As the Bellinger headed towards its peak of 8m yesterday, a cry went up on Facebook about four horses stranded by flood waters close to town.
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"What's gonna happen with these horses? Can anything be done to help them?" someone posted, receiving a flurry of anxious suggestions.
Lucy, her 15-month-old foal Cracker, Elsie and Spring had been fine when checked by their owner Buffalo at 9:30am.
Agisted on the Glyde's farm, which runs between Gleniffer Rd and Waterfall Way, they seemed safe in their paddock on the west side of Lodge 241 (Qudo).
"There was a hill for them to get away from the flood waters," Kathy Glyde said. "But horses being horses, they chose the wrong side of the paddock and they ended up getting stranded."
With the river rising fast, Buffalo rang Triple Zero, and Fire & Rescue and the SES arrived to help.
The Fire & Rescue boat was ready in the water, and Buffalo and Stephen had waded out with bridles, but as dry land shrank beneath their hooves, the horses decided to rescue themselves.
"Lucy led the way," Buffalo said. "She's swum out of a flood before, and she's the lead mare. She's the smallest of those three mares but she's boss of them and she showed them how to get out."
It was a distance of only 50m but the current was swift, Buffalo said.
He'd been hoping the horses could be brought across behind the boat so they wouldn't be swept away, but this was judged too risky.
"The horses swam to get to us and the current basically picked them up and put them on the other bank. The current was strong and I thought they might have got into trouble trying to swim, but they did really well."
In the end, it was Buffalo and Stephen who were ferried back to safety in the rescue boat.