A horse that had been lost in the mountains above Dubois for seven months was found and rescued by a team of ingenious snowmobilers and cowboys.
Mouse, the horse, had been missing in the mountains since July 2025. On Sunday, a group of snowmobilers was enjoying the powder in the vicinity when they found Mouse, still alive and thrilled to finally see people again.
“He was a true survivor, by all means,” said Tim Koldenhoven, owner of Union Pass Rentals. “You could tell that he was worn out and was tired, but was happy to have some company up there.”
A team of dedicated volunteers committed days of effort and creativity to get Mouse out of the mountains. A week after he was miraculously found alive, the horse got a boat ride back to his home.
“Once we found the horse, we went in there and winged it,” Koldenhoven said. “We immediately realized this was worth the effort.”
Mouse the horse had been missing since July 2025, only to be found alive by snowmobilers in the Wind River Mountains. Several people, specialized snow machines, and a river raft were enlisted to reach and rescue the horse. (Courtesy: Preston Jorgenson) 
Mouse the horse had been missing since July 2025, only to be found alive by snowmobilers in the Wind River Mountains. Several people, specialized snow machines, and a river raft were enlisted to reach and rescue the horse. (Courtesy: Preston Jorgenson) 
Mouse the horse had been missing since July 2025, only to be found alive by snowmobilers in the Wind River Mountains. Several people, specialized snow machines, and a river raft were enlisted to reach and rescue the horse. (Courtesy: Preston Jorgenson)
Lost And Found
Dubois resident Preston Jorgenson was on the backcountry packing trip in July 2025 when Mouse went missing.
“We were heading up to Moon Lake for some fishing when he got loose and disappeared,” Jorgenson said. “We put the word out, and I thought, for sure, he’d come down when it started snowing.”
Several attempts were made to find him in the ensuing months, but to no avail. He wasn’t seen again until Jan. 18, when Tighe Krutel, one of Union Pass Rentals' snowmobile mechanics, was on a snowmobile excursion near Union Pass Road and spotted Mouse, alive and mostly well, and put a GPS marker on the spot.
Buster Campbell got involved in the rescue after getting a call from the horse’s owner, who’d been informed that Krutel had spotted him and was thrilled that his long-lost horse was alive. Campbell headed up to the spot with Krutel and Dubois resident Preston Jorgenson on Tuesday.
“I went up just to lay eyes on him and give him some hay,” Campbell said. “He wasn't initially at the spot where the pin had been dropped, so we ran around in there until we found and fed him.”
Several people spent the next three days hauling food and water up to Mouse while they devised a plan to get him out of the mountains. Campbell even tried to lead Mouse out, but the snow was too deep.
“I looked at Tighe and said there’s no way this bugger will post-hole the whole way out of here,” Campbell said. “We came back down to talk to Tim, put our heads together, and made a plan to retrieve that horse.”
The horse had been doing surprisingly well on his own, but it was evident that he couldn’t survive much longer. For Koldenhoven and everyone else, it was now or never.
“He probably had a couple weeks left in him, but not much more than that,” Koldenhoven said. “If we had another big snowstorm, I think it would have been the end of the horse. With more cold weather coming in, he needed to come out of there.”
Horsepower And Manpower
They say you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. In this scenario, Mouse was eager to be led anywhere that would get him to warmth and safety, but the horse was effectively trapped in the mountains.
While most of Wyoming has been warm and dry this winter, there’s a lot of heavy snow in the mountains. Koldenhoven said there was at least six to seven feet of snow in the area where they found Mouse.
“The problem with horses is that they don’t walk well in snow,” he said. “They have no ground pressure, and the horse was probably four miles off any groomed trail in backcountry terrain. We needed specialized equipment to get in there.”
Fortunately, a coalition of volunteers and specialized equipment was assembled to rescue the horse.
In addition to specialized snow machines from Union Pass Rentals, Crooked Creek Guest Ranch offered their snow groomer to help haul Mouse out of the mountains. They even managed to enlist the services of a massive Snow Cat.
Even with specialized equipment and more than enough volunteers, they still had the conundrum of how to get Mouse out of the winter wonderland where he’d been trapped. Koldenhoven said that required “thinking outside the box” and on-the-spot organization.
“I made a few calls, everyone organized and figured out the best day to do it, because what equipment is necessary to recover a horse? But we went out there and made it happen,” he said.
The Rescue
On Sunday, everyone and everything was mobilized to reach Mouse’s location in the Wind River Range. There was no need to search for the horse again, as he was staying put and his location had been marked with a GPS point.
The solution devised to rescue Mouse was the “one-horse open sleigh technique.” Since Mouse couldn’t ride a snowmobile, they determined the best way to get the horse out of the mountains was to use a whitewater river raft.
“We sourced a raft on Facebook and got one from River Runners in Cody,” Koldenhoven said. “Buster picked it up and brought it to us.”
Once Campbell, Jorgenson, and local cowboy Eagle Bull Colston mobilized Mouse, the horse was fully on board with the plan.
“He stepped right into the raft and lay down,” Koldenhoven said. “He was super tired.”
With the raft secured to the back of a snow machine, and the horse secured inside the raft, the “one-horse open sleigh” was hauled over the snow, escorted by several snowmobilers. They hauled Mouse’s raft to the Snow Cat for the final leg of the journey, reuniting the horse with his jubilant owners.
“It was a half-assed game plan that we put together on the fly, but everything went great,” Koldenhoven said. “Mouse was well-mannered on the journey, so it all went smoothly and was home by 4 p.m. Sunday.”
A True Survivor
Koldenhoven said Mouse’s owners have been giving him regular updates since the rescue. The horse is in surprisingly good shape after surviving seven months in the Wind River Range, and he’s extremely happy to be back home.
Campbell and Koldenhoven praised the selfless team effort required to make the rescue possible. No one person could have done it, and several people stepped up to help.
“The rescue would have never happened without that equipment, but it also never would have happened if we didn't have the boots on the ground who knew what they were doing,” Campbell said. “The morale of the story is all these people coming together over a horse and making stuff happen, and that’s just incredible.
Koldenhoven gives Mouse a lot of credit, calling him “a true survivor.”
“You could tell he'd been hanging out in that place for a while,” Koldenhoven said. “He had a decent food source and a supply of water right there, and a little place where he’d been bedding down. That’s how he held on. He was a true survivor.”
Videos courtesy: Preston Jorgenson
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
