Volunteers rescue struggling horse from icy pond
Published: February 21, 2007
Several rescuers managed to pull a horse from a pond, where the animal struggled in the water after breaking through thin ice.
Jerry Fredericks glanced out the window of his home Saturday morning and saw the horse in the water. He ran outside and saw Poky, a 4-year-old paint mare that occupied a nearby pasture for the last two years, struggling to find footing in muck at the bottom of the pond. The water was up to her back.
Ice on the pond was more than a foot thick in most places, but thin where Poky fell through it.
Fredericks, a horse owner, grabbed a lasso, halter and lead rope and set out to help the animal. He lassoed her so he could keep her head above water, then lay on the ice to put the halter and lead rope on the horse.
After realizing he could not save her by himself, Fredericks ran back to his house and called 911. Volunteers from West Valley Fire Department responded, as did an officer from the Kalispell Police Department and two deputies from the Flathead County Sheriff’s Department.
When they arrived, Poky had been in the water for about an hour.
The rescuers used a chain saw to cut holes in the ice so they could get her into a better position. Then they used a pipe pole to put a length of fire hose behind her front legs. They threaded a thick rope behind her hind legs and attached it to a block and tackle. Together, the rescuers pulled on the ropes. A couple of men held backboards against the ice. Eventually, the horse was pulled to shore.
“I’m very grateful to the volunteer fire department,” said Jamie Fleming, Poky’s owner. “I don’t know what I would have done without them.”
Fleming was ready with blankets when Poky was pulled from the water. She took the horse to a veterinary clinic, where the animal received a pain reliever, and antibiotics for cuts on her legs.
“She’s had a pretty traumatic day,” Fleming said. “But she’s going to be OK in the long run.”
She said that for now, the horse will not return to the pasture.
“I’m going to put her at my aunt’s house where there’s no pond,” Fleming said.
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