Volunteers rescue mare and her foal from mud pit in Navajo County
HEBER-OVERGAARD, Ariz. - Two horses in Herber-Overgaard couldn't make it out of a mud pit alone, and it took an entire team to save the day.
It took seven people more than an hour to pull the helpless animals free.
After the successful rescue, both man and beast now have a special bond.
What we know:
"Urgent. Mare drowning in mud."
That's the message Betty Nixon of Friends of the Heber Wild Horses got on Saturday morning from two photographers who went out to capture shots of wild horses near Heber-Overgaard and ended up finding a mare and her foal stuck in a mud pit.
"I texted them back and said, 'I'm on my way,'" Nixon said.
She lives nearby and showed up with a neighbor and supplies to find the rescue mission already underway.
"When I got there, they had already pulled the foal out of the mud. There was one gentleman named Andy, and he ended up being a major hero of the day because he went into that mud with no hesitation, which is kind of dangerous because you've got a wild horse that is thrashing in the mud trying to get out," Nixon recalled.
The group, now seven strong, started working together to get the mare out.
"We wanted to get the towrope under the torso behind the front legs, but there was no way to get the towrope underneath her under the mud and around her body," she said.
"I hate to put something around her neck," a rescuer was heard saying in a video of the rescue.
That's what the rescuers had to do, making sure to tie a knot and keeping the rope from choking the mare as she was pulled to safety.
"One of the photographers put her lunch bag under the mare's head to keep her head out above the water because she kept going underwater," Nixon said.
She says watering holes managed by the U.S. Forest Service are an ongoing issue with another mare struggling in the same spot Sunday morning.
"When they get low, and they get muddy, I just go out several times a day, at least three times a day, let's just say, and check them to make sure nothing's stuck in there," Nixon said.
Dig deeper:
No water-hauling permits have been issued yet this year, so Nixon is grateful the rescuers were able to act, and act fast.
"I think time was of the essence because she was struggling, and she was going under the mud, and she was getting exhausted. I would've gone out, but I think it would've been too late. I think it would've been too late for this mare and foal," Nixon said.
Nixon says her group's teamwork saved lives.
These volunteers met on Saturday as strangers, but now have a special bond.
What's next:
Nixon also asked the U.S. Forest Service for another water-hauling permit to add water before more animals find themselves stuck.