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An hourslong effort in Beltrami County over the weekend ended with the successful rescue of two horses that had gotten stuck in a bog.

The Beltrami County Sheriff's Office said deputies were called to Three Island County Park, north of Bemidji, just after 4 p.m. Saturday.

“Two individuals were riding horses on the Three Island County Park trail system. Due to the wet spring some of the trails were flooded. While on the trail, the horses began to sink into the bog. The horses spooked and ran further into the bog,” the sheriff's office reported in a news release Monday.

The two horses stopped, sank into the mud and were unable to move. 

Deputies located the horses and riders and started a rescue operation. They borrowed multiple 8-by-10-foot wood panels from the Bemidji Fire Department and hauled them to the stranded horses using a tracked utility vehicle.

The deputies, joined by a Minnesota DNR conservation officer and a state trooper used the wood panels “to create a floating bridge for the horses to walk on,” the sheriff's office reported. The rescuers move the moved panels in front of the horses for about a quarter mile until the ground was solid enough for the horses to walk on.

The horses and riders made it back to the trailhead at about 8:30 p.m.

Heavy snow over the winter and heavy rain during the spring have left trails wet and muddy in parts of northern Minnesota.

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An hourslong effort in Beltrami County over the weekend ended with the successful rescue of two horses that had gotten stuck in a bog.


Horses cross a swampy area on a path of wood panels

Courtesy Beltrami County Sheriff's Office

Two riders and their horses pose with deputies who helped rescue them.

Deputies rescue horses stuck in northern Minnesota bog

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