A local horse wrangler lassoed a horse that had fallen into the Vedder River yesterday, and successfully guided it to safety.
Police said the horse and its 31-year-old female rider were walking along the river’s edge near Hopedale Road, when the horse was spooked and fell into the fast-moving water.
The rider made it out, but the horse was swept downstream.
“The horse was spotted a few times as it passed Yarrow and made its way down the Vedder Canal,” RCMP Const. Tracy Wolbeck said.
An RCMP Zodiac was launched and two members of the RCMP First Nations Policing unit picked up a local horse wrangler, who was also trying to rescue the horse from a small boat.
After two hours in the icy water, police reached the horse near the Keith Wilson bridge where the wrangler managed to lasso the horse and guide it to shore.
“As a police officer, you never know what a day will bring,” Wolbeck said.
“It’s pretty miraculous that the horse and rider made it out unharmed, and that our members were able to respond as quickly as they did,” she said. “It was a happy ending for everyone.”