Saanich firefighters rescued a horse stuck in a mud bog near the 400-block of Viaduct Avenue West on Saturday morning.
The animal had escaped from its barn earlier that morning and decided to go for a solo adventure.
The trek quickly turned dangerous for the horse and when fire crews arrived the animal was nearly drowning 鈥� with just its nose above water for air.
Fire Capt. Tak Niketas was at the scene with a team of firefighters who worked on a plan to pull the 1,200-pound filly from an otherwise terrible fate.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have any anchor points to wrap around a tree and it was also way out in the middle of a field so we didn鈥檛 have access with our trucks to get onto the ground because it was too soft.鈥�
The crew ended up using sheer collective power, a piece of plywood, and fire hoses wrapped around the animal鈥檚 torso.
Brute strength coupled with improvisation and the ability to think fast resulted in the horse being reunited with its owner. The rescue took around 45 minutes to an hour.
The horse got to its feet nearly right away after being pulled from the bog, and according to the latest reports, is doing just fine.
鈥淭his story shines a light on the fact that we鈥檙e here to help everybody 鈥� not just people, but animals, too.鈥�
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