Firefighters Rescue Horse That Was Swallowed By A Sinkhole

When one horse went missing from his owners’ Washington property, they couldn’t understand how their elderly animal suddenly vanished without a trace.

However, when they went to search the property and the pasture where they had left Copper with their other horses, they discovered that he hadn’t vanished, but had been swallowed up by a 15-foot-deep sinkhole after the ground that he was standing on suddenly collapsed.

Photo by Facebook/Kittitas County Fire District #7

Copper’s owners immediately called for help and Copper’s vet Dr. Sam Taylor, the Kittitas County Fire District #7, and a local excavation team arrived shortly after. Once at the scene, they determined it would be too difficult to raise Copper out through the small hole in the ground, so they instead got to work digging a ramp out of the hole so he could walk out himself.

For the next two hours, the rescuers worked tirelessly until Copper, who was dehydrated and needed food but otherwise unharmed, was finally able to walk out on his own. “As soon as he walked out, he gave a little neigh, and the horses that were in the pasture as well. They all ran together as a little herd and came over and check on him,” said a spokesperson for the fire department. “So it was amazing.”