The day after the season’s first major winter storm in the Andes Mountains near El Colorado, Chile, an old mare got a new name—and a new lease on life.

“Garbanza” had been wandering in snow that reached four feet deep for about four days when snowboarder Rafael Pease stumbled upon her, thinking she was a rock.

“When I realized it was a horse, I decided to boot-pack over there to see if I could do something,” said Pease, a University of Colorado junior who went snowboarding in El Colorado for his 21st birthday in October.

The aging mare was stuck up to her abdomen in powdery snow, Pease said. She was no longer trying to move forward and was acting lethargic. “She was obviously going to die if we didn’t do something to save her,” he said

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