Wisconsin friends team up to save horse who fell through the ice

GRANTSBURG, Wis. -- They call it "Big Wood Lake," and it's a place known for its bass fishing. But there's never been a catch like this.

"It was nerve-wracking," said local resident D.J. Ryan. "I've had horses my whole life so maybe I could lend a hand."

Ryan was among a team of more than a dozen people who helped save a 1,200-pound Mustang horse who escaped from its home barn and fell through the ice. The horse, Ryan explained, first ran away Saturday night from its owners after a snow-covered tree fell down and broke the fence. 

The owners were out Christmas shopping, but later posted on social media about the horse, which grabbed Ryan's attention and led him on a search around town.

"We thought maybe we could find his tracks but we lost him a couple miles up the road," Ryan said. "Horses get out. It happens. A lot of them come home fairly easy, so we thought he headed home."

On Sunday, however, a neighbor called 911 after reporting they saw a horse wandering Woodlake and then fell through the ice 150-200 yards off-shore.

In the Village of Grantsburg, news travels fast, so Ryan was on his way.

"We were able to see him bobbing and struggling," he said. "It was just calling a bunch of mutual friends and horse people around the area and I knew someone was going to know someone who had a warm safe place we could house if it was successful."  

Cold temperatures, but dangerously thin ice for rescuers

The makeshift rescue team started gathering just after 8:30 a.m. Sunday. The temperature was minus-5.

Still, the preceding week of warmer temperatures, and insulating snow cover, left Woodlake with only 3-4 inches of ice, which barely meets the recommended threshold for walking or skating. Heavier equipment, such as a tow or ATV, was out of the question.

"The horse was actually in 15 to 17 feet of water," Karl Anderson, a tow-truck driver, told WCCO. "I pulled his head so it was resting on the ice. It was shivering pretty bad, it was laboring breathing, nostrils full of ice. It was having trouble."

Anderson and Ryan, along with several others on the ice and on shore, then devised a plan to use ropes, nylon straps and innertubes.

"We didn't even feel safe bringing an ATV out," Anderson said. "We made several trips back for supplies and different rigging and different things. We knew we were very short on time. I was with the horse and I could see the horse deteriorating."

At 12:45 p.m., about four hours after Ryan first arrived, the team pulled the horse out from ice and dragged him 150 yards to shore. The team then loaded the horse up to a trailer and brought him to another person's heated barn.  

"He kind of saved himself"

To help monitor the horse's condition, Ryan called his friend Rachael Triddelwitz, the region's 4-H Horse Program Director, who said she was "pleasantly and thankfully" surprised that the horse survived.

"Mustangs are live-off-the-land kind of horses. They can adapt and are heartier," she said. "He's meant to be self-sufficient, and he definitely was. He kind of saved himself. He did what he needed to do."

The horse on Monday was brought to a veterinary clinic where it continues to improve, Triddeltiz said, but it has a long way to go to recover from hypothermia.

"I knew he had a tough road, and I knew if he made it through the night that's the big hurdle."

He's over that hurdle though, and the horse also has a new nickname - Jack - that D.J. Ryan says was inspired by the movie "Titanic."

"We'll never let go of Jack and we didn't. We held on to him the whole way."