Horse Stuck Inside Empty Swimming Pool Rescued Using Carrots and Sugar

A horse in England recently found itself in a precarious situation: stuck inside of an empty swimming pool.

The horse, known as Wizard, had wandered onto the property in Grendon, England after it found its way through a broken gate in an adjacent field.

According to the Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service, officials from Moulton and Wellingborough were called to the property at 12:33 p.m. local time on February 3 and saw Wizard inside of the 4-foot-9-inch empty pool. Wizard simply couldn't escape the pool on its own.

Animal rescue technicians, including watch managers Ben Stone and Phil Jones, "formulated a plan with the owner of the horse and property" to get Wizard out of the pool, according to a statement.

The team reportedly constructed a stairway from old pallets and slowly lured the horse out using carrots, hay and sugar lumps.

"A vet was on hand to provide assistance if Wizard became distressed, but as the horse remained calm, they did not require Wizard to be sedated," officials said.

It's not the first time officials in Northamptonshire have had to rescue animals. Crews at the Wellingborough Fire Department routinely conduct such missions.

"We'll predominantly attend livestock incidents, though it ranges from a cat rescue all the way up to large cows, sheep and pigs," said Russ Thorne, the station's white watch manager. "There is no boundary on the type of rescue we attend; it's very versatile."

And they do so with the help of a 14-ton, five-seat machine called the UNIMOG, which was utilized on 113 rescue missions in 2020 alone.

It is one reason why the local crew members are often called to assist in neighboring cities and villages.

"A big reason we have [the UNIMOG] is because of its off-road capabilities," Thorne said. "Not many brigades have one, especially not for animal rescue like we do. On the back of it, we have the crane, which we can use to lift animals that are stuck on their sides or submerged in mud or in rivers or trenches.

"It works in all conditions, so flood water, icy roads, snow—you name it. Most of the rescues we attend will be on farms, so we need that off-road capability and it means we can go pretty much anywhere without getting stuck. It's not the quickest of appliances, but once it's there it's brilliant."

The on-scene crew on Thursday credited Wizard's "calm nature" for being able to exit the pool without the use of the UNIMOG or any other machinery. The entire ordeal took about 45 minutes and officials left the scene a little after 1:30 p.m.

Horse rescues are not uncommon in the United States.

Just today, WSB-TV 2 reported that a large draft horse was on the ground in a temporary holding pasture located on the side of a hill in Cherokee County, Georgia. The horse was successfully rescued.

Newsweek reached out to the Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service for comment.