‘Hardest working cowgirl’ is among trainers saving frightened horses in Mountain fire

The urgent call to Ashli Wells came from a fellow horse trainer. The W D Sence Ranch in Somis was in the path of flames from the Mountain fire, Audrey Martinez told her. Martinez said she was trying to evacuate six horses alone.

Hearing that, Wells sprung into action.

“She was there by herself. She didn’t have a truck or a trailer and she was surrounded by flames,” Wells  recalled. “There were flames on the property and she called me and said, ‘Get here with a truck and trailer.’ “

Martinez, meanwhile, worked tirelessly to get horses into trailers, a task that can often be difficult due to the animals’ sensitive nature amidst strong winds and the ominous sounds of helicopters.

“You just kind of start doing what’s necessary and not thinking about anything else,” Martinez said.

Less than a mile away from the Ranch, Wells was stopped by a firetruck and told that she could not continue driving to the ranch. She expressed her concern for Martinez and the horses’ safety, but was told by a firefighter that the situation was too dangerous to continue.

“He said no. You don’t understand, the fire is coming, it’s coming fast. We have to get out the other way,” Wells said.

He told her that there was no time to turn around.

“In the process of me and him arguing, the eucalyptus trees that were in the middle started to go up in flames,” she recalled. “Me and my dog got out and got in his truck and braved some of the fire a little bit down the road in a turnout area, before we could safely drive through. His engine started to smoke. I believe it was caught on fire, but they were able to put it out pretty quickly.”

Once it was safe to do so, Wells and her dog were able to get into a different truck and get through the fiery road to the ranch.

Her own truck, with an attached horse trailer, that she had to leave on the road, was destroyed in the fire.

Wells cited the ranch owner’s dedication to brush clearance and weed abatement and their use of a water truck and hoses to keep the barn and trailers watered as part of why she thinks the fire did not affect any of the structures on the property, though it burned right up to one of the barns.

All of the horses at the ranch were safe following the fire.

“Our ranch was very fire safe,” she said. “The horses that were close to trees, we tied up in the arena. The ones that were in pipe corral stalls, we don’t have any wood stalls, they were all fine where they were. The fire burned around us.”

Now Wells, Martinez and the owners of the ranch worry about what may happen to the property when it next rains in the area, Wells said. Mudslides have previously been a post-fire issue in surrounding areas and the Mountain fire did burn many areas on the ranch’s property.

Leatha McCoy, 62, a certified public accountant in Camarillo, has been keeping horses at the W D Sence Ranch for 24 years. Long before the fire, she admired and respected the people who work with the horses, and is particularly fond of Wells and her dedication to the animals.

“Whenever I see her at the ranch, I ask her, ‘How’s the hardest working cowgirl I know?’ ” McCoy said.

She is grateful for the work the trainers and other employees do to keep the horses safe in evacuation situations and noted the level of care they take throughout the process.

“They get halters on at every stall, with a name of the horse and a phone number. Then, if we can, we try to put an identifying mark on their hooves, just in case they have to leave the ranch or turn the horses free,” McCoy said of the ranch’s detailed process.

She was on the way to the ranch to assist with the process of identifying horses and labeling their halters, but with the level of smoke and proximity to the fire, she had to turn around.

“I was called to evacuate my horse, so they let me through with my truck. But the fire was on both sides of the road and the smoke was black and thick,” she said. “I couldn’t see to get through, so I had to turn around and come back.”

McCoy was grateful for the safety of Wells and the other trainers at the ranch as well as the safety of the animals, remembering a fire in the early 2000’s at the ranch that resulted in many horses and cattle perishing.

The trailer attached to Wells’ car that burned alongside it in the fire belonged to McCoy, but she doesn’t care about any material losses.

“It was my trailer that Ashli had, and the first thing I did when she texted me was, I called her and said, “Please do not worry about my trailer. That’s nothing,” McCoy said. “Just thank God that you are okay.”

Sarah Reingewirtz contributed to this report.