For three hours, a desperate lady held on to her 17-year-old show horse Astro in an attempt to prevent him from sinking in mud.
The ocean tide was perilously approaching, and Nicole Graham had to fight hard to keep her horse calm and above the hazardous quagmire mud.
Astro, a 900-pound horse, became stuck in the mud during a midday ride in Melbourne, Australia.
Paris had joined Nicole on her ride, and both her horse and Paris’s horse had become trapped. Paris’ horse could be set free by Nicole, but Astro, a bigger horse, was not.
The only thing Nicole could do was try to keep Astro calm until assistance arrived because any attempts to liberate Astro only made him more stuck.
Astro was sedated while a harness was attached to him so a tractor could pull him out.
Nicole, who owns over ten horses, claimed that it took three hours for rescuers to be able to pull her horse to safety.
Nicole said that it was terrifying. It was also heartbreaking to see her horse exhausted and struggling.
She added that she has been riding here for 20 years and never had a drama. She’ve never seen any signs and didn’t realize it was so boggy.
Fire officer Roger Buckle compared the mud as “quicksand” as he assisted in dragging the horse to safety.
Thankfully, Astro just experienced little muscle discomfort and dehydration.
According to veterinarian Stacey Sullivan, a lot of horses don’t make it, and he thinks without the owner there the chance of survival would have been a lot lower.
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