Missing Horse Rescued After Months In The Mountains — Using A Raft And Snowmobiles

February 5, 2026

When a horse named Mouse went missing during a fishing trip in Wyoming last July, his owners feared the worst. Months passed with no sign of him, and the harsh mountain winter made the chances of survival seem slim.

Then, in late January, a group of snowmobilers made an incredible discovery: Mouse was alive, deep in the Wind River mountains, nearly 10 miles from the nearest easy access point.

Credit: @cowboystatedaily

“I was pretty worried because it's a horse that me and my friends are partners on, and I didn't want to lose that,” co-owner Preston Jorgenson told MTN News. Despite the long absence, he said he never completely lost faith that Mouse might still be out there.

Finding the horse was only the beginning. Rescuing him from deep snow and rugged backcountry terrain posed a serious challenge. Horses, rescuers explained, struggle to travel in snow.

“The problem with horses is that they don’t walk well in snow,” one rescuer noted. “They have no ground pressure, and the horse was probably four miles off any groomed trail in backcountry terrain. We needed specialized equipment to get in there.”

Volunteers quickly came together, assembling snow machines, a snow groomer, and even a massive Snow Cat to reach Mouse. But they still faced a major question: how do you transport a horse through miles of deep snow?

That’s when someone suggested an unusual solution.

“That's when the great idea came up of, hey, we'll get a river raft,” volunteer Buster Campbell said with a smile.

Campbell approached a rafting company with the unusual request. When asked what he needed the raft for, he joked, “‘If you don't mind me asking, what do you need this for?’ And I said, ‘You wouldn't believe me if I told you.’”

With the raft secured, the rescue team put their creative plan into action. Mouse was guided into the raft, which was then pulled through the snow by snowmobiles and other equipment for miles across the mountains.

Jorgenson said Mouse adapted quickly to his unusual ride.

“He walked right up in there, so we let him stand there for a little bit and let him know everything's okay,” he said. “I was pretty excited to see all that. Just him riding in a raft.”

Another rescuer said the tired horse eventually lay down inside the raft, and the team carefully hauled him across the snow, escorting him for the long journey out of the mountains.

The improvised plan worked. By Sunday afternoon, Mouse was safely back home, reunited with his owners.

Now safely recovered, Mouse is doing well. “Oh yeah, he's doing great,” Jorgenson said. “He's eating and drinking water just fine. I actually seen him trotting around in a field today.”

For the volunteers, the rescue was a powerful example of what can happen when people come together with a shared goal.

“That's what makes it so amazing,” Campbell said. “People on different fronts of life and everybody just able to sit down and come down together on a situation, with one thing in mind. We're going to get him out of there.”

Watch the rescue below: