Horse has a mare after getting stuck in Rushton swimming pool

A horse swapped a Rushton paddock for a paddle - but had to be rescued by firefighters after it got stuck in a swimming pool.

Fire crews from Rothwell and a specialist animal rescue crew from Wellingborough - about 12 firefighters in total - were sent to Chris Tucker's house in Desborough Road after the bizarre incident at about midnight on Tuesday (March 10).

Two horses from a neighbouring field had broken a strap on his gate and one started feeding on the grass. But the other made its way into Mr Tucker's 24ft by 14ft swimming pool and couldn't free itself.

The 51-year-old carpenter said: "The first I knew about it was the garden sensor going crazy.

"My neighbour Beth started banging on the door so I opened it and she said "there's a horse in your pool!".

"That's not something you hear every day."

Beth's husband Cliff - who Chris said is terrified of horses - jumped over a fence and held its head out of the water so it didn't drown.

Chris' partner Karen and daughter Kayleigh started knocking on doors in the village to try and contact the owner of the horses.

Chris said: "It was one of those situations where you hold your hands up in the air, walk around in circles and know you've got to do something but just don't know what to do.

"It was quite bizarre."

They helped the horse from the 6ft deep end to the 3ft shallow end to try and help it out to no avail.

Eventually the horse was sedated before firefighters used specialist equipment to rescue it after a dramatic few hours.

A vet gave the horse a once over and ran a few tests where, thankfully, it was found not to be injured and so it was taken back to the field it came from.

Chris said extra measures have now been taken to make sure they can't go for another swim.