The owner of a cob who was found neck-deep in a stream has praised the emergency services who came to the rescue.
Karen Guile of Upper Beeding, West Sussex, received a phone call on Saturday morning (19 January) to say her nine-year-old 15hh gelding Logan was up to his neck in water.
Karen told H&H: “There’s a footpath on the opposite side of the bank and a local walker had spotted Logan and notified one of the houses nearby who phoned me.
“My husband and a friend and I tried to get Logan out ourselves but the bank was too slippery and he just couldn’t do it and kept slipping.”
“The animal rescue team were fantastic – there was five guys in total and they got ready to winch him out while another rescue unit with a crane was on its way to lift him but luckily they managed without it. The vet attended and sedated him and straps were put all round him so he could be winched out. The vet checked him over and we put four rugs on him and did some thatching with hay like the old fashioned way to get him warm. We think he’d been in for nearly four hours but once we got him warmed up he was absolutely fine.”
Karen said she is very grateful to the fire services.
“I think it’s amazing what they do. I don’t know what would have happened without them – they’re so well trained and know how to deal with animals,” she said.
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“To put themselves in that position in the water with him – it doesn’t matter how experienced you are, you’re still putting yourself at risk going in the water. We would have been really stuck without them.”
A spokesman for West Sussex Fire & Rescue said: “We were called to a report of a horse trapped in a stream at 10.39am. A winching system and animal rescue equipment was used to rescue the horse, which was then handed into the care of the owner and the vet. We left at 2.15pm.”
H&H recommends that readers call the fire service immediately if they find horses stuck and await their expertise, rather than trying to rescue them themselves due to the potential danger.
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Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.
