A horse fell 15 feet over a cliff in Wales recently. It survived — it landed in the sea — but was stuck in a cove, and at risk of drowning.

Kayakers spotted the horse and contacted Cardigan's Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

The lifeboat crew arrived on the scene. Using a collar supplied by the "petrified" horse's owner, the rescuers "managed to catch the horse and attach it to a longer line which was hooked onto the smaller boat. The crew then coaxed the horse into the water and swam it out of the cove and onto Ceibwr beach."

"Once swimming, the crew made sure that her head remained above water at all times and gently escorted the cold tired animal to the beach," a spokesman said.

"She was then loaded into the horsebox and driven back to the owner's farm."

"It was a great team effort," Coastguard Pete Fletcher said. "The lifeboat crew were brilliant. It took about 25 minutes to swim the horse round, and it was a good feeling to get it back."

"It would have drowned if it hadn't been removed as it was up to its waist in water when they got to it."