CLARK COUNTY, Ind. (WDRB) -- It's a call you don't hear every day as a firefighter, a horse needing to be rescued from a frozen pond.
Around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday the Monroe Township Fire Department got a call from a neighbor in the 7700 block of Henryville Otisco Rd. saying a horse had fallen through a frozen pond.
When they responded, firefighters found the horse about 20-30 feet off the shore and stuck shoulder-deep and unable to move in the ice.
That's when crews used a rope to secure the horse and called the Charlestown Fire Department to help with their rescue truck that has specialty equipment for ice rescues.
The Charlestown firefighters were able to put on suits to get into the icy water and secure a second rope around the horse.
"The two teams work together from the shore and in the water to guide the horse through the broken ice, through the water, back onto the shore," says Monroe Township Battalion Chief Jared Phillips.
Phillips says this isn't the first horse rescue the department has made. A couple years ago they saved one that was stuck in a muddy pond.
"Being in the mud is different than the ice, but still not having the skills and the patience to work with a, you know, huge animal that's scared and stuck. And knowing how to work together played a vital part," says Phillips.
As for answering the peculiar call, Phillips says it's something they're always prepared for.
"The fire service, you know, initially began to fight fires, but now we're kind of the catch all. If no one knows what to do, they call the fire department, and generally, someone's able to figure it out," says Phillips.
While the horse was cold, he wasn't hurt and was returned safely to his owners.
