On July 23, Bragg Creek, Alberta endurance rider Houston Peschl was tacking up his horse, Flex, when a bee scared the animal, who broke his halter and bolted into the woods.
Searches on foot and by bicycle by Peschl and his wife, Rosalynn, as well as neighbours, turned up no signs of the stunning chestnut endurance horse, who has won national championships with Peschl aboard.
The OTT and Peschl have a close bond, “Houston refers to Flex as his best friend,” Peschl told CBC news, also saying that the two were almost inseparable.
The search continued, despite the smoky and hot weather that had descended on the area from wildfires in Jasper. Social media posts, including one from the Canadian Eventing Development Foundation, helped spread the word about the missing horse.
As fear for Flex’s safety spread on social media, it attracted the attention of professional tracker Terry Grant, who starred in the reality series Mantracker.
“Man-tracking is a skill they use in search and rescue to help find lost souls,” Grant told CBC, after joining in the search for Flex. “It can very easily be adapted for horses.”
According to Grant, predicting a horse’s movements and how they behave, such as looking for water, forage, and shade, can help track them. Grant is also a cowboy, so he understood the deep bond between horse and rider.
“You have a very personal bond with a horse,” he told the news outlet. “I can understand somebody losing a horse — what they’re going through — and it’s not a good feeling. So if I can help somebody out with that, then that’s even better.”
By Friday July 26, one of Peschl’s neighbours who had a small plane located Flex in the Station Flats area, about 15 km away from Bragg Creek.
Rosalynn Peschl posted to her Facebook page: “Update – Flex has been found, caught, reunited, and on his way home!!! words cannot express our gratitude to everyone for their help!!”
“It took us a few minutes to catch him, but once we caught him, he was looking and chewing and yawning, which is typically a sign of a horse being really relieved and letting go of a lot of stress,” Houston Peschl said in the story.
“By the time I had the halter on him and knew that he was secure, we both just started crying with relief and joy and all of the emotions that have been bubbling under the surface for the last couple of days,” his wife added.
More from News:
