Daring West Country wild foal rescue caught on video

“Dustin, be careful!”

Words heard in video footage of a West Country man rescuing a wild foal caught in a thicket near the edge of a cliff.

The rescue, which happened May 26 west of Sundre in the Panther River Area on the way to Mountain-Aire Lodge, was described by witness Debbie McGauran as ‘nail biting’.

“We got to the Panther River Area where there’s very high cliffs,” say McGauran. “My grandson all of a sudden shouts, ‘oh, my god, there’s a horse on the hill.’”

Footage showed a foal rolling down a steep incline before getting caught in some foliage just feet from the cliff’s edge, while its mother stood by- seemingly helpless.

“If it goes over the cliff, it’s certain death,” says McGauran. “It’s a really long way down.”

Suddenly, a man is then seen climbing the side of the cliff toward the stuck foal.

“This gentleman, Dustin Lyle sees what’s happening and takes it upon himself to jump into action,” says McGauran. “He scales the side of the cliff where the foal is caught in some branches.”

Footage then shows Lyle successfully freeing the foal before reuniting it with its mother a safer distance from the cliff’s edge.

“Dustin’s quite the hero. He did step forward and take on this amazing task,” says McGauran.

Darrell Glover, President of the Help Alberta Wildies Society (HAWS) says while he doesn’t recommend anyone approach a wild horse unnecessarily, he’s happy Lyle took the action he did.

“There is an old myth that these wild horse will attack you. That’s really on the lower end of probability” says Glover. “They have to be in some pretty severe danger before they’ll attack because they’re a flight animal”.”

Glover adds that what Lyle did was the right course of action, and that he would’ve done it himself.

HAWS officials say its mission is to bring awareness about Alberta’s wild horse population to the public.

Glover says recent estimates from the organization show nearly 620 wild horses roam the 550,000 acres of the Sundre equine zone alone. Glover says a parallel government estimate showed nearly 840 horses in the same region.

As of May 28, footage of the rescue has been shared over 2,000 times on the Save Alberta Wildies Society Facebook page.