Enticed by piles of fresh food, a horse on a farm near Luray this past week pushed her way into a barn and trotted up the stairs to the hayloft for a prolonged breakfast.
Getting Holly — a 12-year-old Welsh Percheron cross — down would prove much more challenging, requiring heavy equipment and the assistance of Culpeper County’s own Little Fork Volunteer Fire & Rescue Large Animal Rescue Team — the only volunteer team of its type in all of Virginia.
The four-hour rescue ended successfully, but only after careful planning and maneuvering.
“It’s a challenge to rescue an animal that could possibly harm or kill you. It’s just totally different from anything else that we do,” said Little Fork Fire Chief Doug Monaco, one of four from the local company who responded to Monday’s call, about an hour away.