CODY — A horse that went missing during a July fishing trip in Wyoming was rescued from deep mountain snow in late January using an unconventional method: a river raft pulled by snowmobiles.
The horse, named Mouse, had been missing for months when a group of snowmobilers discovered him nearly 10 miles into the Wind River mountains above Dubois.
Click here to see the miraculous rescue:
Co-owner Preston Jorgenson had nearly given up hope of finding Mouse, though he never lost faith that the horse could still be alive.
"I was pretty worried because it's a horse that me and my friends are partners on, and I didn't want to lose that," Jorgenson said Tuesday in an interview with MTN News.
Somehow, Mouse survived the elements. Finding him presented a new challenge: how to transport the horse through deep snow and rugged terrain back to safety.
"That's when the great idea came up of, hey, we'll get a river raft," one volunteer, Buster Campbell, said with a smile.
Campbell approached a local Cody business called River Runners with the unusual request. Owner Hunter Burrell had one simple question.
"'If you don't mind me asking, what do you need this for?' And I said, 'You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Campbell said.
Despite the unconventional nature of the request, Burrell agreed to help with the rescue effort, and the crazy idea became a miraculous rescue.
The rescue team used the raft as a makeshift sled, with Mouse riding inside while snowmobiles and a snowcat pulled the vessel through the snow for 10 miles.
Jorgenson said Mouse wasted no time getting comfortable on his rescue boat.
"He walked right up in there, so we let him stand there for a little bit and let him know everything's okay," Jorgenson said. "I was pretty excited to see all that. Just him riding in a raft."
Jorgenson said that Mouse is continuing to recover.
"Oh yeah, he's doing great," Jorgenson said. "He's eating and drinking water just fine. I actually seen him trotting around in a field today."
Campbell said the rescue demonstrated how community members can come together to solve problems.
"That's what makes it so amazing," Campbell said. "People on different fronts of life and everybody just able to sit down and come down together on a situation, with one thing in mind. We're going to get him out of there."
