A young horse has drowned at the Bridle Ridge Acres facility, 10533 Business 21, in Hillsboro.
Comtrea, the county’s primary mental health agency, owned the 20-month-old gypsy vanner horse named Gitano, who apparently walked out onto a frozen pond and fell through the ice sometime this morning.
“He was part of our family,” Comtrea director Stephen Huss said. “A staff member – a student in the Jefferson College veterinary technician program – found him. The horse – bless his little heart – made a mistake. I think he got confused and thought the pond was part of the field.”
Huss said Gitano had fallen through ice on the largest of three ponds on the Bridle Bridge property, which Comtrea owns.
The agency plans to operate an equine-assisted therapy program there.
Huss said no one witnessed the accident, so he does not know exactly when the horse drowned.
He said staff contacted him at 8:30 a.m. shortly after Gitano was found dead and he helped staff members retrieve Gitano from the pond,
Huss said they buried Gitano in back of the property and he intends to have a memorial built at Gitano’s grave, which sits along a riding trail.
He said he spent much of today (Feb. 7) comforting staff members over Gitano’s death.
“I debriefed my staff and I debriefed myself; I was so upset,” he said. “I loved that wonderful horse.”
Less than a month ago, Comtrea held an open house to introduce the public to Gitano and other horses meant to be part of the agency’s equine-assisted therapy and learning program.
He said the program should start within the next couple of weeks, with the rest of the Bridle Ridge Acres team that include Buddy, an 11-year-old Morgan horse; Willy Boy, a Holsteiner, 8; Dancer, a 16-year-old palomino; mini-pony Shadow, 10; and mini-donkeys, Cindy, 4, and Cindy’s daughter, Eeyore, 2.
Gitano would have been too young to participate at the start of the program, Huss said.
“This horse was an investment in the future,” he said.
Gitano was donated to Comtrea, and the agency needs to look into whether insurance covers his death, Huss said.