Fire crews rescue horse from pool in rural San Miguel

June 17, 2024

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

Fire crews rescued a horse that was stuck in a pool in rural San Miguel on Saturday. 

The horse became stuck in a pool beside a home on a rural property in the later afternoon. Crews drained the pool to safely remove the animal, according to Cal Fire. 

Cal Fire Captain Marcus Dunlap said the owners of horses were unloading one of them from their trailer. As the unloading was taking place, another horse got through an open gate, stepped on the pool cover and went into the water. [Tribune]

The homeowners coaxed the horse to the shallow end of the pool and pulled the cover to the side, so the horse was no longer tangled in it.

Firefighters arrived at the scene, along with volunteers from the Horse Emergency Evacuation Team, a local animal rescue group. After realizing it was too difficult for the horse’s metal shoes to grip the pool tiling, the homeowners, firefighters and volunteers worked together to drain the pool enough for the horse to walk on pool steps.

The horse emerged from the pool exhausted but uninjured. It managed to walk into its barn. The entire rescue operation lasted about three and a half hours.