Eddie and the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires

2025 has been a challenging year so far. Many of you have asked how Eddie is doing after the Los Angeles fires. The fires burned over 57,000 acres of land, destroyed entire cities and forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate. The fire that was closest to Eddie was the January 22 Hughes Fire, in the vicinity of Castaic Lake in the northern part of Los Angeles County.

In addition to people evacuating, horses, cats, dogs, and other animals had to flee the heat of flames and suffocating smoke. Eddie was among those who temporarily had to leave his home at the ranch because of the thick smoke that rolled down the mountains. It was hard to breathe, much less see through the smoky air, so the decision was made to load up Eddie and his friends and evacuate from Val Verde Ranch to Fillmore Equestrian Center.

The evacuation was relatively eventless, although Eddie decided to reorganize the trailer that he traveled in. He figured out how to get loose and moved from the front of the trailer to the back where he could get a better look at his surroundings.

Once at Fillmore Equestrian Center, Eddie and the entire herd settled to have dinner and spend the night away from home. As a herd, the horses had each other for familiarity and did not seem concerned. Two days later they returned home without a scratch.

We still don’t know how the fire was started or how many horses had to be evacuated overall. The trauma of the fires will remain with people as the community rebuilds. It is our hope that many of them will get support and that equine therapy may be a part of some of the ones who need healing. We are also grateful to all the nonprofit organizations that helped the community, including those that supported displaced equines.

Thank you to all who helped and continue to help after the Los Angeles wildfires.

Annika (Writer/Director), Betsy (Producer),

Pam (Co-Producer), Bergitte (Co-Producer),

and Eddie (Equine Consultant)