Wilton resident Kathy Saeed was getting ready to leave her North Wilton house for an appointment around 10 am. on Monday morning, Oct. 28, when she looked in her backyard and was surprised to see a horse. It was her neighbors’ horse, who presumably had wandered in through a gate left open by landscapers.
Saeed describes seeing the horse’s owner unsuccessfully trying to get a grasp onto the reins and secure the horse.
“[The horse] was just kind of standing there at first…and he’s not paying any attention to her [the owner]. Next thing I know, he’s galloping around our yard. We had just had our pool closed, last Thursday. I called my husband. I didn’t want to walk outside, because I was scared to death, and I was scared for her. I called the police, because I’m afraid something’s going to happen. She’s going to get hurt or the horse is going to get hurt. I’m panicked,” Saeed recalls.
Kathy got into her car to start to head out, and security video captures what happened next. The horse walks up to the edge of the pool–and keeps walking, right onto the pool cover, which collapses under the horse’s weight. The horse falls in and begins to struggle to swim.
Kathy and her husband, Sam Saeed, aren’t sure exactly how long the horse was in the pool, as the security camera footage captured only segments of what occurred. They can only surmise that the horse was in the pool for under 15 minutes.
“It records for like a minute, and then, the next time it recorded, the horse was running out of the pool. But it was probably struggling, and then it probably got to the shallow end at some point, because it ripped up the shallow end, too. And then, when it could feel the ground under its feet, it probably calmed down,” Sam explains.
By that point Wilton Police arrived–three officers, including police and animal control.
Kathy asked them how they were able to get the horse out of the pool.
“And they were like, ‘He actually just walked out like a gentleman. Walked out of the pool like a gentleman.’ They said that they threw the pool cover over him to kind of, I guess, calm him down, restrain him. And then, I guess [the owner] just walked him home.”
The owners of the horse declined to comment for the article, but Kathy said she spoke with the owner and the horse is reportedly ok. The pool and the yard are pretty torn up, say the Saeeds, but they’re in good spirits, considering everything that went on. And with the outcome a happy one, the Saeeds thought sharing the video would be something people would want to see, plus give credit to the fast response by Wilton Police and Animal Control Officers.
“With everything going on in the world, everybody needs a little humor, and I wanted to give a shout-out to the police and animal control. They were so quick,” Kathy says. “As scary as it is, now we could look back and say, ‘Hey, now that everybody’s fine, it’s kind of like just this crazy living in the country.’”
Former resident says: “Sorry, but Wilton isn’t exactly “in the country.” ‘Burbs, maybe.”