Washington County search and rescue crews respond after horse returns without rider

Stock photo courtesy of Pixabay.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — The Washington County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team was sent to Diamond Valley on Tuesday night after a concerned resident found a horse returning to the area without a rider.

The riderless horse was found about a mile up Blake Gubler Road around 4 p.m., Washington County Sheriff’s Sgt. Darrell Cashin said.

The person who found the horse saw that the rider’s phone and other personal items were still on the horse’s saddle. This triggered a worry that whoever was on the horse may have been thrown off and was injured, Cashin said.

The search and rescue team was alerted soon after and arrived in the area to begin a search. To aid in locating the rider, Mercy Air was also called in. A primary worry at the time was that the search could go into the night, which would complicate matters, Cashin said.

However, an hour after the search began, the rider, a 41-year-old resident of Diamond Valley, was found walking up the road. She was uninjured and told responders the horse had just “gotten away from her.”

The rider was a bit embarrassed over the ordeal, Cashin said, adding, “It all ended well.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

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