In the midst of the still-raging Palisades Fire in Los Angeles, a 16-year-old girl became an unlikely hero when she rode a terrified horse out of danger.
Kalyna Fedorowycz was helping evacuate horses from Topanga Canyon when her neighbor's horse, Sovereignty, refused to load into the trailer. As the flames edged closer, the trailer was forced to leave without him.
Not willing to leave Sovereignty behind, Fedorowycz saddled him up to ride out of the canyon.
For 14 miles, Fedorowycz led and rode Sovereignty beneath smoke-filled skies, ducking under fallen telephone poles and skirting around rocks as her father followed behind in his Prius and filmed the harrowing journey, which took four hours.
"There was no plan. We were just improvising the whole time," Fedorowycz's father told The Chronicle of the Horse. "You can see in some of the videos where she's actually directing traffic because people were trying to get by."
"Even though she's a kid, she's in charge. She's a great rider, and I trust her instincts, so we just did it," he added. "It was exciting to see her persevere like that, and I'm really proud of her."
Fedorowycz shared videos her dad captured as he followed behind her, along with a photo of her riding Sovereignty down the road, which has since gone viral. While others are calling her a hero, she says she was simply doing what needed to be done.
"I wasn't expecting this to go this crazy," she told COTH. "I know most horse people would do the same."