By Chad Klassen

Merritt community comes together for heroic horse rescue amid heavy flooding

Nov 23, 2021 | 12:19 PM

MERRITT, B.C. — Amid a scary situation in the Lower Nicola last Monday afternoon (Nov. 15), people stepped up to help.

A herd of horses, stuck in fast-moving flood water for up to 12 hours overnight, needed assistance to get out.

“We’ve always had a little bit of flooding in our pastures, but nothing like this,” said owners of the horses Connie Joe and Jerry McCauley. “When we got there it was shocking at first. Then, when we saw our horses out there, in the middle of what looked like a lake, standing all huddled together, I felt we needed to help them.”

Connie and Jerry, who live near the Nicola Ranch on Highway 5A, received a call about their horses in Lower Nicola around 5 a.m. last Monday. Within minutes, help was on the way.

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“People just showed up — people from the community, friends, family all showed up. They stayed with us all day, basically in the pouring rain. It never stopped raining at all, and they just stayed right until the bitter end,” noted Connie.

Among those who helped rescue the horses was Hank Chillihitzia, who jumped into a motorboat to try and get the horses moving at first — a difficult task with rushing water.

“Right where the water was mainly going down, it was at least 60 kilometres an hour. I can’t even tell you. It was going by so fast. Once we hit [the fast-flowing water] we were gone,” noted Chillihitzia. “We couldn’t turn until the horses starting moving to separate the current.”

Chillihitzia, who loves horses, wasn’t going to stop until they were safe.

“My heart would’ve been shattered into pieces if we lost one horse,” he said. “My throat was knotted up all day. I was tired, cold, hungry, thirsty, but I wasn’t going to have anything to eat until were on dry land.”

Finally the horses got moving and up onto dry land — a relief for Connie and Jerry. All 29 horses were accounted for and are doing well.

“Obviously we gave them hay yesterday before we left and we went out and gave them some more today,” she said. “They were themselves. They always come around looking for their snacks or goodies, and they were all around us. Some of them looked tired. A couple of them were laying down.”