Police, Residents Round Up 40 Horses After Stampede

Forty horses bolted through an open gate at their Burbank corral Saturday morning and galloped through the suburban streets, some hoofing it all the way across Glendale to a strip mall eight miles away, police said.

More than a dozen Burbank and Glendale police officers--aided by residents using cars to block streets and cell phones to call in equine sightings--corralled the frightened animals after a two-hour chase. There were no injuries.

The breakout occurred just after 8 at Circle K Riding Stables, when someone left the gate ajar at the Mariposa Street corral, Burbank Police Sgt. Eric Rosoff said.

The 911 calls began to pour in as the horses, sleek with sweat, stampeded across Glendale, galloping down busy Alameda Avenue, San Fernando Road and Colorado Street.

Two horses trotted into a frontyard. One was detained by Boy Scouts just north of Glenoaks Boulevard. Several were captured by residents who chased them down with harnesses. And seven wound up in a strip mall parking lot on the outskirts of Eagle Rock.

“They were not meandering,” said Christine Goebel, a communications supervisor for the Glendale Police Department. “They were at a full gallop.”

By midmorning, all of the escapees had been captured and were quickly retrieved by stable workers. No property damage was reported, police said.

“We have a lot of stables in the area, and I’ve been on lots of horse calls,” Rosoff said. “Usually, it’s one or two that get away. It’s never been as many as this. . . . It was very scary. It was not amusing at all when it was happening.”

A season of cool, rainy weather apparently had made the trail horses a bit restless and eager for some exercise, said Erin McLaughlin, a Circle K stable worker.