As two women enjoyed a peaceful canoe ride down an Alberta river, they had no idea they were about to save a life.
The sun was shining, the water sparkled, and birds sang overhead as Anna Gleig and Ava Haddad, both environmental science students at the University of Calgary, drifted along the Kananaskis River. But their idyllic trip took an unexpected turn when a horse waded into the river under a highway bridge, suddenly blocking their path.
Looking to their right, they quickly understood why: a foal was trapped in deep water, pinned against the concrete support of the bridge and barely able to keep its head above water.
Realizing the foal was in distress, the women sprang into action. Gleig, a former lifeguard, led the effort as they paddled toward the opposite riverbank, scaring the mother horse away to reduce the danger.
They swam to the foal, and while Gleig supported the young animal, Haddad helped paddle and push it toward shore.
“He didn’t fight back against us,” Haddad told CBS News. “He just let us take him, so that worked out really well.”
Somehow, they managed to get the 90-pound foal safely onto dry land. But a new problem quickly emerged—his mother had disappeared.
The two waited under the midday sun, hoping the mare would return. But when she didn’t, and the foal kept wandering back into the water, they made a difficult decision: they had to take him with them to find help.
“I ended up putting my life jacket on him and picking him up and putting him in the boat with us,” Gleig said. “And miraculously, somehow he was calm enough, and was OK with being in the boat. He took a little nap there because he was just so tired.”
After paddling for about 20 minutes, they reached someone from a First Nations community who recognized the foal and knew exactly which horse he belonged to. The man loaded the foal into his pickup truck, and before the day was out, the women received confirmation: the foal had been reunited with his mother.
Speaking to CBS News, Gleig and Haddad expressed pride and joy at giving the foal what they called a “second life.” Had they not passed by, they believe, the foal likely would have drowned.