A Welsh mountain pony has been rescued from the bottom of a cliff in Carmarthenshire in a challenging 2-day rescue operation involving the RSPCA, coastguard and fire service.
The 2-year-old gelding fell down a steep slope on 23 March into an isolated cove at Marros, near Pendine. He was unable to get back up.
The next day the rescue team decided the safest way of getting him off the beach was by airlifting him in a helicopter.
However, the RAF didn’t have one available, so the next option was to swim the Goldie into the sea and attach him to the RNLI lifeboat.
The rough seas and high wind made this impossible though. The pony was therefore sedated and hoisted up the cliff face using the fire service’s heavy-lifting equipment.
The pony was placed in a safety harness, and once sedated, wrapped in heavy-duty tarpaulin and hoisted up the slope.
RSPCA inspector Richard Abbott said: “It was a very difficult walk to get to Goldie with heavy kit, but team work, good weather and a very well behaved pony meant Goldie was rescued with no injuries at all.”
He has now been reunited with his owners.
