One horse is galloping all over social feeds, after dramatic footage surfaced of Colorado firefighters rescuing a fatigued mare named Cupcake from a muddy demise.
Cupcake and her rider Rianne Jaurez were riding through a rural state park when the 13-year-old horse abruptly buckled down in a swampy patch. Exhausted, the mare had slipped on wet grass and was unable to pick herself up. Jaurez, unable to lift Cupcake on her own, immediately started calling for help.
"I didn't think anybody was going to come," Jaurez told Fox.
After screaming for two hours, she managed to alert someone.
Fifteen rescuers, including a team of South Metro Fire Rescue Firefighters, arrived on scene. Along with the unhurt rider, they stood in knee-deep muddy water and tried for hours to encourage Cupcake to stand. The South Metro Colorado firefighters livetweeted the rescue, erroneously referring to Cupcake as "Buttercup" for initial tweets.
It was no cakewalk for the rescuers, who massaged and assured Cupcake, keeping her head above the muddy water.
Like Artax did in "Neverending Story," many were terrified they would be forced to watch the horse drown.
They tried brute force, but even after harnessing their combined strength the firefighters could not lift the slowly sinking horse.
"It was really the first time I'd seen tears in their eyes from a rescue," South Metro Fire Rescue Public Information Officer Eric Hurst told CNN
Veterinarian Dale Rice came onto the scene, giving Cupcake a nutritional shot, hoping to energize her to stand up by herself. Inside Edition reports the injection contained steroids, adrenaline medication, and an anti-inflammatory medicine.
Within an hour, Cupcake's strength began to return.
Suddenly, she made a dramatic recovery.
"Up, up, come on Cupcake!" Jaurez screamed, as the horse was pushed upwards by rescuers.
Standing by herself, a mostly uninjured Cupcake was led out of the park and returned to her owner. Cupcake sustained a minor cut, as well as sore muscles.
In an update to Cupcake's condition, Jaurez announced that her horse was on her way to make a full recovery.
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