'Back stops. Firm Pressure. Building over five' - these are all things you expect to hear while out on the river. 'There's a horse in the river' is not. However, just as I had finally managed to get the J16 boys 4+ up to firm pressure, this was exactly what I heard. A horse had obviously decided that the one piece of grass it really wanted was right on the edge of the river bank, and in getting it had slid down the bank taking a large sample of the countryside with it.

Having registered the situation and being the only crew on the water at the time, we accelerated, at full pressure back to the boathouse and were received by DMC on the pontoon. Three safety launches were sent out only to promptly return after discovering that the horse was slightly bigger than all the launches put together. The fire brigade were called and three engines were dispatched, however, only one arrived, casting an unfavourable light on their map-reading skills.

Back with the horse, DMC managed to get us close enough so that I could get a pulse and feel that it was very cold and had obviously been in the water for some time. Tom Heathcote and DMC then returned to the boathouse to fetch a space blanket and a bucket of grass for it to eat while I stayed on the bank, talking to the horse to keep it concentrating on something other than how cold it was.

After we had put the blanket over the horse to try and keep it warm, Barry Taylor came down with five firemen equipped with rope and one of their hoses to attempt to retrieve the horse from the river. We gathered from the horse's efforts to move that its front feet had sunk into the mud, so, plan 'A' to push from behind wasn't going to work. Plan 'B', to bring it out backwards so that its feet were free and then push it from behind and pull from in front was put into action.

A rope was hurled at me to form a head collar, while two firemen wrapped the hose around the back end of the horse, talking to it softly so as not to scare it. Eventually, using a small branch to encourage it up the bank, we finally managed to haul the horse to safety and I could check it over. The horse was very cold, shaken up and a little wobbly on his legs. However, no direct damage was incurred by the horse or anyone who was helping.

Ailsa Greenlees