A lightning strike destroyed a Floresville horse training barn, killing two horses and wiping out decades of equipment as the family fights to rebuild.
SAN ANTONIO — A lightning strike destroyed a horse training barn in Floresville earlier this month, killing two horses and leaving a local family searching for a way to rebuild after losing decades of equipment, supplies and memories.
The May 1 fire tore through the Bustamante family’s 18-stall training facility, reducing much of it to twisted metal, ash and rubble.
“It’s our world. It’s our living, my husband and I and my children,” Elida Bustamante said. “This is what all we know what to do, what we work on all our lives.”
Bustamante said her husband is a retired jockey who began racing at 18 years old. He now breaks and trains horses for other people. The family has spent generations around horses.
“My dad was a horse trainer and my mother, so it comes from way in the 80s, 70s,” Bustamante said.
Before moving to Floresville, the family operated a similar horse training facility in Three Rivers, where countless horses passed through their care and training programs.
Bustamante said when they first moved to the Floresville property, the facility only had four stalls. Over the years, the family expanded it to 18 stalls.
The family said the fire likely started after lightning struck near a breaker box during severe weather that night.
Bustamante said they had planned to race horses that Friday night in Houston, but the event was canceled because of the weather. She was still out of town with horses when her phone alerted her to unusual activity at the property through newly installed security cameras.
“We have lights, but it doesn’t light that much,” Bustamante said. “And I asked my other daughter to see the video, and she goes, ‘No, that’s a fire.’”
Bustamante said she immediately called her daughter Taylor, who rushed to the property with her husband and their 14-month-old child.
Security video captured Taylor’s husband running to the opposite side of the barn and opening doors to free as many horses as possible before flames spread through the building.
“I guess just God helped me see that at the time because otherwise, they wouldn’t have gotten nothing out,” Bustamante said. “All the horses would have died.”
Bustamante said Taylor’s husband suffered from smoke inhalation during the rescue effort.
“He had to just run out and he was throwing up and everything,” she said. “Then the ambulance were here. They had to give him some oxygen and stuff like that.”
Five horses survived the fire.
Two others — named Silks Drama Queen and Classy Dominator — did not.
Bustamante said the 2-year-old horses were born and raised on the ranch and were being trained to race at Retama Park. One of the horses had been bred from her mare, making the loss especially painful for the family.
“The 2-year-olds that we lost, my husband was training them to get them started here in Retama,” Bustamante said. “But they didn’t make it. I mean, we invested a lot in those two babies.”
Other horses survived but are still receiving veterinary treatment for burns and smoke inhalation. Bustamante said her husband has been using inhalation treatment masks to help clear smoke from the horses’ lungs.
The family also lost saddles, bridles, halters, helmets, jockey equipment, hay and horse supplies in the fire.
“Imagine what all we lost here,” Bustamante said. “We had stock saddles, we had riding saddles, we had helmets, we had bridles, everything, and then we had other different equipment to run the horses at the track.”
Bustamante said the financial loss has been devastating. One saddle and bridle her husband purchased cost about $2,000. A large container of horse vitamins cost about $600. The family also had to throw away hay contaminated by smoke and fire damage.
“We weren’t able to save nothing else, just the animals,” Bustamante said.
The barn has since been deemed structurally unsafe and will need to be demolished, according to the family.
Bustamante said despite the loss, the family hopes to rebuild the training facility.
“They all have different personalities, and you get attached to them,” she said. “When a horse comes here for training or breaking, we treat all horses the same.”
For the Bustamantes, rebuilding is not just about replacing a barn — it is about preserving the only way of life they have ever known.
“We just take them as family, a family member,” Bustamante said.
A GoFundMe has been created to help the family recover and rebuild. Click here to donate.
