Rescuers in the Laguna Mountains Thursday were unable to hoist a horse to safety after it and a rider tumbled 200 feet down a cliff on Wednesday and landed on a 20-inch ledge high above the canyon bottom.
It took several hours to rescue the female rider, who was hoisted out of the canyon by helicopter and taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
“If she had gone any further, she would have gone straight down,” said Cal Fire Capt. Kendall Bortiser. “She’s a lucky lady.
The horse spent the night alone on the ledge. Then, hours-long efforts to harness the skittish horse for a hoist on Thursday became too dangerous for rescue crews, so a veterinarian euthanized the animal, a San Diego Humane Society official said.
The rider’s companion reported the accident about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday by calling 911, saying his girlfriend and the horse had fallen into a canyon.
The couple had been riding along the Pacific Crest Trail before turning back for the day. They were on a narrow, steep section of trail scattered with snow when the man’s horse started to slip. He jumped off, but the woman grabbed his horse’s bridle and was pulled down the cliff with his horse, said Steven MacKinnon, chief of the Humane Society’s law enforcement unit.
The woman and the animal skidded and rolled an estimated 200 feet down a rocky slope and landed on a ledge about 20 inches wide and 6 feet long.
“It was sheer luck or a blessing from God that they landed there,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Carlos Medina said. He said the drop-off below the ledge was several hundred feet.
Cal Fire, the United States Forest Service, Lakeside Fire Department, sheriff’s deputies and park rangers coordinated the woman’s rescue from Kwaaymii Point, a paved road off the Sunrise Highway overlooking the Anza-Borrego Desert. As the sun was setting, a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department helicopter crew hoisted her off the ledge.
She was treated at a hospital and released, officials said.
It was too dark to try rescuing the horse by then, MacKinnon. He said the horse was tethered on the ledge and sedated so that it wouldn’t struggle and fall.
Rescuers returned early Thursday morning. Sheriff’s search and rescue volunteers rigged ropes so two people could rappell down the slope and try to harness the horse. It was sedated again, but by midday the decision was made to give up the rescue.
MacKinnon said the ledge was too narrow and treacherous, and two rescuers had been injured working with the horse. A veterinarian euthanized the animal about 12:30 p.m. and its body was left on the ledge.
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