Neighbors pull together to rescue horses from icy pond

Penny and Fancy had a close call last week, when they fell into a pond and were rescued by owners Jim and Barbara Clark and their neighbor. Left to right: Paul Feagan, Jim Clark, Penny, Fancy and Barbara Clark. --Rusty Murry/Daily Mail

Jim Clark, 61, of Milo, Mo., sprang into action Wednesday, Jan. 28, when a passing motorist stopped and told him that two of his horses had fallen through the ice and snow covering his pond on E Highway, four miles east of Milo. Jumping into their overalls, he and his wife Barbara ran out to assess the situation. "It was just like a plan popped into my head the minute I got out there," Jim said.

Jim started his tractor and let it warm up while he scrounged up some chains and a lariat. He took those items and his boat and headed for the pond while Barbara found an oar he could use to push the boat. Jim and his neighbor to the east, Paul Feagan, hooked the chains to the tractor and backed it near the pond. Jim moved out onto the cracking, wavy ice, just near enough to one of the horses to get the lasso over its head. He tied the end of it to the chain and started to pull.

The horse began to move forward, but then "she set her feet and that was it," he said. The lariat broke near where it was tied to the chain. In an effort to keep it from snapping back through the window of the tractor, Feagan had his right hand where the chain and rope were joined. The flying end of rope caused the chain to wrap around his hand, leaving a pretty nasty wound that no one was even aware of until the incident was over. The snapping rope cut the horse under the eye.

Jim Clark's boat is right where he left it after using it to get to his horses that fell through the ice and snow covering the pond on Wednesday, Jan. 28.

By pushing the boat out with the oar, Jim returned to the horse and eased over the side of the boat to put the rope back on. He went through the ice into chest deep water. He got the rope around the horse's neck and decided "to just lead her out of there." Once the animal was on solid ground, he removed his heavy coat and waded back in on the trail he had already broke to help the second horse. "I love my horses and I wasn't gonna let nothing happen to 'em," Clark said.

Barbara and Feagan were on the bank of the pond during the entire time. When Jim slid out of the boat and disappeared from her sight, Barbara thought he was gone, but Feagan was monitoring things the whole time. "I was watching every move he made, if he'd have went under water at all, I'd have went right out there; I'd have been right there," said Feagan.

By the time Jim got the second horse out of the pond, there was a Vernon County Sheriff's Deputy, Vernon County Ambulance and Garwood Wrecker on the scene. There were several cars parked on the highway watching the rescue operation. "We could feel their support," Barbara said. Another neighbor, Charles Scott, heard of the incident on the scanner and came and helped Barbara dry the animals off and comb them out in the barn.

Feagan immediately got Jim to the house, his wet clothing off and got some warm liquid in him. The ambulance crew gave him a good check. His estimated 40 minutes in the sub-freezing water in temperatures in the mid-20s had surprisingly little effect on a man who, in the last 10 years, has had a heart attack, bypass surgery and back surgery.

As of this writing all are doing well. Feagan's hand is healing. Both horses suffered some minor cuts and scrapes, there was the cut under the eye and an old wound that was reopened, but the animals are doing well, too! Jim said, "All in all it was a very, very, exciting day. I'd do it again in a second." And Barbara said, "He's always been my superman; and he was my superman that day!"