Escaped horses stormed Citadel Hill yesterday morning.
Louie, a “teenager” and Pumba, a “good old guy,” crossed Bell Road during morning rush hour and ambled up Citadel Hill.
Jill Barker with Bengal Lancers equestrian club said eight horses were turned out to the corral between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m.
“They play with things with their noses, so they played with the latch, and the gate opened. And then they pushed on the gate and the gate opened,” she said.
Five of the escapees went across the street then came back. One of them never left at all.
“I guess he wanted to stay home,” Barker said. “Two of them decided they really wanted to go, so they went to Citadel Hill.”
She said she was amazed at how many people who were on their way to work at that time had some association with the equestrian club; several people stopped to lend a hand.
“There was an alumni meeting out there, I think,” Barker said.
The police were called in to help wrangle the strays. They turned their sirens on, but the horses didn’t understand the warning and they kept going.
“They didn’t realize they were criminals,” Barker said. “They were just out for a winter’s walk.”
Const. Jeff Carr with the Halifax Regional Police said they’re used to rounding up animals, but not particularly horses.
“It’s not one of the prerequisites of our job to be horse wranglers,” he said.
Volunteers caught the horses, as Carr said police were just trying to corral them and keep them safe.
Before their tour of Citadel Hill, Carr said the two runaways toured Sackville Street and Dresden Row. He said the two police horses aren’t stabled there in the winter, so they weren’t among the escapees.
In her 25 years working at the Bengal Lancers, Barker said there have been about a dozen horse escapes.
