Mississauga fire rescues horse stuck in gully

It took the horsepower of seven men from the Mississauga fire department to pull the animal to freedom.
A 4-year-old horse named Bodacious Heart had to be rescued on Tuesday morning after falling into a shallow gully in Norval, Ont.
It took the horsepower of seven men from the Mississauga fire department to pull the animal to freedom.
“He had fallen in a way where his legs were pointing in the wrong direction uphill. He couldn’t roll himself upright,” explained Squad 111 Captain Mark Garrod, who first arrived on the scene around 10 a.m. “The horse was calm. I was expecting it to be kicking, but it just lay there, letting us do our thing.”
After lightly sedating the horse, the firemen took two 65mm hoses off their truck and looped them around his front and rear. Then they pulled.
Garrod estimated Bodacious Heart must weigh 1,000 pounds, but said it was quick and painless: the entire rescue wrapped up by 10:30 a.m.
It was Garrod’s first animal call and “it will probably be the only (horse) rescue in the rest of my career,” he told the Star by phone later that day. “I’m not a horse specialist by any means,” he said. “We were lucky that the idea of using hoses worked.”
Sue Collier, the owner of Melody Acres Farm where the incident occurred, said it was the first time in her 52 years of rearing horses that she’s ever had to call on “brute muscle to help pull (one) over.”
She had let her two horses out to roam the fields while she was working nearby and “kind of panicked a bit” when she looked up 45 minutes later to find only one out in the distance.
Collier and her husband then called the Mississauga Fire Department for backup. “If you know anything about horses, it’s very critical to get them upright again,” Collier explained. If horses fall in an inverted position, the stomach can put pressure on vital organs – specifically on sensitive horse intestines – and they cannot survive for long in that position.
She said the horse could have died had it not been for the efficient rescue. “(Bodacious Heart) was calmer than I was,” Collier said. “Usually horses get panicked when they can’t move.”
After Bodacious Heart was pulled to freedom, he took a minute to collect himself and then stood up.
In the end, it was all just a stirrup of emotion.