The Rescue Of Belle And Sundance
A Miracle on Mount Renshaw
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
On December 15, 2008, two snowmobilers discovered a pair of stranded horses atop B.C.’s Mount Renshaw in the Canadian Rockies. Belle and Sundance were a sorry sight—they were emaciated, shivering and trapped in a small shelter they had made for themselves by tramping down the six-foot-deep snow. The next morning, a party of four from the nearby town of McBride was sent back up the mountain with a bale of hay, a handgun and a heartbreaking choice to make: either feed Belle and Sundance, or shoot them.
The four agreed: there was an undeniable glimmer in the eyes of Belle and Sundance, and the decision was made to feed them. But saving the two horses would require a lot more than hay. Weighing their options, many people in McBride decided they would dig, by hand, the three-foot-wide, six-foot-deep, kilometre-long tunnel that became Belle and Sundance’s route to freedom.
The Rescue of Belle and Sundance takes the reader into the heart of the struggle to save two horses. In this account, which quickly became a regional bestseller and a bookseller favourite, Stutz and Scanlan recreate the rescue that sent a message of hope and compassion around the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two horses are stranded on treacherous mountain terrain in the Canadian Rockies when winter comes, they are emaciated and frostbitten, "waiting for the inevitable." Their plight galvanizes the small town of McBride, British Columbia, and the ensuing rescue effort is the focus of this slim, moving book. Stutz, a horse trainer and McBride resident (writing with Scanlan, author of The Horse God Built), was involved in spearheading the effort to return Belle and Sundance (a young mare and older gelding, respectively) to safety. In elegant prose, Stutz recaps the days of the rescue, in which a search party is sent up the mountainside with a handgun and a bale of hay, the former to be used in case the horses are too far gone. We experience the emotional and physically draining days along with Stutz, who also narrates the actions of Belle and Sundance's original owner, an Edmonton lawyer who abandoned his pack horses after an expedition gone awry and then tries to claim them after the rescue. This uplifting story will even touch readers who aren't horse fanatics a lovely read.
