‘Very bleak for her…’ This horse spent 8 desperate hours in the canal in Dublin

Heartbreaking photos have emerged of a mare submerged almost entirely in water in Dublin's Grand Canal.

It is thought that the trapped animal - who also had a foal - had spent a full eight hours there on Sunday. There are currently no State organisations to manage or deal with similar situations involving horses. She was eventually rescued after a colossal effort involving the Phibsboro Fire Brigade and volunteer veterinary professionals. "It was looking very bleak for her at times, there were numerous heartbreaking attempts to get her out, 4 hours in the water with her and over an hour on the ground trying to warm her up," Clodagh Fox of the UCD Veterinary Hospital shared on Sunday on Facebook.

Serious team work today by vet, vet nurses, fire brigade, locals, MLHR volunteers, gardaí & even cyclists who were passing by! ?

— MyLovelyHorseRescue (@MyLovelyHorseR) October 15, 2017

She added that the animal is "now recovering with the dedicated people at My Lovely Horse Rescue". Afterwards, Clodagh spoke to Her, telling us that the horse's name is Polly. She highlighted that the Government funds no facilities to help animals in this type of situation. https://twitter.com/MyLovelyHorseR/status/919555912343478272 "The gardaí were called and had I idea what to do or who to call," Ms Fox explained. "Only that a friend of mine, Fran, from the Dublin Fire Brigade was attending, thought of messaging me because they were completely out of options. "I managed to rally a few people round but we had no equipment, nothing really to help her. We managed eventually to get a vet out to us from Meath to sedate her so we could get her to stop thrashing on the crane and eventually lift her to safety. "The Department Of Agriculture needs to set something up so this kind of thing can be dealt with, it's a complete joke." Polly is currently recovering from her injuries and is with her foal. https://twitter.com/DubFireBrigade/status/919651244754563072