Fire department rescues eight horses from mud hole

The fire brigade has rescued eight Icelandic horses from a mud hole in Rheurdt in North Rhine-Westphalia. Eleven animals from a farm for Icelandic horses had been hatched on Thursday afternoon and sunk on muddy terrain, the fire department said. While three horses could have salvaged themselves from the mud, eight animals were partly sunk deep into the ground.

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The helpers had cleared the front and hind legs of the animals, stabilized the floor with wooden boards and blankets and pulled out the horses. In the first five horses, the rescue operation ran off quickly. But three of the animals were already sunk in the mud and completely exhausted. After all, they had succeeded in securing them with hoses and round slings and pulling them out of the mud.