ATKINSON – A passing driver called 911 on Thursday after he spotted a horse that had partially fallen through a frozen farm pond on the Range Road, and authorities who responded to the call saved the animal’s life.

Weighing an estimated 1,200 pounds, the mare was among 10 horses in a pasture with the farm pond.

She apparently had ignored a brook and tried to drink from the pond but had fallen through, said Joseph Guyotte, animal control officer.

The horse’s front feet were on the ice, and her hindquarters were in the water.

“She’d been in there awhile. She was exhausted,” Guyotte said Thursday. “Ice had frozen to the hair on her body because she had been there awhile.”

The driver, who had attempted to alert the owner but found nobody home, waded through snow to reach the horse, then cradled its head until Guyotte arrived.

“A lot goes through your head when you see something like that, but you do what has to be done,” Guyotte said.

What helped Guyotte, he said, was his participation in a course a few months ago on large-animal rescue.

Recognizing that it was important to have a veterinarian nearby when the animal came out of the water, Guyotte called Dr. Ron Miles of Dover-Foxcroft. Miles responded as did Guyotte’s son John Guyotte and Eric Berce, both Dover-Foxcroft firefighters.

To prepare for the rescue, John Guyotte spread about 10 gallons of sand he had in the back of his pickup truck over the slippery ice near the horse to give the animal some traction. Before resorting to a harness and straps to lift the horse, Miles, with help from the firefighters, twisted and “sort of rolled” the horse’s body, Joseph Guyotte said.

That was enough for the horse to free herself and haul her hindquarters out onto the ice.

“It was a combined effort of horse and man,” Guyotte said.

Miles walked the horse to the edge of the pond, where she lay down, weakened by efforts to get free, according to Guyotte.

After a few minutes, Miles coaxed the horse to her feet and walked her to a nearby barn, he said. After the horse was tied to a stall, Guyotte and Miles wiped the water from the cold animal and offered her hay and water.

“Everything turned out for the good of the horse,” Guyotte said.

That’s not the case for the horse’s owner. Guyotte said the owner, who noted that the animals typically drink from the open brook and who vowed that something like this would not happen again, received a warning for not having sufficient water for the animals.

The pond is now roped off.