Page 28 - AEF-AlbertaBits_Summer-2025

Horse Keeping
“
 It is really about keeping the horses
calm. And if you have that extra time
to prep ahead and load up the trailer
and do it in a very orderly manner.”
— Trevor Mertes
club where they had evacuated them, when
her husband called about the mandatory
evacuation order. With six horses on the
property and a trailer built for three, George
faced the gut-wrenching decision to leave
three behind. But her 25-year-old daughter
couldn’t bear it — her “baby” Celtic, who
she’d had since he was just six-months-old,
was still there.
“We couldn’t get back. Once we got on
the highway to haul the horses, there was no
turning around. There was no getting back
into the area,” George recalls. She had to send
a friend into the area on a motorcycle to
swiftly bring her daughter out.
George and other evacuees sought refuge
in a Lafarge warehouse at the north end
of Fort McMurray. They spread sand on the
floor to make the horses more comfortable.
They were determined to find a way to
rescue Celtic and the others, but they’d have
to wait until the inferno ceased and the
highways reopened. It felt like a miracle
when, weeks later, they found all horses alive
after being rescued by the Canadian Armed
Forces and volunteers.
The crisis prompted the club to create an
evacuation plan. Now, in the face of potential
disaster, members are required to share
whether they have trailers for their own
horses and if they have room to transport
others in an emergency. And that’s exactly
what they did eight years later when the area
was forced to evacuate yet again following
another wildfire southwest of Fort McMurray.
Trevor Mertes, an Extreme Cowboy and
horsemanship clinician in Cochrane, knows
the toll severe weather can take on horse
care. The owner of Horses That Work has been
caring for horses in disaster-prone regions for
more than 25 years.
Years of dealing with extreme weather,
droughts and pests have taught him that
planning ahead is essential — for both horse
28
Alberta Bits Summer 2025