CELPIP Listening Part 4 Practice Test: Horse Rescued from a Frozen Pond

NARRATOR: A twelve-year-old mare named Juniper is recuperating in her stable this week after a dramatic rescue by volunteer firefighters near Lacombe, Alberta. The horse apparently slipped through a broken section of fencing on Sunday evening and ventured onto a neighbouring pond, where the ice gave way beneath her. Her owner, Brenda Kowalski, discovered her roughly an hour later, submerged up to her neck and visibly exhausted. Kowalski's frantic call brought eleven volunteers to the scene within twenty minutes. Firefighters in insulated survival suits smashed a channel through the ice toward the shore, while a local farmer positioned his tractor at the water's edge. Using wide straps looped beneath the animal's belly, the crew gradually hauled her onto solid ground. A veterinarian then treated Juniper for hypothermia, wrapping her in heated blankets for several hours. Fire Chief Darren Pruitt noted that his volunteers rehearse ice rescues every winter, but conceded that the exercises typically involve people, not a twelve-hundred-pound animal. He cautioned residents never to venture onto ice to save an animal themselves. Kowalski, who has since repaired the fence, says she intends to bake cookies for the entire fire hall.