The Eaton Fire

January 5, 2025

The light had that beautiful luminosity of winter, but the day felt like spring. Almost too warm for sweatshirts. Birds moving all about in the afternoon light.  Spotted towhees, white crowned sparrows, scrub jays, ravens, gnat catchers...the chaparral was full of sound and color.

La Barilla was particularly animated, hooves clattering over rugged terrain.  Grace was trying to school him, keep his movements measured, but it was proving difficult.

"Are you all right?" Skye called out.

"I'm tempted to get off and walk" Grace said. "I don't know what's gotten into him. But he's doing better on these rocks than I would so maybe I'm better off in the saddle."

And then Ladyhawk started reacting to something, although not as dramatically.

In another moment, the cause of their excitement became clear. Petrichor's band appeared, more or less directly in front of them.

La Barilla squealed and made a great show of striking out with his front hooves.

"Back..." Grace made the stallion back several steps, using Skye and Ladyhawk as a visual shield.

The bay mare paused for moment, then changed direction, moving to her left and away from the girls. From the rear of the herd came a loud snort, and then another. Petrichor heard the challenging stallion, and now he could smell him, and see the silhouettes of mounted horses before him.

Thorn and the roan mare followed the bay.

Petrichor looked fit. For a fleeting moment he paused, cast a wary eye towards the girls and their horses...and then followed his herd away.

"I'm exhausted" Grace said. "That ride was a workout."

"Who do think would win?" Skye asked.

"What?"

"If Petrichor and La Barilla got in a fight, who would win?"

"Oh. Man. I don't know. Petrichor is a lot bigger. And wild. He should know some fight moves."

"Yeah but La Barilla looks pretty tough. I think he'd find his inner demon pretty quick."

Grace smiled. "Actually both of them are really good natured horses, especially for stallions. Let's hope we never learn the answer to your question."  

January 8

They could only hear the wind. Lapsing, growling, roiling through. From mile 46 on the highway, the Eaton fire looked safely distant. More so, in fact, than it had from the ranch.

The boss studied her reflection in the rear view mirror. It was somewhat pale and mostly expressionless. 

"I would hand you tweezers but you don't seem to be looking for chin hairs" Grace said, hoping to pry something salient from the silence.

The boss smiled ever so slightly. "No, I was wondering if my face looked...numb, or perhaps conflicted. If it reflected what I'm feeling. Which is hard to describe. And I think it sort of does."

The boss pulled over again at mile 43. The fire was much less part of the distant landscape now. They viewed Mount Wilson, its telescopes and communications towers, against a background of hot smoke.

"What horses got evacuated?" Skye asked. 

There was a long pause. "I can't think of them all. But not nearly as many as last time. Your black mare went again Skye. But I have to tell you, if this is the way things are going to be from here forward, we should probably find a home for her down the mountain. This can't be easy on her. "

"Who didn't get evacuated...was Scottish Magpie."

"The Clydesdale mare?" Skye questioned.

"Yes. And she looked like she wanted to go, but there just wasn't enough room for her."

Skye looked troubled.

"Don't worry" the boss said. "Tanner is staying. He'll handle everything. Really Skye, we're the lucky ones this time around."

"You know I lived at the observatory for about a year and a half" the boss continued. "It's a magical place. I really don't know how else to describe it."

There was a long silence. Grace eventually broke it. "This is being called the worst disaster in the history of Los Angeles."

More silence.

"We better get going" the boss said, pulling back out onto the empty highway.

January 19

The wind was calm for a spell on Sunday morning. Delicious warm sun and clear skies embraced the mountain. The boss tried to get photos of some of the horses. Grace and Skye had been busy since before dawn getting them ready for their photo shoots.


"Do you like this arena?" Grace asked.

"No, not really" the boss said. "Hear his hooves on the hard ground? Most of the sand has already blown away."

Grace nodded.

"And the trek up the hill to get to it. It's going to be fine this morning but can you imagine bringing twenty horses up here?"

"Well if I'm riding them it won't be so bad..."


"We'll get it sorted out" the boss said. "If the worst thing we have to complain about is losing our outdoor arenas to the wind, I think we should count ourselves fortunate."

A mare they called Heaven danced around the arena.  A sport horse, very light grey, very well balanced.

"There!" the boss exclaimed. "Got the shot!"


Next came a Trakhener.  He was big, and he was at times hard to handle.  The boss was aiming to sell him.  The big bay stallion watched Grace's every move for cues, not remotely difficult today.  

"Can you move his ribbon ever so slightly down more toward his chest?" the boss asked.

Grace wasn't a warmblood girl, but probably only because she hadn't been raised in that persuasion. They were regal, bold, intelligent, and big. 

"Starting tomorrow the wind will be back" the boss commented.

The girls didn't reply. The wind, the heat, the dry conditions, the evacuations...their lives had been dominated by these elements for months. There wasn't anything to do but stay vigilant, hope for the best, and keep looking for another suitable place for an outdoor arena. 

January 25

Grace and Skye perched on the rocks north of the ranch, watching the clouds roll in.  The sky was dark and deliciously promising.

"This wind is so cold. But I'm so excited. Do you really think it's gonna snow Grace?"

"Eighty to ninety per cent chance" Grace replied. "The actual temperature isn't going to be very cold, but the wind chill is."

"Yeah no kidding. Let's take a herd of horses out tomorrow!"

"Ugh...I think this whole storm is going to come with wind. At least here, for us."

Skye let out a deep sigh. "Still. Finally. It feels like winter."

The girls turned out mares in the shelter of the indoor arena. Just in case the coming storm was in fact equal parts wind and snow. 

Grace poured some love on Topaz, the palomino quarter horse mare that she's grown rather fond of.  "I love everything about this mare" Grace said. She's gorgeous and she has such a sweet disposition."

"Her filly too!"

Soon some of the other mares came for rubs and scratches.

The Black made her way over to Skye. Grace watched her move. She had slowed down, but she appeared to be sound, and no worse for the sudden change in temperature.

They turned out a few more active mares next. Comet, AKA Skye's Black Beauty, Dani Girl, and Cookie.

As the day's light faded behind increasing cloud cover, Grace brought out La Barilla, and Skye brought Ladyhawk down to the arena. La Barilla had become much more confident with the ground poles. Grace was hoping some day they could go across them straight, and not diagonally.

"He's sure a lot better than the first time!" Skye remarked.

"Yeah he is. And we're not completely sideways..."

Skye took Ladyhawk confidently over the poles.

"She'll never look once where she's putting her feet" Skye said, "and chances are she'll do it perfect."

Perfect it was.

When the girls left the arena it was night. The lights from the fire station illuminated a billowing mist. The storm had begun, and the night was dark. 

Back at home, Grace and Skye admired a new Breyer.

"Who is this?" Skye asked.

"I can't recall her name. Enya maybe. It's a brand new mold. The boss said we're welcome to baby sit her for a little bit."

"We need to make her something to lay on so she doesn't get scratched on the bottom."

"Good idea" Grace nodded.

"Is it a fat pony or a pony mare in foal or a horse in foal?"

"Not sure" Grace said.

"Well, let's put her somewhere safe and do our NaMoPaiMo photo."

"Do we have to be in the photo?" Grace asked. "Nevermind. You're going to make me be in the photo."


Grace lifted Enya to move her to a new location.  "Oh my gosh this girl is heavy. This is definitely a pregnant mare."

​And then Skye prepared everything for their NaMoPaiMo* picture, with their freshly primed and paint-ready models...the smallest they would ever attempt.

"Are you smiling Grace?"

"Yes, I'm smiling."

January 26

It was just a dusting in some places, but it was glorious. The wind had pushed the snow thin in some locations, piled it deeper n others.

They'd found Petrichor's band exactly where they had seen them some three weeks ago. Except everything was different this time. Grace wasn't riding a stallion. And it wasn't too warm for sweatshirts.

The wild horses were about to move out of sight.

Grace and Skye stepped out of the relative shelter of the rock face, to watch the horses depart.

Petrichor turned back toward them.  The mares kept their distance. The snow began to fall in earnest.

Petrichor hesitated. The girls held still. Skye didn't usually approach him. Not that he hadn't seen her plenty of times. Or maybe it was the slippery footing. Whatever the reason, after a few electric moments, Petrichor turned back to his herd, and the wild horses slipped away into the wintery world, hooves silent in the snow.
                                                                                       #