Horse rescued from covered pool in Chester County

A horse was rescued from a covered pool in Chester County on Wednesday afternoon.

"Came out of the bar, the gate was open to the pool area, he just wandered in,"  Malvern Fire Chief Jim Rapp said.

The “he” that Malvern Fire Chief Jim Rapp is referring to is actually a 17-year-old mare named Saffiyah, who was surrounded by rescuers. Luckily for her, she had trotted out on top of a very strong pool covering on a local farm.

“The hind legs were below in the water and one of the straps from the pool cover was holding its left rear leg up and that gave us enough time to get all our skid units in place to slide it out safely,” said Rapp.

Saffiyah needed to be sedated and tied down in order to be freed but Fire Chief Rapp said it took the muscle of 30 different fire, police and animal rescuers to drag the mare out of there and about an hour of time. She was still too groggy though to say why she didn’t have the horse sense to go around the pool while making her mad dash to freedom but believe it or not, Fire Chief Rapp says this isn't the first time this happened.

Saffiyah will be okay but may by a little groggy for a bit as she returned home safely.

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