When Sara came to feed her horses yesterday afternoon she didn’t expect to find her filly stuck ten metresdown a disused well.

“There is an old well in the paddock where I agist,” Sara (last name withheld) told HorseYard. “It is fenced off ina corner, electrified and has a padlocked gate. The well is approximately 3 meters wide and 10 meters deep.”

While every precaution had been taken to ensure something like this never happened, when someone opened the gate,the young filly’s inquisitive nature got the better of her.

“Unfortunately someone opened the gate and that’s when the trouble started.”

Lucy, a three yearold riding pony filly has, according to Sara, an incredibly inquisitive nature, “one of those lovely friendlyponies that always wants to be around people and be lavished with attention”, her owner says.

It is thought that the pony found the open gate and ventured through to graze. On unfamiliar territory she didn’tsee the hole and plummeted into the 10 metre well.

Sara describes arriving at the Welshpool, WA property in the afternoon to find the pony missing.

“I thought it was unusual that she didn’t come galloping over when I called her, actually she was nowhere to beseen.”

Sara and her 10 year old daughter searched the paddock calling for Lucy. That’s when they noticed that the gate tothe well was wide open.

“We sprinted down only to find Lucy standing at the bottom, on a small ledge in the mud trying to keep her feet outof the water that was in there,” Sara says.

“Panic set in as we couldn’t see how badly she had been hurt, let alone actually believe that she had survived thefall.”

Seeing her owner above her Lucy called out and Sara tried to reassure the filly as best as she could telling herthat it would be ok. Frantically Sara began to make calls.

Within minutes close friends arrived and together the group started calling police, vets, fire brigade, anyone theycould think that might be able to help rescue a horse down a ten metre deep hole.

Sara says, “If it wasn’t for all these people the outcome may have been very different.”

It wasn’t possible for anyone to climb down the well as it was a 10 metre drop straight down, made of rock andclay, and the friends couldn’t assess the damage to Lucy. They had to wait for emergency services to arrive.

“The firemen and women arrived, as did the vet, and I will never be able to thank these people enough.” Sara toldHorseYard.“We were still on the phone at this time trying to get a crane and slings etcetera and work out what was the bestplan of attack.”

After much deliberating it was decided that the fireman would send a ladder down the hole and the vet could climbdown and have a look at Lucy so that they knew what we were dealing with.

“Everyone hoped for the best but feared the worst,” Sara recalls “but as the vet came back up the ladder the newslooked good and it was thought that there was no major damage.”

The next hurdle was how on earth to get her out?

The services of a crane were called for.

A second vet arrived with a sling.

Sara meanwhile climbed down the well to stand with her beloved filly. “For such a young horse she was amazinglycalm, obviously in shock but relaxed enough to nip the fireman that was the first down the ladder as if to say ‘getme the hell out of here!!!’”

Therescue team decided that Lucy should be slightly sedated, enough to be relaxed to get the sling around her. Oncethis was done and the sling was secured she was then put under General Anaesthetic and laid on her side so the teamcould prepare for her to be lifted out of the well.

Lucy was then very carefully lifted and manoeuvred with the help of firemen and vets out of the well and onto solidground a safe distance away.

“It was then a matter of waiting until she woke up to see if she could stand and what the damage was,” Sarasays.

“I think the wait made everyone incredibly anxious,” she continues saying that it was by this time nearly 11pm andpitch black, with easily around 30 people watching and waiting, “but no one dared to leave!”

Lucy took her time and when she did come round she groggily got to her feet. With one vet holding her tail forbalance and the other her head she took her first few steps.

“I’m pretty sure I was holding my breath and wondering how this was possible,” Sararecalls.

However it wasn’t long before Lucy was walking around unassisted and looking for something to eat!

“Ii still can’t believe this all happened and that Lucy is not only alive but only has a bit of hair off here andthere and no major cuts or injuries,” Sara says in wonder. “By this morning she had cleaned up all her feed and wasbanging on the stable door to get out, some minor swelling of one leg but not even lame!”

“I will never in my life be able to thank enough the Welshpool Fire Brigade, the vets and the amazing friends andfamily for support and coordination of the rescue mission,” she finishes.

Comment on this article using the Comment Function below. Discuss this article with other users on the HorseForums.

Got News? Send your news stories and press releases to the HorseYard News Desk.