Sheriff Asks Public’s Help To Find Runaway Amish Horse — May Be “Hung Up With Its Harness”
The Grant County, Wisconsin Sheriff’s Office is asking the public to watch out for a runaway Amish horse. The horse got loose with its harness still on, and may be stuck somewhere on private property. From WFRV:
According to a social media post, a brown Amish horse with its harness on got loose on Wednesday, September 23, and is currently missing.
The Sheriff’s Office alert suggests the horse is in the Hilltop Road area of Mount Ida Township. At least, that’s the area where it got loose yesterday. I suppose it could have gone further than that by now.
Two key points to keep in mind from the social media image (at top) released by the Grant County Sheriff’s Office (emphasis mine):
- The horse may be on the road in this area, so use extra caution while driving.
- It may also be hung up with its harness on private property (barns, sheds, fields, etc.).
That’s pretty clearly an AI-generated image from the Sheriff’s Office, but I suppose gives you a decent idea of what a brown horse with harness looks like.
I hope they are able to find the poor thing soon. It might be out having a great time, or it might be in trouble or distress. I guess it’s hard to say, and that last point – about it possibly being hung up by the harness – is worrisome.
So, of course, is the possibility that it could create danger for a driver on the road, a potentially even grimmer prospect. Anyone who sees the horse is asked to call the Grant County Sheriff’s Office at 608-723-2157.
An Earlier Runaway In Grant County
Of course, this is not the first time an Amish-owned horse has gotten loose. It happens from time to time – and sometimes with a buggy attached.
In fact, this is not even the first runaway horse story out of Grant County. In December 2022, a horse tied to a pole in Hickory Grove Township worked itself loose and took off with a baby still in the buggy; a volunteer found the child safe about two hours later.
It’s a variety of story we’ve seen in other Amish areas as well. In 2020, a Pennsylvania state trooper stopped a galloping horse with a toddler aboard, and in 2023, footage from Kentucky showed a driverless buggy running a long stretch of highway before a passerby brought it to a halt.
Grant County is an “Amish hotspot” county, so to speak, notable as home to six separate Amish communities. Hopefully this story will have a happy ending soon.
