A TAMBORINE horse swept away by the flooded Albert River is still missing despite search efforts.
Registered owner Rhonda Harvey said she was heartbroken by Rafiq’s disappearance and needed the public’s help to find him, whether he was dead or alive.
While missing pet notices on social media have been posted, she said they had proven unfruitful.
Rafiq has not been identified in any of the drowned horse photos submitted by people on the lookout for him.
“There is no sign of him whatsoever,” Ms Harvey said.
“I just want to know what happened to him. I hate not knowing.”
Rafiq is described as a 16-hand tall, chestnut-coloured horse, with distinctive white head markings and white stockings on his back and front legs.
Ms Harvey said it was possible Rafiq’s absence, if he was still alive, could be due to his anxiety.
She said he was easily spooked by humans – something she realised after she purchased him less than two years ago.
“You couldn’t brush his hair without him thinking he was going to get a belting,” Ms Harvey said.
Rafiq was kept at a property which was inundated by record flood waters from the Albert River.
Property owner Fiona Edgerton, who had cared for Rafiq since November, said flood waters would have reached Rafiq’s chest about 11pm on Thursday, March 30.
She described the flooding as a “wall of water” which not only wrecked homes but also drowned and swept-away livestock owned by residents.
“It was a raging torrent of water,” Ms Edgerton said.
“People lost horses and cows. We could hear them floating down the river – there was so much water.”
Ms Edgerton said she doubted Rafiq’s chance of survival but had continued the search for his body regardless.
She said it was a mystery why Rafiq had not been found, given the carcasses of her sheep had been located.
