On Wednesday morning, New Ipswich fire crews responded to an unusual rescue request – a horse that had fallen through the floor of his barn and was stuck in his stall.

Shortly before 8 a.m., crews responded to 11 Preston Hill Road, and when they arrived, found that the floor of the stall had given way, and that the horse was standing on the dirt ground below the barn.

Fire Chief Gary Somero said initially, the 23-year-old horse, named Ben Franklin, was lying on its side in the dirt floor under the stall, about a four-foot fall from the main floor of the barn.

“We first waited for a veterinarian to show up to sedate the horse, as he was pretty active,” Somero said.

Somero said the horse was checked by the veterinarian, but did not have any major injuries.

Crews cleared the debris from around the horse and called for assistance from the Keene Fire Department, which provides mutual aid to the town during technical rescues and large incidents. While the Keene crew was on their way, the horse was calmed, and the New Ipswich crew began to plan a way to get the animal back to level ground.

Somero said the Keene team has experience in these kinds of rescues, and responded to a very similar case in Swanzey the previous week. Somero said because horses are so large, and because these kinds of rescues are rare for New Ipswich, they are highly technical and can take a long time to complete while ensuring the safety of the rescuers and the animal.

“They’re always a challenge and take a long time to do properly,” Somero said.

Usually, he said the horse is fitted with a strap and lifted from above, but the barn did not have the overhead structural components that would be needed to execute that kind of rescue.

“If the first plan doesn’t work, you try a second one,” Somero said. “ It was a good, collaborative effort.”

Somero said the horse was eventually able to stand and move itself enough that crews were able to remove a larger section of the stall, take the planks from the floor to build a ramp and successfully lead the horse up to the main floor of the barn.

“It was a really good horse, and was able to walk out on its own,” Somero said. “It went amazingly well. This is something we don’t really deal with, and he was a big horse, but fortunately, he had a calm disposition.”

The horse was able to move to another stall in the barn.

Somero thanked the Keene team for their assistance in the rescue.