Stourbridge women led horses out of a field minutes before a wildfire burned it

A group of women from a riding yard in Stourbridge led horses out of a field in the path of a wildfire on 13 August, the Stourbridge News reported.

The fire broke out shortly before 1:30 in the afternoon and spread quickly, damaging homes and forcing people to leave them. Members of Sugarloaf Equestrian Centre saw it from their yard, just down the road, and spotted eight horses in a field directly in its path.

“A few of us noticed the fire just down the road from us and five of us went down to the field and managed to get three horses out from the field that was on fire,” said Izzy Williams, 20, one of the women. The paper reported that the group, which included the yard’s owner, Helen Walker, saved eight. They used a bucket of feed to lead the horses to safety.

“The fire was really close, and we didn’t realise how fast it was spreading, and I’d say from the time we got the horses out of the field within about five minutes it was completely burnt,” Williams said.

“I think in the moment the adrenalin hits and we just got on with it. Any of us, especially horsey people, would have gone in there and got those horses out.”Izzy Williams, to the Stourbridge News

The thank-you

West Midlands Police has since invited the group to the stables of its mounted unit, where they met the police horses, toured the facilities and watched the mounted officers at work. Bryn Robins, the chief inspector for Dudley’s neighbourhood teams, came to thank them in person.

“These women saved the lives of several horses as the fire raged towards fields,” Robins said, adding that putting themselves between the fire and the animals was “incredibly brave”. He said the effects of the August fires are still being felt across Stourbridge and Dudley, where some people lost their homes.