Firefighters Pull Exhausted Horse from Muddy Stream

Centreville firefighters fashioned a sling system from ropes on their rigs and using muscle power managed to pull a 25-year-old exhausted horse from a muddy stream where it had been stuck for hours on Thursday.

The horse, Prides Medicine Man, turned up missing at the Thursday morning feeding in a fenced pasture at the , on Lee Highway near the Luck Stone Quarry, said David Sanders, the center’s owner. The 134-acre ranch is primarily a boarding facility with about 40 boarded horses in the pastures alongside another 20 owned by the center, Sanders said.

The horses are fed every morning at about the same time and Prides Medicine Man, or M-&-M wasn’t known to be a straggler. Alarmed, the family did a quick search for the animal, a former show horse, but couldn’t find anything. On a second tour of the ranch, Sanders, using a combination of determination and good luck, spotted the horse laying on its side in a stream near a pedestrian bridge on the property.

“The first thing I thought was, ‘is he alive,” and then ‘how are we going to save this horse,” Sanders said.

The black Tennessee Walker had apparently gone to get a drink of water from the stream and somehow slipped into the mud, Sanders said. The water in the small stream wasn’t deep, but the horse appeared to suffering from hypothermia and was in danger of slipping into shock, which could be fatal, Sanders said.

Sanders estimated that the horse had been stuck for several hours and knew that time was working against them. The ranch veterinarian was able to give the horse a shot to keep it from slipping into shock, but any further delays and the animal would have to be put down. Thinking quickly, Sanders called 911 and was connected with the Centreville fire station, which swiftly mobilized two crews to rescue the horse.

Using their ropes and brute strength, the firefighters dragged the horse from the mud to a point where Sanders was able to lift it completely to safety with his tractor and a special harness. However, things were still iffy until the horse’s regular vet was able to do an acupuncture procedure that got the horse to stand up.

“When he was still laying on his side, things were still touch and go,” Sanders said, “but once we got the horse up, you get a 90 percent chance of recovery.”

The family has operated the center since 1983 and Sanders said he has never seen a horse stuck like that on the ranch before.  “We have never had this happen before,” Sanders said.

On Friday, M-&-M was enjoying some quiet time in the pasture near the barn, being treated to extra apples and carrots by his owner, Sheila Charter, of Centreville.

“I was horrified when I heard that it happened,” Charter said, “and I rushed right over here. But, I can’t say enough about how much (the Sanders family) did to find my horse and save it. It was really an overall effort of all of them, the fire department and the veterinarians.”