Towing company rescues horse trapped in mud

The request for service was a first for Joe Vieira.

The owner of Regional Towing in Niagara Falls was a bit puzzled at first when he received a call from dispatch Saturday morning requesting a winch out" in Pelham.

The winch out was for a horse.

He called the office to confirm the call and learned it was indeed a horse and it was in distress and the owner needed help immediately.

When I got there, my jaw actually dropped. I thought, how am I going to do this?" Vieira said, after he arrived at a farm to find a large horse trapped in deep mud in an inaccessible corner of a paddock.

He was in a quagmire of icy water and mud. He was frozen ... he was in shock."

Because the tow truck was unable to access the frightened animal due to the knee-deep mud, Vieira and manager Reinhold Weick came up with a plan to use an all-terrain buggy that is typically used for off-road vehicle recoveries.

They tied a rope to the horse's hindquarters and used the buggy to slowly pull him from the mud. A skid steer was then brought in to gently lift the horse to its feet.

The dramatic rescue took about four hours.

He was giving up, at one point we thought we were going to lose him," said owner Sue Metcalf.

Metcalf had checked the paddock early Saturday and was shocked to find Jaxson, her 20-year-old Clydesdale, trapped.

It looks like his back leg may have been suction-cupped into the mud and after trying to get loose he just lay down," she said. He's a big horse, around 2,000 pounds, so his body just sank."

After trying frantically to get her horse out of the mud, her son called a friend who happens to work for Regional Towing.

After Jaxson was back on his feet, Metcalf asked Vieira for the bill. He replied no charge.

It wasn't about the money, it was about saving that horse's life," he said. There was no way I was letting this animal die on my watch."

Metcalf said she is forever grateful to staff at Regional Towing, whom she now refers to as family.

They literally saved my horse's life yesterday and, in turn, they basically saved mine because without my horses I'm nothing. I owe them so much."

Jaxson is now resting comfortably in a warm barn.

He was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning - he's eating, he's drinking, he's doing everything a horse should be doing," Metcalf said Sunday.

Alison Langley is a St. Catharines-based reporter for the Niagara Falls Review. Reach her via email: alison.langley@niagaradailies.com