A Clydesdale horse was twice trapped in a boggy field in Sutherland yesterday as rescue teams spent five hours pulling the animal free.
The large horse was trapped up to the top of its legs and once pulled free, fell back into a shallower hole in the same field at Badninish, near Dornoch.
A specialist fire unit from Inverness and another two appliances – one each from Dornoch and Inverness – were sent to the scene shortly before 11.30pm.
The fire service contacted the Dornoch Coastguard team at about 2pm to help free the horse for a second time after it sunk into another muddy area.
Coastguard member Avril Maclennan said that when they arrived the horse had already been freed from the first hole but slipped down into another hole in the same field.
She said: “It was a very boggy field and it was wet underfoot.
“The horse was free when we got there and they had managed to get the horse onto a board and were giving it time to recover. They went to pull it onto drier ground but as soon as it got up, it went into another hole, which was not quite as deep.
“The second time, we managed to get it on tarpaulin and on drier ground and got it up on its feet.”
A fire service spokesman confirmed that the horse was seen by a vet after its ordeal.
The owners could not be traced for comment last night.