Exhausted horse saved from floods in Australia Published duration 3 April 2017

image copyright Leigh Shepherd image caption The horse is expected to make a full recovery

An Australian pair saved a horse from drowning before spending hours holding its head above floodwaters in the doorway of their home.

The mare had been stranded outside in Murwillumbah, one of many flood-hit towns in New South Wales.

Leigh Shepherd and his son, Rob, heard the horse in distress sometime after midnight on Friday.

They swam to the animal before using a power cord to coax it back to their house and up an external stairwell.

"She came halfway through the doorway and just collapsed," Leigh Shepherd said.

He said his son, 21, held the horse's head above water on a boogie board for more than five hours.

image copyright Baldwin Equine Veterinary Services image caption Rob (third from left) and Leigh Shepherd (far right) with the horse and its owners

The horse has since been reunited with its owners on a neighbouring property.

Veterinarian Greg Baldwin praised the men's "huge effort", expecting the horse to make a full recovery.

"She's back at the stable," he said.

"Considering what she went through, she's going pretty well."