The United Kingdom’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency announced yesterday (July 9) that it was involved in the afternoon rescue of two horses and their riders who were stranded off shore on a sandbar at Holkham Bay as the tide was rising.

“Yarmouth Coastguard received ‘999’ emergency call at 3:25 p.m. from a member of the public reporting two horses and their riders were stuck on a sandbank and the tide was rising around them at Holkham Bay, 200 metres (roughly 650 feet) from the shore, near Wells-next-the-Sea, on the North Norfolk Coast,” reported the agency in a press release.

The riders were females in their 20s from Brandon, in Suffolk, who had trailered their horses to Wells to ride on the beach. “One of the horses had managed to reach shore unaided leaving its rider and the other horse still on the sand bank,” the release continued. “Yarmouth Coastguard sent the Wells Coastguard Rescue team and requested the launch of the Wells RNLI inshore lifeboat to the scene.”

The rising tide had just covered the sandbar when the lifeboat reached the horse and riders. “The two riders were brought safely to shore leaving the one horse with two of the lifeboat crew,” said the agency. “The lifeboat and crew then returned to the sandbank and coaxed the swimming horse safely back to shore. Neither riders nor horses received any injuries during the operation