JACKSONBURG, Ohio — A teenage girl was grooming her horse last Friday when the equine started acting strange, prompting the girl to discover two girls who fell through a frozen pond.
Brookelynn Pruitt, 13, was braiding her horse Oliver’s mane when he became anxious, WLWT reported. She wondered why and then saw two neighbor girls on a frozen pond.
“I (saw) them running around the pond slipping, sliding, just playing,” Brookelynn said. “So, I thought it’s probably a good idea to check on them. I had a bad feeling something was going to happen.”
As she approached, something did happen — the ice broke. The girls, Hope and Nevedah, fell into the frigid water.
“My friend, she was going out toward the middle, and she went in. So, I went out to try and save her but then I fell in too,” Nevadah, 10, said.
Brookelynn said she used techniques she learned from watching National Geographic to make the daring rescue.
“I ran in there flailing around, and I told them, ‘You guys got to stand still. You’ve got to hang on to the edge of the ice. I’ll come get you,’ and I broke a path through instead of walking out and getting caught in a hole. I knew I had to break a path through to them so I had a clear way to swim them back,” Brookelynn said. “When I got to them, they were freaking out a bit still. So I told the oldest one to grab on to me and I’d hold on to her, and the oldest one grabbed on to the little one. So it was like a little chain.”
Brookelynn said her feet started to get numb as she got close to the water bank. Brookelynn walked the girls home. Brookelynn then went back to her horse and then to her home. No one was injured. Brookelynn’s hands were slightly cut and bruised, WXIX reported.
“She’s a hero, and she’s amazing,” Nevadah told WLWT.
Brookelynn’s mother, Brenda Pruitt, was shocked at first glance.
“The first thing I saw, she was completely drenched and her boots, the water was sloshing out. Her hands were covered in blood. She was hysterical and could barely talk,” Pruitt said. “All I could get out of her was, ‘They fell through the ice and I had to save them. I had to save them.’”
Brookelynn didn’t think twice about helping.
“It’s inhumane of you not to go save someone,” she said. “You can’t just leave them there.”