Firefighters feed horses in an area burned by the Daybreak Fire about 12 miles north of Huntington on July 15, 2025. (Al Crouch, BLM/Contributed Photo)

Dale Godfrey knew her horse, Goldie, was being given the best possible medical treatment.

But Godfrey still couldn’t fall asleep even though it was past 2 a.m. on Wednesday, July 16, when she returned to her home in Huntington.

“I was worried about my horse,” Godfrey said on Wednesday morning. “We could still lose her.”

Goldie, an 8-year-old registered Appaloosa that Godfrey and her husband, Edward, have owned for six years, was burned over 40% of her body in the 851-acre Daybreak Fire that started Tuesday afternoon along Hibbard Creek about 12 miles north of Huntington.

“Her nose was burned, her ears, her nostrils, between her back legs,” Godfrey said. “She’s in critical condition right now.”

Godfrey and her husband drove Goldie in their 16-foot trailer to Idaho Equine in Nampa, Idaho.

When they left after midnight, veterinarians had administered antibiotics through an IV and put Goldie in a stall.

“She’s in really good hands,” Godfrey said. “They say she’s a very strong horse, very strong-willed.”

Godfrey said Goldie survived the night, but that veterinarians gave her steroids to deal with swelling in the horse’s head.

Godfrey can attest to Goldie’s personality.

“She’s our boss,” Godfrey said with a laugh.

Goldie had a bone infection years ago after she was stuck in a pond and suffered cuts to her front legs. She’s prone to arthritis so she can’t be ridden, Godfrey said.

She planned to breed Goldie but hasn’t found the right stallion.

“She’s basically a pet,” Godfrey said.

When she moved recently from Vale to Huntington, she needed to find a place to pasture Goldie for several months. She found a 6-acre parcel along Hibbard Creek, adjacent to the Daybreak Ranch where the fire started when a tractor caught fire.

Godfrey said she learned about the fire around 5 p.m. — about two hours after the blaze started — from Facebook posts.

She called the Baker County Sheriff’s Office, where a dispatcher told her the fire had started along Hibbard Creek.

Godfrey and her husband drove to the site. When they arrived, Goldie’s whereabouts weren’t known.

A group of firefighters saw Goldie and led her out of the fire.

Godfrey said when she first saw Goldie, Andrew Berry, a flight crew member for the Grande Ronde Rapellers, firefighters who slide down fixed ropes from a helicopter to reach fires, was holding a line attached to Goldie’s bridle.

“He was loving on her — he was very good with her,” Godfrey said of Berry.

She thanked the firefighters and county sheriff’s deputies who helped her get Goldie loaded into the trailer.

Although photos of Goldie depict a light brown horse, Godfrey said that was caused by the fire. Goldie’s coat is actually white.

Godfrey has set up a GoFundMe account to help raise money for Goldie’s vet bills. The fund is at gofund.me/dale-care-16jul