Indiana Marshal Has to Cut Horse Out of Tree

An Indiana town marshal wielding a chain saw rescued a horse that became wedged between two branches of a tree trunk amid subzero cold, reports the AP. Winfield Town Marshal Dan Ball says the horse somehow became stuck in the multi-trunked tree Wednesday morning in the town of Winfield, about 15 miles south of Gary. "The owner had gone out to feed the horse and discovered it was wedged in between the trunks of a tree," Ball tells the Northwest Indiana Times. "When I showed up, he looks at me and goes ‘Did you bring a chainsaw?'"

He told the Times that "we thought we were going to lose him," because he collapsed at one point and was growing weak with the temperature hovering near -20 degrees. But when a neighbor brought a chainsaw to the scene, Ball braved the frigid conditions for 45 minutes to cut away branches until the horse was able to pull free. "A couple of times I had to stop and warm up my fingers. I couldn’t feel a thing, it was so cold," Ball says. The horse then managed to walk back to his barn and eat breakfast. "I can honestly say this is the first time in my 31 years of law enforcement that I have ever cut a horse out of a tree," Ball jokes.

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