DIXFIELD — A 14-year-old
Arabian mare appeared to be doing well after a nearly two-hour ordeal
to get her dislodged from a wooden bridge off Hall Hill Road on Tuesday.

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Eileen Adams/Sun Journal

Leanne Shields, right, and her father, Leon Cantin, calm her horse Aquila as Dixfield and Canton firefighters decide how to free her from a rotted and broken snowmobile bridge in Dixfield. The 1,500-pound horse fell through the boards and suffered scrapes and bruises.

Eileen Adams/Sun Journal

Canton firefighter Marc Blanchette, left, cuts away portions of a rotted and broken snowmobile bridge in Dixfield on Tuesday as Leanne Shields holds onto her horse, Aquila. The animal was freed, walking away after 90 minutes with scrapes and bruises.

Eileen Adams/Sun Journal

With much of a wooden snowmobile bridge in Dixfield cut away, Aquila lies in the creek as she is comforted by an unidentified firefighter Tuesday. Briann Blanchette, right, tried to give the horse some bottled water. A few minutes later, the horse got back on her feet and her owner, Leanne Shields, walked her back to her stable.

It began when her owner, Leanne
Shields of Dixfield, went for a ride around 2 p.m. The trail, once maintained by the Poodunck
Snowmobile Club but no longer a snowmobile trail, is just off
Hall Hill Road beyond Irving's Forest Products.

Minutes into the ride, as the light-gray horse, Aquila,
was crossing a small wooden bridge that spans a tiny creek, the mare
broke through two boards and became stuck.

Aquila's hind legs were wedged
between two 4- by 4-inch beams. Shields, who was not thrown from the horse, tried to keep her horse calm.

About a dozen members of the Dixfield
Fire Co. and the Canton Fire Department responded to the call. Ninety minutes later, they finally got Aquila's legs free.

In the interim, Shields' father, Leon
Cantin of Mexico, arrived with a tranquilizer to calm the
frightened animal.

Firefighters maintained silence as
they tried to decide how to free the horse.

“They were very considerate and had a
lot of common sense,” said Shields from her horse's stable on Oak
Lane later that afternoon. “I wish I could give each one a hug.”

Trying to cut the beams without
spooking Aquila was tricky. Nails had to be pulled from the rotten
boards to avoid injuring the animal. The sound of a saw or a
generator was scary, but Shields and her father covered Aquila's eyes
and petted and reassured her throughout the ordeal. Every so
often, Aquila would rear up but then calm down under the loving
firmness of her owner.

Dixfield Fire Chief Scott Dennett said
he immediately called the Canton Fire Department when he learned of
the nature of the emergency because they had recently completed a
course in large animal rescue. Marc Blanchette and his daughter,
Briann, were among the Canton firefighters who helped the Dixfield
Fire Co. free the horse. Once the horse was freed, a gentle round of
applause was heard.

Once Aquila got up, she was shaking severely. Shields walked her back to her barn on Oak Lane.

Dennett said his department helped
rescue a horse from a small pond on Coburn Avenue a few years ago.
The horse had fallen through the ice, and although it appeared OK
later that day, the animal died a few days later.

Aquila sustained cuts and bruises to
her hind legs.

The bridge and that portion of the
trail were immediately cordoned off.

Shields said she usually takes Aquila
out for a ride a couple of times a week. Tuesday was the first time this
year that she used the former snowmobile trail.

eadams@sunjournal.com