Service honors memory of thoroughbreds

Published: Monday, August 06, 2001

GRAPEVINE {AP}— They had names like Elvis, Jake and Pride, and to their owners, they were real friends.

A total of eight thoroughbred horses killed in a barn fire two weeks ago were remembered by nearly 200 people who attended a memorial service Saturday at the ranch where they died.

"I really mourn not only our loss with the horses, but the others who lost horses with mine," said Kathy Brunson, owner of the Wagon Wheel Ranch in Grapevine. "Those barns can be replaced, but those lives can't."

Brunson said there were nearly 80 horses at the ranch, including award-winning jumpers, thoroughbreds, training horses and ponies, but less than half of them were inside when the barn caught fire in the predawn hours of July 26.

Firefighters arrived at the scene a few minutes after a 911 call was placed, but they were unable to rescue the horses still in the barn. Three horses who initially escaped returned to their burning stalls as they sought safety, officials said.

The horses killed were named Elvis, Fletcher, Handy, Jake, Lacy, Mini, Nahmi and Pride. They ranged in age from 7 to the middle 20s.

Gabriela Zorrilla said she would remember Elvis as a best friend. "You don't always think of animals as your friends, but they are," Zorrilla said in Sunday's editions of The Dallas Morning News.