Crew springs into action to pull horse from muck
Pond on property had dried up during drought, owner says.
THE ACREAGE — Michael Carman’s three horses typically have avoided the dried-up pond that has become a large patch of muck during the drought of the past few months.
But Skip ran straight into it Monday morning and got stuck so badly that it took about a dozen firefighters one hour to get him out on the 18000 block of 47th Court North in The Acreage.
Carman found Skip at about 7 a.m. and knew right away that it was serious.
“We tried to remain calm,” Carman said. “It was a little scary.”
Luckily, because of the thousands of horses and cows that inhabit the western communities, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue crews are actually trained for this type of situation.
In fact, horses or other large animals get stuck at least once every season, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Capt. Albert Borroto said.
Skip escaped with likely just some muscle soreness for the next couple days, but Borroto said the outcome could have been worse, especially if the pond had some water.
The process to free the horse was delicate, Borroto said.
T h e t e a m d u g a r o u n d t h e horse by hand until members could get straps underneath Skip. Crews don’t use heavy machinery because the horse could get spooked.
Skip was blindfolded to help keep him calm, and a veterinarian sedated him. Then firefighters used a hand crank to get him out of the muck, Borroto said.
After Skip was free, the veterinarian determined he would be all right. Skip was walking around soon after his ordeal was over.
“So far he’s got a clean bill of health,” Carman said.
Carman’s next job will be to fence off the dried-up pond to prevent a repeat of Monday’s incident. The family has lived at the property for the past seven years, and the pond has never dried down to muck.
But Florida is mired in a drought that stretches across the state.
The drought has caused the South Florida Water Management District to issue a water shortage order as a warning that mandatory cutbacks may be coming.
The order is asking people to start voluntarily conserving water now before the mandatory cutbacks come into place.
Though the conditions have improved slightly this past week, about two-thirds of the county is “abnormally dry,” roughly 26 percent of the county is in a “moderate drought” and 11 percent in a “severe drought.”
Palm Beach County has received only about 46 percent of normal rainfall since November.