E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol
A search and rescue team save William, a 7-year-old Arabian show horse, after he swam nearly three miles into the ocean.
As the sun set over Loon Point near Santa Barbara on Tuesday evening, waves crashed onto the sand, apparently spooking an Arabian show horse named William.
William, a 7-year-old grey stallion, had been part of a photo shoot with other horses. Frightened, he bolted into the surf.
He started to swim. And swim. And swim until he was nearly three miles offshore, headed for oil rigs.
On land, a team of four from the Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol, Carpenteria-Summerland Fire Water Rescue, and California State Parks set out to find the horse, whose official name is Air of Temptation. His owner, Mindy Peters, told Huffington Post that he had never been swimming in his life.
RAW VIDEO: William, an Arabian show horse whose official name is Air of Temptation, bolted into the surf Tuesday evening, swimming three miles offshore. A team of four search-and-rescuers saved him, slowly swimming him back to shore.
"Horses can swim, but not well,” she told HuffPo. Peters was driving when she learned about her sea horse and immediately bee-lined to the beach. She said William is worth about $100,000 to $150,000.
Ryan Kelly, a Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol Officer, was the first on site, heading out with a small motorboat. Overhead, a helicopter searched as well.
As the sun set further, the team worried they were losing light. But after a half hour search, they saw a nose and part of a face peaking above the water.
“It was a real needle-in-a-haystack kind of find,” Kelly told msnbc.com. “He looked like every other bird that was just sitting on the water.”
William was drifting with the current but still heading out to sea. When he saw the search and rescue team, he appeared startled but also exhausted.
They corralled the horse and used boathook to grab his reins. They made a makeshift harness to slip under his saddle and tie to the side of the rescue boat. They wanted to keep him buoyant so he wouldn’t sink and drown from exhaustion.
The return took two hours, because the horse moved at about a mile an hour. It was also occasionally scary for the rescue team.
“Some of the grunts and noises he was making along the way -- we weren’t sure how he was doing,” Kelly said. “We weren’t sure if he had other problems. He was making noise, thrashing around and other times he’d be completely still.”
One of the firefighters held his head above water and reassured him, Kelly said.
“It’s going to be all right,” the firefighter said, according to Kelly, petting the horse's head.
Once they hit the beach, the rescue team handed William off to a crew on paddle boats.
Waiting for William was a veterinarian who guided him to a trailer. William is now recuperating.
Peters, who has owned William for a little over a year, told HuffPo that her family was “scared to death we were going to lose him, that he was going to drown.”
“He is absolutely part of our family,” she said.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Leave a Comment:
...............................Sea Biscuit?
Man Of WaWa!!
He is really a reincarnated seahorse. Maybe over heard them talking about putting him out to pasture and decided he want to be put out to sea.
Brine That Bird
Attempted suicide. These are challenging times to be an Arabian.
Horses are actually pretty smart.
While waiting for the photo session the photgrapher mentioned "photo shoot" and poor William only heard "shoot", and thats all it took for him to bolt.
He was thinkin screw that, I ain't going down that easy.
Wet Willy.
Check the Santa Barbara News-Press to get the whole story.
An Arabian horse headed straight for an oil rig. Magic.
Great rescue. Thank you.
Sorry, but that has to be the single dumbest horse - ever. Not sure how he is worth that kind of money.
I should not have laughed at your comment... I feel sorry for the poor guy and I'm glad he is safe now but wow, was he lucky and yes, a bit daft.
seriously? people and animals do certain things when they are scared. Same thing happens when you have a lot of adrenaline. Those types of horses are trained to do a certain thing, and that doesn't include swimming. Poor guy was scared silly and didn't know how to swim or where to go for that matter. What would you do if that was your first time swimming? I'm just glad he's okay after swimming for that long!
Well, there's lots of stupid humans out there, too. That's why the rescue folks are out there in the first place. Kudos to the team that worked to rescue the horse... and who will be back tomorrow to help out again. Most of us don't have enough guts to do what they do.
fly over me, sounds to me like you are the dumb one. i bet if something scared the @!$%# out of you you would run like your ass was on fire and you would probably run into something or out into the street ( LOL ! ) humans are worthless in my book
Wow FlyOverMe, I was thinking the opposite! Any horse who can swim for three miles is worth plenty! As someone who has had horses, I can tell you that it doesn't matter what kind of horse it is, when they get spooked, they don't see anyone or anything, they just go into action. It certainly doesn't make them all dumb (they definitely aren't).
Reminds me Of Our Government, Swimming For The Oil Rigs. The Horse Came Through Allrigth and Thats A Good Thing. Us On The other hand Is A Different Story.
Anyone who has ever owned a horse knows that they are not the brightest animals on the farm. This is the first time I ever heard of one hitting the water like that though.
Horses are "flight" animals not fight animals. If spooked they will kick but their fear reaction is to run, and run fast. It has nothing to do with smarts, its instinctive reaction.
Ha ha ha! Say an animal is stupid on the internet and immediately you are going to get 10 people to crawl out from under their rock to say "No, humans are stupid!" "It's instinct!" A freakin overpriced movie horse ran into the ocean and would have drowned itself. That's not stupid, that's funny!
Horses are still ultimately ruled by instincts; they can't "reason" or make a decision on whether or not a course of action is actually saving them or endangering them further. Their instincts say go and they go.
My warning to William's owners...keep him away from the beach unless he is under control of a rider or leadline.
And now I'm all sad for the poor scared horse. Frightened animals are just a horrible concept to me. Like crying old people and lost children. I'm glad he's back where he belongs.
Forrest Gumps horse, One day I started swimming, and I swam and I swam until I had enough........
seven to seven, you sound like a forrest gump to me ( LOL ! ) . you were probably like " i'm dancing ,i'm dancing " but in your case it was " i'm swimming , i'm swimming " ( LOL ! (
@SANDRA-3169616
"Humans are worthless in my book"
Just curious about your remakes-- Are you Human?
I was there! Before it started things were fine, then all of a sudden, a horse was swimming fast along the coast trying to escape, with an English saddle on its back! ! I saw the whole thing happen, the horse swam parrallel to the shore and the Vaqueros undressed from their regalia and sombreros, kept on thier socks ,ran ahead and swam out to lasoo it it missed, that's when it turned out toward the open ocean and the oil rigs and the channel islands. Got stuck in the sea kelp , almost drown, then broke free into clear waters, and was bee lining it out to sea, swimming straight out! !! I ran down the beach and swam in cold waters to a boat offshore and convinced the captain to take his dingy with an out -board motor to look for the horse! I was the 1st one on on a small powerboat on the scene and could not see the horse.... it was so far out to sea! I did sea all the Pelicans and sea gulls. Then the Harbor Patrol finally showed up, searched all over and way out to sea, and pulled off an amazing rescue just before dusk, William the horse was way way out to sea, for if all light was lost, so would have been William, but he persevered! And the fine Arabian with spunk, and pure perseverence ...and with help from local heroes saved the wonderful animal!
I thought the horse perished but but the time I got in, they just anounced on the radio the horse was found alive out at sea! What a joy! Glad it ended well. Things happen and this was a new one.
Best
Anthony Greene, Santa Barbara 2nd Generation native, and ocean and animal lover.
thanks for the update!
That a Boy Willam !!!!!!!!!! so glad to hear that all ends well!!!!
The horse was Arabian. Probably saw Harbor Patrol and was afraid it would end up being dinner at Gitmo.
darrel b, you could have ended up on jeffery dahmer's plate ( ha ha ha ha !!! )
They should change that horse's name to "Lucky". Or maybe "Shark Bait".
tarzan , they should have changed your name from tarzan ( cuz the name does not suit you ) to cheetah ( tarzan's pet chimp. )
I heard the glue factory truck was turning around the corner at the same time...
you're comment is so stupid !
@sandra
I'll secong your comment to webOS, somes up past his bedtime
I am happy that they rescued this horse, but they seemed to go out of their way to do so. While just a year ago, firefighters and police stood by and WATCHED a man drown in the San Francisco Bay due to - they said - budget constraints....
What a wacky world.
Hey... I just mentioned that this rescue team should replace the one in San Fran. just for that reason!!
I believe the horse was lucky to be swimming around Santa Barbara, also the horse is worth 100,000 the guy was probably poor so not so lucky.
so mike, should they have let the horse drown just because you did not like the idea that everyone saved the poor animal ? as far as the man drowning i doubt it that it is as you say. i doubt if the firefighters said " oh we'll just let this guy drown " though i doubt it. i'm sure glad that you aren't the one put in charge of the situation cuz you probably would have let the horse drown.
WOW I see you're into bashing everyone today—you sound like a Bitch Female who walks up-right on her hind legs and drags her lips on the ground—a few good tasers in you fat ass should help your attitude a little preceded by a little oral lip surgery to adjust those bottom sucking lips…
Sandra, your read comprehension skills are excellent. For a first grader.
In fact, my remark really had more to do with contrasting the efforts to save a horse as compared with what little effort was made to save a drowning man.
The police and firefighters in the drowning man case, did indeed pretty much say, "oh we'll just let this guy drown" - because that's exactly what they did. They stood there and WATCHED him drown. Because they claimed that they weren't trained or had the right equipment to get him. Mind you he was STANDING up to his neck in the water and succumbed to hypothermia, ultimately drowning. And the greater irony being that this is a city (Alameda) that sits on an ISLAND but doesn't have anyone trained in water rescue?
A 20 year old woman had to volunteer to wade out there to retrieve the body because the firefighters wouldn't do it for whatever reasoning they could make up. In fact, the Chief pretty much said it was their policy to let people drown because, God forbid, they open the city up to liability in attempting to rescue someone when they (the firefighters) haven't been "certified" in water rescue and recovery.
You could, if you were so inclined, actually read the story about it. It made headlines all over. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=8161285
Wow, Mike, this is one of those things that unless you see it with your very own eyes, you don't believe it. I agree with you that it's shocking to see that they let the man drown, considering they could have saved him, or at least tried.
Yowee! Pony Paddle! Neat story, happy ending.
Pssst! William. Learn to dive and get a job in Atlantic City.
An Arabian horse swimming towards an oil platform, go figure?
Ha ha ha. Thats a good one man. LMAO
"Thank You" to the people who saved this poor horse from a horrible situation. For those of you that have NO compassion regarding this............PLEASE KEEP YOUR DUMB*** remarks to yourself. We have enough sick and twisted humans on EARTH.
Uh NO! Ive spent 33 defending the country and constitution just so every citizen make stupid jokes. Besides, ya got to admit that was funny.
jeannette,
So anyone whose sense of humor doesn't match yours is a dumb ass? The proctologist called .... they found your head.
@denver bill
hey whats with jennette ?
ur remark did make lol tho ....hahaha
Just another conservative horse driven out to sea by the uber left wing nuts in Santa Barbera!I know,I almost drowned once doing the same thing in the Pacific off Santa Barbera!Probably realize he was going to give to PETA and have to spend the rest of his short life in one of their euthenasia centers !
Haha, this makes me thankful that my arab is scared of water!
You are talking about the horse, still, aren't you?
Um, Charles, let me translate: Aurelia88 is saying that they are happy that the arabian horse that is part of their family does not like water. "Arab" is a slang term for the breed....
charles from wv , now that was funny !!!
Yes yes, my horse. XD he refuses to even walk through mud puddles....
I bet he was thinking, man, this is one helluva big lake.
Probable an illegal recently imported horse who didn't want to sent back to Saudi Arabia! I understand that he claims to be gay and was afraid he would be punsihed if returned to his home land!
Boy,he is a true wetback!
The horse admitted he was gay,let him drown!
Arabian Horses very tall, great gate, sturdy and very trainable, but have a very high spirit.
I grew up with horses and yes some can be born blind or retarded....and I think we had
a couple.....nature is not perfect. Case in point....maybe too much interbreeding:))))
You are correct,nature is imperfect! The proof is that there are Mexicans!
Wrong.
Arabian horses are not very tall, rarely getting above 15 hands (5 ft. at the withers). Very few horses are born blind, and in all my years of working with them, I have NEVER seen one born "retarded."
And the term is "inbreeding"... and it happens across all purebred species.
It's called "line-breeding" or "in-breeding" - at least that is what those of us who actually breed horses, and carefully watch pedigrees while doing so, call it.
Horses have one line of defense when spooked or frightened - flight. Can't believe all the uneducated, calloused posters on this blog.
Glad the horse was brought home okay. Have to play the waiting game with the veterinarian to see if the horse has sustained any long term damage to his health.
Many thanks to all of those who participated in the rescue!
mas098, you are suspended for a day for violating rule # 5 of the Code of Honor.
Sally is a golden goddess of truth, beauty and light. Thanks for that, Sally.
*I get suck up points, right?*
Bet he has that yo yo spanish accented voice! Probably just claimed he was an arab.It's really difficult to tell the difference between a Mexican and arab!Dead give away,Mexicans have more hair!
Peters obviously doesn't know much about horses as they are generally excellent swimmers. And I think this boy proved it.
Yeah, he was probably just going to go a little further and come back and they made a big deal out of nothing.
True. And why WASN'T the owner with him?
Nobody does anything with my horse without me being there to watch how he's being treated. There has to be more to this story of what scared him than "waves crashing."
Owners in the bigger leagues often live out of state, particularly when these horses go on the road. This was not your little backyard horse that you are accustomed to. And Arabians, particularly a highly bred one who is bred to look crazed in the halter classes (this is the fashion), is going to be quite likely to spook. They don't breed them for temperament, it's all about the looks and actually opposite temperament to what would actually make a good riding horse. I'm surprised, if you are knowledgeable about horses and the horse industry, that you do not know these things.
Excuse me. But there again you are wrong. Or you lack in reading comprehension.
The owner was close enough to head to the beach when she heard about it on the radio. So no, she did not live out of state. And even if she did, no competent owner allows a prize stallion out of their sight even at a halter competition.
And they are not bred to look "crazed" in the halter classes. On the contrary, the halter classes look at conformation and temperament -- a prized halter class horse has to remain calm in the arena or they are disqualified.
I'm surprised that YOU do not know this things.
It was Bushs' fault! Notice how the libs can spend tens of thuosands on animal care because you are the one paying for it!The owner should be billed for the service.If she can afford to live in Santa Barbara,she can afford to pay for her horse!
Yep mos. This is deeply political!
Maybe this rescue team should replace the one they have in San Francisco... They didn't even try and get their feet wet when a man was drowning in the Bay a few months back!
chris , i think you misunderstood or you were misinformed just like mike, there is more to this story than you and mike are letting on.
The man in San Fran that they are whining about was in the process of committing suicide. I'd be damned if I'd put my life in danger to save a suicide...even if you haul his dumb ass in, odds are he'll do it again and finish the job. The rescue team in SF made the right call, and made a point about the budget cuts too.
This horse, on the other hand, will not do this a second time. They're not as stupid as people are!
The Beach is not a natural environment for a Horse. Not surprised at the outcome, very sad to me.
If your ever at the Outer Banks in North Carolina you can go to Corolla, NC along the Outer Banks and see wild horses almost daily there. We ride down there from Duck, NC each year we're there and for 10 years or so they have never failed to be there.
Did you read the same article I did? Because the one I read said they rescued him, not sure what is so sad about that outcome, in your opinion.
Peters, who has owned William for a little over a year, told HuffPo that her family was “scared to death we were going to lose him, that he was going to drown.” - translated, "scared to death we were going to lose 100,000 dollars!!"
This could only be said by someone who is either extremely jaded by the horse hobby or doesn't know anything at all about it....My horse was my family; whether $1,000 or $100,000. I happened to have the $1,000 version, but that's just fine; I saved from the time I was about two years old until I was 17 years old to finally have enough savings to buy and take care of my arabian.
Amy , that is exactly what i was thinking.
He is certainly insured. It was not at all the money. The public certainly is ignorant about the horse industry.
Did they get the explosive vest off before they brought him back to shore or did the salt water render it harmless?
A horse breed that has been known as "Arabian" for hundreds of years, and this is what comes up when the story of a horse born in California, raised in California, and rescued in California needs help?
How completely inappropriate!
(ok so only guessing on the born/raised in CA part but there's a pretty large population of Arabian breeders there so I would think this is likely- the likelihood of this guy coming from anywhere outside the US is pretty slim)