The Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office airlifted a horse to safety after it got stranded in the middle of the Yellowstone River south of Billings, Montana.
Cowboy, the horse, had escaped from his owners’ property and ended up standing knee-high in the Yellowstone River. With no other way to get him back to shore, rescuers on Friday hitched the horse to a helicopter and carried him over the river and back home.
“The horse wasn’t too happy about the whole situation,” Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder said. “He spent less than a minute in the air before he was dropped off where his owners were and immediately walked off to eat grass. Everything worked out fine.”
No Horseplay
Cowboy escaped from a ranch along the Yellowstone River on May 13. The Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office was notified of the missing horse and had been keeping an eye out for him.
Then, on May 15, someone called the sheriff’s office to report that they had found Cowboy. He was standing knee-high in the Yellowstone River, several miles west of his home.
Linder decided to hold off on rescuing the horse until Friday morning.
“The horse had been there for a while, but by the time I got the information, it was already getting dark,” he said. “We didn’t even assess the situation simply because it was going to be dark by the time we got there.”
On Friday morning, several rescue boats were launched to reach Cowboy. Fortunately, the horse hadn’t gone anywhere overnight.
“It wasn’t deep water, but the horse wouldn’t move,” Linder said.
Shane Weinreis from the US Water Rescue Dive Team suited up and waded across the river to reach and halter Cowboy so he could lead him through the water. That didn’t work.
Linder filled a bucket of horse feed he’d brought with him, hoping to at least coax Cowboy to one of the nearby islands of gravel. The horse, which was probably hungry enough to eat a horse, gobbled up the feed and was led to the nearest island.
“The island was surrounded by fast-moving water, so there was really no way to get the horse off that island by walking it across,” Linder said. “So, we brought in the helicopter.”
A horse named Cowboy stranded in the middle of the Yellowstone River south of Billings, Montana, was flown to safety Friday by the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office and its on-call helicopter. (Courtesy Yellowstone Sheriff's Office) 
A horse named Cowboy stranded in the middle of the Yellowstone River south of Billings, Montana, was flown to safety Friday by the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office and its on-call helicopter. (Courtesy Yellowstone Sheriff's Office) 
A horse named Cowboy stranded in the middle of the Yellowstone River south of Billings, Montana, was flown to safety Friday by the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office and its on-call helicopter. (Courtesy Yellowstone Sheriff's Office) 
A horse named Cowboy stranded in the middle of the Yellowstone River south of Billings, Montana, was flown to safety Friday by the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office and its on-call helicopter. (Courtesy Yellowstone Sheriff's Office)
Cowboy Turned Pegasus
The Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office has multiple helicopters acquired through the “1033 Program,” which allows the U.S. Department of Defense to transfer surplus military equipment to law enforcement agencies.
“We were fortunate to obtain those helicopters,” Linder said. “We have a group that works with us to maintain, house and fly our helicopters, and they’ve become a very important tool for us.”
When a helicopter was needed for the horse rescue, pilot Gary Blaine was able to hop into “Air 1” and go directly to the scene when Cowboy was waiting. Cowboy was lightly sedated to make the short airlift a little less stressful for him.
“We wanted to relax the horse a bit, but still let it control itself once we landed,” Linder said. “The horse wasn’t too excited about it.”
Cowboy was already rigged and ready to go by the time the helicopter reached the island. With one fell swoop, the horse was hitched, lifted, and carried across the Yellowstone River.
After less than a minute in the air, Cowboy was on solid ground and reunited with his owners. Once everything was in place, the rescue took little more than an hour.
You’d Be Surprised
Linder lauded the team that assembled to assist in the horse rescue, which included Weinreis, Blaine, a livestock inspector, and one of the Yellowstone County deputies who also happens to be an experienced farrier.
“We had a lot of experienced horse people on-site,” he said.
Having a helicopter available at a moment’s notice was a tremendous asset to the rescue effort. Linder said most people would be surprised how often the helicopters have proven their usefulness to the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office.
“We do a lot of river rescues, either by boat or helicopter, and we’ve used the helicopters to herd, feed, and observe livestock,” he said. “We’ve used that helicopter to haze cattle out of the river and back to shore after flooding, and we used it to herd and feed horses during an animal abuse investigation we did several years ago.”
The rescue of Cowboy was a lot smoother and easier thanks to the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office air support on call. For Linder, it was a textbook example of efficiency, preparedness, and professional response that went as well as he could have wanted.
“The horse came out OK, and the operation went off without a hitch,” Linder said. “Everything went pretty much like we had hoped it would.”
Contact Andrew Rossi at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
