Guardia Civil officers belonging to Seprona had the difficult task of extracting a horse from a narrow irrigation channel.

The incident occurred in Pedro Ruiz, which is a municipal dependency of Santa Fe. Several people had contacted the Guardia Civil to say that a horse was stuck in an irrigation ditch, which was too deep for it to get out, so a patrol was sent out. They finally found it wedged into a narrow channel, which runs along the GR-3405.

The animal had remained trapped in this way most of the night and it was exhausted. It also had injuries to one leg and its head.

In order to free the horse the officers used a length of rope and a Spanish mattock (a hoe on steriods). They tied one end of the rope to the horse, calming it down and giving it something to eat. They then used the mattock to lower one bank of the canal so that the horse could jump out.

Once it was free they took it to the Sociedad Protectora de Animales y Plantas in Granada, whilst they investigated to find out who the owner was. They tracked her down to a nearby farm – the horse had escaped the previous night.

The police informed her where her horse was being kept, so that she could go and pick it up. She thanked the officers for finding and rescuing the animal.

(News: Santa Fe, Vega, Granada, Andalucia)