Equine escape ends OK

May 21, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER - A herd of horses surprised a Palmer man on Mother's Day.

Rick Allen was outside with his 2-year-old son, planting three trees he bought for his wife as a Mother's Day gift. Allen heard sirens while he was planting the trees in his Cedar Hills yard, but he ignored the sound. He had just finished the planting when he heard a different sound, more like a thundering rumble.

&#8220I looked up and there were about 20 horses running toward us,” Allen said. &#8220I scooped up my son and ran. And there was a mule, too, trying to keep up with the herd.”

Soon after the horse herd planted themselves on Allen's lawn, the posse showed up in the form of the Palmer police, Allen said.

&#8220All of a sudden there was Officer Gipson, coming after the horses,” Allen said.

That was the second and largest group of horses that got loose near Palmer that week, according to Jason Crockett, another officer with the Palmer police.

The first time, five horses were loose and grazing in the field by the Assembly of God church on West Arctic Avenue, Crockett said.

He'd just driven by and saw what he thought were tethered horses in the field when the call came in to round them up, he said.

&#8220All I had was a collar we use for dogs,” Crockett said.

Officer Philip Krauss managed to rope one of the horses around the neck, and they went back to the owners, Crockett said.

The large herd loping up the Glenn Highway on Mother's Day caused no accidents, but cars had to pull off the road from about Marsh Road to Pioneer Park Way.

&#8220In this case, it was real

dangerous to have them free,” Crockett said. &#8220It looked like a traffic jam with all the cars pulled off.”

Crockett confirmed that there was one mule in the group, &#8220running wild with the rest.”

When the horses were heading northbound on the Glenn, a siren from an Alaska State Trooper's cruiser spooked them towards the suburb, Crockett said.

&#8220I'd just got hold of a mane, and they took off,” he said.

Eventually, the police forces cornered the horses against their fence on Scott Road, and their owner let them back in.

&#8220He boards horses,” Crockett said.

&#8220He said he has a full-size cow moose knocking down part of his fence.”

The second time around, animal control issued the horse boarder a warning, he said.

Herding horses was a break from the usual duties that beset police in the Valley.

&#8220It was a bit of fun,” Crockett said. &#8220Getting to be around the horses.”

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames @frontiersman.com