Summary
- Make a plan for your horses before bushfire season.
- Set up Property Identification Codes.
- Prepare and maintain a 'safe' paddock for your horses.
- Move your horses to the safe paddock the night before or morning of an extreme or catastrophic fire day.
- Put your own safety before your animals' safety.
- Leave internal gates open when you leave.
Whether your horses are located at home or on an agistment property, you need to plan and prepare for their safety over the bushfire season. Use the checklist below to protect you and your horses.
Prepare and maintain a 'safe' space to relocate your horses
- Identify and maintain a suitable 'safe' paddock for your horses, ideally near a dam, for example:
- A large eaten out paddock.
- A series of smaller eaten out paddocks with internal gates left open
- A large sand menage which isn't close to buildings, trees or plants which could easily catch fire
- If your property is not suitable, make a plan for where to move the horses on extreme or catastrophic days. Here are some options:
- agistment over summer
- a well prepared neighbour or friend's property
- local showgrounds
- saleyards
- racetrack
- pony club (if better prepared than your own property)
Plan to relocate your horses and leave early, well before a bushfire strikes.
Prepare your property
- Reduce vegetation around fencing (manually or by spraying).
What to do on hot, windy days
Move your horses to a safer location or 'safe paddock' well before a fire starts on Catastrophic fire danger days.
If the fire danger rating is forecast to hit Extreme or Catastrophic, enact your plan.
- If your property is not safe, move your horses to a safer location well before a fire starts. Once a fire has started it is too late to move them safely.
- Relocate your horses to the designated safe paddock identified the night before, or early in the morning of an extreme or catastrophic fire danger day.
- If leaving horses on your property, open internal gates to allow them to use their instinct to run away from fire.
- Keep access to external roads shut.
- Remove halters, rugs and fly veils to reduce risk of burns. They can melt, catch on fire or get caught on fences.
- Quickly plaiting your horse's tail and mane can help prevent embers catching in them.
- If your horse is not microchipped and is difficult to catch, leave a leather halter on with ID tags or write an ID or phone number on the hoof with permanent pen.
Quickly plaiting your horse's tail can make it harder for embers to get caught in the tail.
Make sure your horse can be identified. Microchipping is best, but if you haven't done that yet, writing your mobile number on a hoof might help.
Put yourself first
We know how important horses are to you and your life on your farm, and how tempting it is to put your horses' safety before your own, but it's crucial to make plans to leave your property on extreme and catastrophic fire days.
If you decide to stay on site and protect your horses, you risk exposing yourself to life-threatening radiant heat, and even death.
Note: power outages might affect electric fencing and automatic feeders.
Looking after a horse with burns
Horses recover well after a fire, but they need treatment as soon as possible. Horses might have burns on their face and their eyelids might be very swollen. Any first-aid should involve anti-inflammatories.
Other things you can do before they're seen by a vet:
- Sponge burns with cold water.
- Stand your horse in a bucket of water if their leg is burnt.
Equestrian businesses and fire planning
If you run an equestrian business, it's important you have a plan for the people and animals under your care, and clear communication lines with your customers and clients.
Agistment properties
If you run an agistment property, consider these things as you put together your bushfire plan:
- Your trigger to leave, for example, the morning of an extreme or catastrophic fire day.
- Who is responsible for removing rugs, halters and fly veils on hot, windy days.
- Communicating fire plans to agisters leading up to extreme/catastrophic fire risk days, for example, via SMS.
- Confirm agistees plans for extreme and catastrophic fire risk days.
- Closing parts of your property on extreme and catastrophic fire risk days.
- Changing rules for hot, windy days, such as:
- Riding activities stop before 10AM
- Under 18's have to have an adult with them on the property.
Trail riding business or riding centres
If you run a trail riding or riding centre business, consider these things as you put together your bushfire plan:
- Your trigger to cancel or postpone activities. For example, the the day before an extreme or catastrophic fire day, cancel all activities for the following day.
- Changing the route or location of your rides on hot, windy days.
- Setting up a cancellation clause in your booking system.
- Plans for communicating cancellations or changes to bookings.
Resources
Horses and bushfires
A quick guide for horse owners to help keep their horses safe during bushfires.
Horses and bushfires planning template
A planning template to help horse owners know what to do on fire risk days.
Page last updated: Thursday, 8 October 2026 12:13:17 PM