Neighbors corral runaway horses in Colorado

Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A pair of loose horses wandering a Colorado town were rounded up by surprised neighbors and kept safe until their owner was found.

The runaway horses, a pinto and a mustang, were spotted Thursday morning wandering through a neighborhood in Redlands, near Grand Junction.

Michelle Renstrom, one of the first to spot the horses, said neighbors decided to round up the horses.

Charlene Slemon joined in the horse chase.

"Just feels like the horsewoman's duty to be out running around chasing horses. Cause I know how my own escape, and they have escaped," Slemon said.

The women were able to help another neighbor corral the horses in a fenced-in driveway.

"He got them corralled here off of Broadway and we started our pursuit of finding the owner," Michelle Renstrom told KKCO/KJCT.

Laurie Paxson, owner of the equines, said she discovered the animals were missing at feeding time Thursday morning.

"I woke up this morning and I went down to feed and the pinto, I should have named him Houdini, he's an escape artist. He literally got the fence off the loafing shed and liberated them both" Paxson said.

She said she was concerned the pinto, Hildago, and the mustang, Huckleberry, might have trotted into traffic on Broadway/Highway 340.

"I didn't know who to call, what to do, where to look," Paxson said. "We know who to call for our cat or our dog, but not our horse."

The neighbors who captured the horses reported the animals to the local authorities.

"I called Mesa County Sheriff's Department and put a report in and I was told that there was no standard procedure for this, that they took my name and number and that if somebody calls in looking for their horses they would connect us," Renstrom said.

Paxson was reunited with her horses Thursday.

"Thank you, my horses are safe and calm," Paxson said.

A similar situation unfolded earlier this week in Knoxville, Tenn., where a pony named Tank escaped from his corral by learning to work the gate. The pony was caught on video galloping on a street near a Dunkin Donuts before beoing safely captured and returned to his owner.