TodayPolice looking for owner of mystery horse
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North Middleton resident Chester Schlusser walks a horse that was found Sunday by township police.(Michael Bupp/The Sentinel)
Have you seen this horse?
That’s the question the North Middleton Police Department is asking after an officer found it prancing up Spring Road near the Turkey Hill convenience store earlier this week.
Now, the department is searching for the answer to where the mysterious horse came from.
“We have yet to find the owner,” said Chief Jeffrey Rudolph. “And no one has reported it missing.”
Rudolph said Officer Dan Fiber was patrolling Route 34 around 4:30 p.m. Sunday when he saw the animal running northbound up the highway.
The officer managed to herd the horse into the Turkey Hill parking lot, then into a nearby parking lot used by the Winchester Gardens service building. That’s where owner Chester Schlusser stepped in.
“The police were following the horse and I happened to be working,” he recalled. “The officer asked me if I was missing a horse and I said it wasn’t mine.”
But as the owner of five horses himself who has spent more than 30 years working with the animals, Schlusser is something of an expert. He joined Fiber in leading the frightened horse into a barn on his property.
And that’s where the puzzling horse has been ever since.
In good shape
As police search for its owner, Schlusser has agreed to temporarily house the horse at his barn. He also has plunged into the search, calling neighboring farms to see if any are short a horse.
Not one was.
“It’s very strange,” Schlusser said. “I even checked with Perry County emergency services and Cumberland County. No one reported a missing horse.”
Schlusser said there’s a chance the horse came over the hills from Perry County. However, he’s doubtful the horse could have come from Dauphin County because of the difficulty in crossing the Susquehanna River.
Although he wasn’t able to determine a type, Schlusser said the horse is a small, brown male — about 12 to 13 hands high — with a white blaze on his face and a pair of white socks on his rear legs. Nutrition-wise, Schlusser said, the horse is in good shape, although his feet have been neglected.
Frightened of people
While the horse is slowly starting to accept him, he added that the animal is very frightened of people.
“He doesn’t want anything to do with people. He’s afraid of them,” he said. “If I didn’t know what I was doing, I wouldn’t have been able to touch him.”
Schlusser said it is hard to judge how long the horse might have been out on its own before being captured in North Middleton.
Rudolph is asking anyone with information about the horse to call police at 243-7910.
“We’re looking for the owner of the horse or someone who might want to give him a new home,” he said.
