Langley Township firefighters had to play cowboy Thursday after at least two horses got loose and ran onto the TransCanada Highway.
“We’re chasing horses up and down the freeway,†said assistant fire chief Bruce Ferguson.
The horses were spooked and running against the flow of traffic, Ferguson said. They seem to have started out in the westbound lane.
They managed to cross the highway somewhere near the 24400 block and then ran against traffic in the eastbound lanes.
About four firehalls contributed personnel and vehicles to the efforts, with RCMP helping out with traffic control.
By the time the Port Mann Traffic Services officers arrived on the scene, the horses were largely corralled off to the side of the road near the eastbound lanes, according to police. They were temporarily held in one of the rural lots where gravel has been extracted in the past.
The horses were unharmed, and no accidents were caused.
The owner arrived with a trailer and helped round up the horses and took them away after the incident, according to Port Mann Traffic Services reports.
It was a busy day for livestock, as there were also reports on the same day of loose cattle near Glover Road and an unconfirmed report of a calf on the highway near 232nd Street. Some of the calls may have been duplicates or misidentifications stemming from the same incidents, said Ferguson.
It is not uncommon for Langley’s emergency responders and animal control officers to have to deal with livestock, from cattle, horses, and sheep to lamas and the odd emu.