Two horses flee enclosure, fall into icy backyard pool as Quebec town rallies in rescue attempt

WARNING -- This story contains images some may find distressing

Two runaway horses were discovered in a backyard swimming pool Friday in Hemmingford, Que., about an hour south of Montreal.

The horses had already been on the run for hours, locals say, escaping from a nearby enclosure.

During the night, Francois Pouliot says he was woken up by his dog barking.

“He wasn’t calming down. So I said, ‘there’s something going on outside’,” said Pouliot. “We started to look around, and I found two horses in the driveway.”

He says the horses made their way to the middle of town. Meanwhile, an entourage of locals had started searching for them.

Somehow, they wandered into a nearby backyard, and fell through the ice over a family swimming pool. It’s unclear how long they were submerged. Sean Hadley got a frantic call from his mother, who owns the pool, at around 8:30 a.m.

“She goes, ‘well, they’re in the pool,’ and she was a little frantic,” he said, recouting the call. “I came right down to find two horses.”

Pouliot had also come to the house to try to hoist the horses out. One of them had become trapped in the frigid water under the protective tarp and couldn’t be saved.

“I just realized a horse just like fell and died in our hands,” he told CTV. “And right away, you had no time to cry or whatever. It’s like ‘okay, there’s another one right there. We can save this one.’ It takes a lot of adrenaline.”

A Quebec provincial police car is seen parked at a residence in Hemmingford, Que., where two horses escaped from their enclosure and fell into a nearby backyard pool. One of the horses died, while the other was taken into the care of an animal shelter.

In a post to social media, nearby animal shelter RefugeRR confirmed it took the surviving horse into its care.

“She is safe, warm and we are hoping she does not develops pneumonia from all the water in her lungs,” wrote the shelter. “This poor mare also watched her friend drown right in front of her.”

“Thank you so much to the citizens of Hemmingford, and fire department for working so hard to get her out of the water,” it added.

The shelter says the horse is already undergoing treatment, and will receive “life-long care.”

As for the owner of the horse, the SPCA says it has seized three of his dogs, and provincial officials will visit him in the coming days.