Kim Ford says her 10-year old horse, Nellie has gotten in some trouble over the years, but nothing like the trouble she was in Tuesday.
Authorities believe the recent rain over-saturated Ford's Sevier County pasture, causing a sinkhole. Nellie was swallowed by the sinkhole as the ground beneath her collapsed, leaving the 1400 pound mare stranded at the bottom of a water-filled hole, twenty feet deep.
Veterinarians were the first on the scene, rushing to Nellie's rescue. ALthough they had a harness, they had no way to pull her from the deep hole.
Dispatchers called in heavy equipment operators and the Knoxville Volunteer Rescue Squad, some of whom say they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"I thought, 'well a horse in a hole,' you know, it wasn't any big deal," says Captain John Whited. "But when I walked up and saw the small diameter of the hole and that huge horse down in bottom of a 20 foot deep hole, it was fairly amazing."
After four hours of shoring up the sinkhole, rescuers went in, strapping Nellie in the harness and using their heavy equipment to hoist her back onto solid ground.
Owner Kim Ford watched with relief as veterinarians made sure Nellie was okay.
"I felt her legs, I don't feel any broken bones or anything like that so we got a good thing going so far, we just got to keep her going through the night," says Dr. Lisa Garren.
Garren says she will know Nellie's long-term prognosis after a few days. At that time she will be able to confirm Nellie's owner's suspicion that the mare is pregnant.
Ford says this is not the first time Nellie has found herself stuck in the muck; when she was four years old, Nellie fell into a well that was being excavated.
