UPDATE: Photos and videos of the horse rescue have been provided to Cochrane Now, as well as a few more details. Our thanks to Renita Dressyman for kindly providing the images of the rescue on Mar. 24.

Lenny Wesley, Dwight Rider, Dylan Powderface, Wesley Councillor Krysta Hunter, and STA security Renita Dressyman were leading the effort to retrieve the horse from the icy waters of the Bow.

Upon pulling the horse from the water, attempts were made to cover the horse with a blanket, and Lenny Wesley was able to push it onto the grass. 

Hats off to all those involved in saving the horse.

horse rescue 2

A free-roaming horse was saved from almost certain death early in the evening on Mar. 24 from the icy waters of the Bow near the bridge spanning the river in Morley.

The horse fell through the ice shortly before 6 p.m., and about 10 people gathered to find a way to rescue him without risking anyone's life.

A few people were on the scene when Kaila Pharis was heading back to Cochrane from work. She saw his head bobbing above the waterline and stopped.

She said more people gathered, and it took some time to figure out how to rescue the horse. Fortunately, someone arrived with a rope.

"We grabbed the rope, and one of the older guys, I think he was a local there, made a lasso and got it around the horse's neck, and we pulled him out," she says. "There were about 10 of us, and it took almost 10 minutes to pull him out."

It did take a bit of time for the horse to return to his feet.

"He was in shock pretty bad. He was bleeding quite a bit from the mouth and the nose. But some of the people there seemed to know quite a bit about horses and said as long as he could get up and moving he should be fine."

The horse was bleeding because he kept kicking his own face while trying t climb out of the water.

"We tried to coax him to stand up for about 5 or 10 minutes, and he finally stood up, a little wobbly, but he should be okay now."

Like others, Pharis worries about the dangerous conditions for free-roaming horses along the Bow.

"I'm just hoping that the owners are able to try and keep track of them. I understand that they are wild and roam quite a bit, but it's just scary that this could happen to any other animal that belongs to anyone around that area."

She suggests people be on the lookout for any other horses that might be in danger.