Jan. 13 (UPI) — A Colorado sheriff’s deputy called to help wrangle a loose horse climbed onto the panicking equine’s back and rode the animal back to its home.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office said Deputy Ian Sebold was among those who responded to a call about a loose horse wandering through busy roads in Centennial.
The sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post that the horse “tried to make a clean getaway but Deputy Sebold was much too quick.”
“The cowboy cop responded to the call, wrangled the horse, jumped on its back and rode it to safety,” the post said.
Sebold said the horse was panicking when he arrived on the scene.
“I saw the horse crossing the road, and it’s a four-lane major roadway. I could tell he was terrified,” Sebold told McClatchy News. “A citizen was walking nearby, trying to stop traffic to allow him to get across.
“You could see in his face, he didn’t know what to do on a major roadway. He just wanted to go home, but didn’t know how to get there.”
Sebold and other deputies were able to corner the horse in an apartment complex parking lot.
“With no trailer to take him home, the simplest idea was to ride him back,” Sebold said. “There was no saddle, no halter, but I got a boost — old school way — and hopped on.
“To me, the biggest question was how to get this horse safely out of a major residential area. We were not walking those 2.6 miles.”
Other deputies provided an escort with their vehicles to allow Sebold to safely ride the horse back to its home.
Sebold’s actions earned praise from the sheriff’s Mounted Unit on Facebook.
“That’s some incredible horsemanship, to say the least,” the unit wrote.