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Snowmobilers rescue horse near Steamboat Springs |
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012 13:35 |
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Photo by John F. Russell, Steamboat Pilot & Today
By NICOLE INGLIS, STEAMBOAT PILOT & TODAY
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — There’s at least one Routt County resident thankful for the lack of snow this winter.
In fact, he owes his life to it.
Ser Vivor may be a small horse, but he somehow survived as many as four months in the North Routt backcountry, grazing on the sparse feed he found in tree wells exposed by the dry climate.
“He’s a cute little guy,” said Dr. Mike Gotchey, a veterinarian at the Steamboat Veterinary Hospital, where Ser Vivor was recovering Tuesday. “But he’s got a big heart, though, because he didn’t give up.”
Five Routt Powder Riders snowmobile club members were out for a Sunday ride when they first spotted the horse standing under a lone pine tree in an open field between Crane and Whiskey parks in North Routt County.
The clear, windless day gave way to a moonlit night as Gotchey, the snowmobilers and two U.S. Forest Service rangers walked Ser Vivor about eight miles out of the wilderness Sunday afternoon. The rescue took almost seven hours but saved the life of the old yet hardy animal.
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