Sheriff’s deputies capture wild horse

Douglas County Sheriff’s officers and a group of horsemen on Tuesday evening caught an elusive wild horse that was said to have been loose for several years in the area east of Vinland.Sheriff’s deputy Jill Smith saddled her own horse and was joined by members of her family, including her brother, Jeff Smith, who helped eventually rope the horse and load him into a trailer.”He had apparently been loose and no one had been able to catch him for a considerable period of time,” said Lt. Kari Wempe, a sheriff’s spokeswoman. “Calls had been coming in quite frequently over the past eight months.”The chase started in the early afternoon and took several hours until the group caught him just after 7 p.m.Jeff Smith said Tuesday night that the group chased him for 20 to 30 miles before they were finally able to safely rope him.”He could fly,” Smith said.The horse was taken to a farm, described as a horse sanctuary near Overbrook, Wempe said. It is alive and well, she said.Authorities are hoping to find the horse’s owners, but no one has come forward, she said this morning.”We’re very happy the horse came away uninjured,” Wempe said. “No one was injured as far as our horseman, or our deputies. Now the roadways around there are safer.”