Victoria Nodiff-Netanel watched from the backyard of her Calabasas home as the Palisades fire flames crested a nearby ridge in the first week of January 2025.
Waiting until the very last minute to evacuate, Nodiff-Netanel fled down the hill with her nine mini-horses and eight dogs.
Within the week, she quickly jumped into action, driving her mini-horses to fire recovery areas, fire stations, and makeshift emergency homebases throughout the devastated Palisades burn area.
“Because of all the fires and heartache going on, we have been requested an awful lot for comfort and support,” she said.
First responders pet a mini therapy hourse (Courtesy of Mini Therapy Horses.)The fire happened days after Nodiff-Netanel’s nonprofit, Mini Therapy Horses, participated in the 2025 Rose Parade.
Just short of a year later, on the cusp of a new year in which her horses will again gallop in the Pasadena parade, Nodiff-Netanel reflected on the 2025 and all the catastrophic loss that has plagued Los Angeles County since.
Rose Parade 2026 lineup: Your guide to every float, band and equestrian unit, in orderShe hopes the 2026 Rose Parade is the start of a less devastating year.
“Because everything with the fires happened so quickly after, I don’t even really remember the Rose Parade,” she said. “The month of January is mostly a blur.”
This year, Mini Therapy Horses — which has been participating in the parade since 2008 — will have some special guests of honor joining their gallop into the new year.
Two captains from the Los Angeles city fire department will walk along Colorado Boulevard, along with the city’s therapy dog Cooper.
The parade’s theme “Magic in Teamwork,” perfectly encapsulates the dual dedication and hard work they’ve done together in 2025, Nodiff-Netanel said.
Both Mini Therapy Horses and the LAFD have worked together numerous times over the last year, providing “meaningful emotional support to firefighters and community members during a time of extraordinary need,” she said.
They’re part of the United Fire of Los Angeles City Peer Support Team, a labor union that utilizes teams of trained volunteers and clinicians to provide behavioral health support to firefighters.
Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Adam VanGerpen and nonprofit founder Victoria Nodiff-Netanel with a therapy horse during Palisades fire recovery. VanGerpen will walk with the Mini Therapy Horses during the upcoming Rose Parade. (Courtesy of Mini Therapy Horses)The group’s core mission is to be there for each other “especially during a time of need,” according to the peer support website.
“The mini horses and therapy dogs main jobs are to bring a smile to people’s faces,” LAFD Captain Adam VanGerpen said.
VanGerpen is one of the captains joining the Mini Therapy Horses’ equestrian group during this year’s Rose Parade.
“The horses would come into base camps, and you’d see as soon as the horses walked in, everyone started coming out of their trailers or tents just to see them,” VanGerpen said.
“All of the guys who’d been there for 28 days straight sometimes, would hug them, take pictures with them, and the horses would just bring some light to their faces,” he added. “The horses would even go into tents where the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other first responders were set up.”
One of the many peer support team visits stuck out to Nodiff-Netanel.
Many times, exhausted firefighters would video call their families at home to show them the mini horses live.
“It was very touching, you could see that this was a positive experience they could share with their worried families who they were missing terribly,” Nodiff-Netanel said.
Being part of a team that brought any sense of comfort or distraction to devastated families and first responders meant everything to Nodiff-Netanel.
“With all that fire victims are still going through and the hardships of what’s going on, we really need magic and teamwork in 2026,” Nodiff-Netanel said. “As long as we keep working together and believing that, we’ll rebuild our city.”
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