Idaho Ranchers Skillfully Rescue Horse From Mud Hole

A heroic act. Thanks to Yellowstone's light on the Western industry, it informs folks unfamiliar with cattle raisers, farmers, and other professions are more than riding horses, driving tractors, or living in beautiful log cabins. While ranching can be a very fulfilling career, it takes a lot of hard work, tough skin, and skill, as things do not always go as planned. Cows get sick, horses get hurt, and equipment fails, so you must always be prepared for the unexpected when working on a large-scale ranch. Also, a number of ranches in America are located in tough environments... Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho... heat, dust, snow, ice... ranchers deal with it all. In a recent viral video, Idaho ranchers show the skills required for their job when things go wrong. The Idaho Horseshoeing School shared a story about one of the horses that used to be used at the school to teach aspiring farriers. While the horse, Joe, was great at his job there, one student taught him how to be a ranch horse, and he found his forever home at the student's father's farm, Rocking M Quarter Horses. Joe loved his job and was described as a phenomenal ranch horse. However, while dutifully doing his job, Joe fell into a massive mud sinkhole hole while checking on cattle. "A few days ago, Joe fell into a deep hole in a pasture while checking cows. The hole was made by a leaky water mainline and was just big enough for Joe to wedge his whole body in. Thanks to quick think by Don Mickelsen, they saved him and he is making a full recovery." Don and his team shared a fourteen-minute video skillfully rescuing Big Joe from this sinkhole. At the start of the video, you barely see the horse, as only his head is above the Earth, with the rest of his body wholly engulfed in the hole. One man was doing his part to make sure Big Joe's head did not go under the water, as if that had happened, the horse would have died. Using a skid steer, they dug around the whole to make it wider so the horse could wiggle out. After clearing some of the mud, the ranchers tied a rope to the saddle's horn, using a farm utility vehicle to pull the horse slowly out of the hole. In a tense portion of the video, the ranchers say that if the saddle gives or the girth (what holds a saddle in place) breaks, they will lose the horse. Slowly but surely, more and more of the horse's body is exposed, and Big Joe is eventually freed from the hole. This rescue highlights quick thinking, emphasizes the horse's trust in its owners, and a lot of bravery to make this rescue a success. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA00x-flCZg On Facebook, many social media users filled the comments applauding the ranchers for their quick thinking, but those praises were met with harsh criticism from other folks. Many blamed them for forcefully telling the cattle dogs to get out of the way or that the rescue was flawed in many ways. However, the Idaho Horseshoeing School was not taking the hate and quickly shut down Karen in the comments, criticizing their video and commending this heroic save. "You guys that are critical of this very stressful situation need to understand a few things. The temperature outside was around 35 degrees. The hole was pretty small, just big enough for the horse to be vertical. Rocky ground makes quick digging very difficult, even with a backhoe. His legs were stuck around the underground pipe so simply lifting him out was impossible. Untacking the horse would have been extremely difficult, dangerous, and freezing. The minute the horse's head submerges, the horse would have died. Keeping the bridle on was very important to keeping his head out of the water. The dog that was "abused" and hit was getting too close to Joe and needed to back off. A dog that close to a drowning horse was making a very stressful situation for Joe even more stressful. Dogs are predators and horses are prey. Dogs stress horses out. The rider told me that he had never been so cold in his life. This could have been a catastrophe. Thank goodness for careful and quick thinking. I would love to see you critics jump in your backhoe with nothing but lassos and navigate a very stressful situation like this in under 20 minutes. There wasn't time to gather up the dogs, get a good plan together, find tow straps, and go scuba diving with a thrashing horse in a tiny rocky hole. The horse would have died without fast action. This is a raw, authentic, uncut, unplanned effort to save a horse. Was everything done perfect? Pretty close. Nobody was hurt, and the horse is doing great." Tell 'em. Ranching isn't always pretty, but let me say that the effort these folks went through to save this horse shows how much ranchers care about their livestock and riding partners. This is the real West. According to an update by Rocking M Quarter Horses, Big Joe is doing just fine and is looking for cookies.