Not only had they lost a third to half their body weight, but the gelding was covered in sores and was missing patches of hair. Urine had encrusted what remained of their tails.

Word of the trapped animals spread through the Robson Valley, and soon volunteers began to organize, hauling in blankets and hay, and melting snow over open fires to provide water. Donations began to pour in for the volunteers to cover fuel and other costs, some from as far as Vancouver and Edmonton.

People such as horse trainer Birgit Stutz traveled morning and night to reach the animals, venturing out even when the temperature dived far below freezing.

"They didn't deserve to be left up there with no chance of getting out," Stutz said. "I wanted them out and that's all I thought about, and that's all that kept me going."

Rescuers considered several alternatives to free the horses from their snowy prison: harnessing them up to a helicopter, pulling them out on sleds, even putting them on horse "snowshoes" so they could walk out.

In the end, they realized the only viable option was to dig a corridor through the snow. So they got down to what Canadians do at this time of year: Shoveling. It took nearly a week.

Constable Wiltse said the SPCA is investigating to determine if charges may be brought against the owner of the horses under provincial animal-cruelty laws.

An Edmonton lawyer who told CTV News that he was the owner said the horses were delivering supplies to hikers on the mountain in September when he got separated from them. He said he returned three times to get the animals, twice getting stuck in the snow and finally, when he located them, unable to get them out of the snow.

But the SPCA says there is a duty to at least alert authorities. "Even to humanely euthanize them would have been better than to let them starve or freeze to death," Constable Wiltse said.

Residents of the Robson Valley, meanwhile, who sacrificed their own Christmas preparations to rescue the animals, say they are relieved they freed the horses in time. Stutz has been so busy she didn't have time to put up a Christmas tree or buy presents this year.

"But this still seems like the best Christmas ever," she said from her home in Dunster, B.C. "You realize these are the most important things in life—to help something that needs help."

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Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service