Firefighters rescued a horse in Colorado, capturing the process on camera.
The horse became stuck in mud in the middle of the night in Castle Rock, a suburb of Denver, on Aug. 25.
The mud was causing the horse, Partner, difficulty in breathing.
‘In Shock’
“Trauma. You’re in shock, and, you, we don’t, you know, we’ve never had to experience this before,” said Tiffany Flynn, the horse’s owner.
“This is not something either of us ever, have ever had to deal with, so, it was a little bit shocking, and kind of like, ‘ok what do we do?'”
Flynn called firefighters to come to help, and Castle Rock firefighters responded.
“I walked up to see, ‘Oh my God, he’s down here in, in this mud with nothing really to, to stand on,'” said Norris Croom, acting chief for the Castle Rock Fire & Rescue.
Firefighters then built a series of makeshift platforms so they and a veterinarian could reach Partner and inject sedatives into the horse.
Hours of Work
“That way he wasn’t struggling and getting himself bogged down deeper. I didn’t want the horse panicking, and thrashing around and hurting himself or anyone else,” said Claire Summers, the vet.
The crew also placed a piece of webbing underneath Partner’s head so it would stay out of the mud.
Next, they built a pulley system to lift the horse, which weighs approximately 1100 pounds, out of the mud, and up a 10-foot embankment.
And it worked.
“He was a little wobbly and what not but then we knew, ok he’s, he’s free and clear he’s going to be okay,” Flynn said.
KOAA noted that the rescue took around two hours. Firefighters said it ended around 4 a.m.
Horses in the United States
The number of horses has declined in the United States over the years, with yet another decline shown in the most recent census.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture releases the census every five years.
The last release, in 2014, showed that the horse population in the country decreased by about 10 percent between 2007 and 2012, reported CNBC. The American Horse Council estimates there are 7.2 million horses in the country.
James Hickey Jr., president of the council, blamed the decline on the economy.
He told the network, “The horse industry is generally about three years behind other indicators, and we’re still catching up to other national impacts, like the stock market, that have somewhat recovered.”
A poor economy leads to higher expenses, such as hay.
“The costs of breeding, feeding, housing and even shoeing horses is very high,” he said. “This affects the industry.”
