Maree Newberry has shared how “an absolute angel” helped rescue a pregnant mare as floods threatened their property.
Located in the “Mundoona-Bunbartha area”, Newberry joined TrotsLife's Toby McKinnon on Wednesday morning after a sleepless night, sharing that “stress levels are a little high”.
It’s no wonder, with water flooding the region after nearby “Loch Garry failed”.
“We had a mare due to foal anytime now and we had her in one of the paddocks closest to the stables and it had a high patch in it that we thought would be OK,” Newberry said.
“Unfortunately at about midnight (Tuesday) night we could hear her splashing around in water. We shone the light out there and found that she was a fetlock deep in water.
“We decided we needed a boat to move her, so I put out a call on Facebook on the Shepparton floods page and quite a few people offered and asked how they can help.”
Before long help was at hand and Newberry’s husband John and son Matthew (pictured) were ferried to the mare and able to relocate her to safety.
“A fella came around, he put his boat in on the road, came across what used to be our dam, at the moment it’s just a big lake, and picked up John and Matthew from the stables and they went down to the paddock,” she said.
“Some of the fences are just totally submerged, so at least they knew where the fences were and could guide him, they then grabbed the mare. Once we could get to the paddock we could get her out and across to where the other high paddocks are.”
It was a great result amid a largely sleepless night.
“We’ve still got six horses close to the house,” she said. “They’re all OK. The house and stable area is actually on a higher part. So while there might be water in the bottom parts of their yards, they’re in the top end, so I was going out and checking where the levels were and making sure everything was OK.”
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