I was in Bartella to see the aftermath of the Iraqi army operation to liberate the town from ISIS in late October. On the side of the main road that connects this Christian town to the city of Mosul, 20 KM away, I noticed a lone horse standing motionless between a row of damaged shops.
As I got out of the car and got close I saw that she was injured in the right front leg. Someone had apparently tried to help her by bandaging the wound. She was hungry, thirsty and exhausted from standing too long.
With members of my crew we gave her some pieces of bread and fruit we had with us and some water. It was getting late in the day and we had to leave the town and the horse where she was.
Her brief story aired on Rudaw TV and on social media and got the attention of millions of people in Kurdistan and around the world. The horse had to be saved.
Paws of Kurdistan—an animal rights NGO—sent in two vets with proper medication and Erbil's horse club called in and offered to bring the horse to Erbil on a special truck, treat her wound and help her survive.
I made a second and third trip to Bartella to meet the horse. The town is still in ruins and the Iraqi army controls the roads and decides entry and exit into the town.
On the second trip we found the horse taking shelter inside an empty shop, in a very bad condition, blood running all over her leg which had swollen since we first saw her.
On the third trip she had disappeared. We tried looking for her and we did inside nearby shops but the army forced us to leave as heavy fighting was going on with ISIS a few kilometers down the road.
