Crime & Safety
Firefighters Rescue Horse in Trabuco Canyon
Animal became stuck in a hole Tuesday morning.
Orange County firefighters successfully extricated a horse in Trabuco Canyon that had stepped into a hole and was unable to free itself.
OC Fire Authority personnel, utilizing specialized units, animal control personnel and a private veterinarian, worked in tandem to free the animal that had apparently stepped onto a spot where a rotted tree stump had been. The stump, or the ground under it, gave way under the horse's back leg, putting the animal in a precarious position at 19741 Live Oak Canyon Road.
The vet sedated the excited animal to calm it and help avoid injury. It allowed firefighters to safely dig around the submerged hind leg. The horse was freed after about an hour. Marc Stone, the OCFA spokesman, said the ordeal began about 10:35 a.m.
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The horse was doing fine afterward.
The animal's owner preferred not to talk about the incident. "I don't want to relive it," she said. "I don't want to relive it."
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A neighbor called it "a happy ending."
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