environment and to automatically condition itself to closely monitor the environmental changes within the protected area.

While it adapts to the normal ambient conditions, it will also detect anything out of the ordinary with multiple alarms growing in magnitude according to the degree of danger. Its ability to discriminate between combustion particles and dust is of particular value daring feeding times--nuisance alarms being common during this period in the past--as the Stratos-HSSD system ignores the rise in dust particulates.

Most aspirating smoke detectors use a simple filter to remove the majority of dust from the sampled air, while others use a system of electronic dust discrimination. The Stralos-HSSD system uses both techniques, resulting in a detector that is virtually dustimmune. Filters are a simple solution to the problem of dust, but unless they are coupled to an Artificial Intelligence system, 1he solution is fraught with problems.

When a filler is new, it will allow the passage of most combustion products, and will slop most non-fire related particles, such as dust, from entering the detector. However, as the filter becomes progressively contaminated with particles it has the effect of making the filter ever-finer, blocking ever-smaller particles (including smoke particles) and eventually stopping them from passing through to the detector sensor. Unless the detector is equipped with a means of sensing this situation and compensating, it will become ever less sensitive in direct proportion to the degree of contamination contained in the filter

The Stratos-HSSD system is designed to be fully compatible and interfaced with conventional fire detection systems, used to protect other less critical areas, so that all alarms and systems information can be accessed from one central control point.