(Editor’s Note: This is one of those “Believe It or Not” stories. In this case, “Believe It.”  Sixteen years ago, 9-year-old Eddie was being led along the banks of the Heart Mountain Canal when he slipped and tumbled into the canal just at the entrance to the dark waters of the Corbett Tunnel. The tunnel is 3.3 miles long before it surfaces again.  Eddie had to paddle-swim his way to survival. His feat earned him the name of Eddie, the Wonder Horse, and his story was chronicled in the Powell Tribune of Oct. 1, 2009.)

Eddie, 9, of Powell, is not your average horse. The stalwart equine took a hair-raising ride last week through the water-filled Corbett Tunnel and survived. Miracles come in all shapes and forms, and a horse surviving a perilous swim through the Corbett Tunnel is a miracle indeed — especially to his owners and friends. A saddled horse owned by Paul and Diane Watkins of Powell slid off the bank just above the Corbett Tunnel last Thursday afternoon. It floated the tunnel and popped out the other side with only minor injuries.

But the horse’s owners weren’t so sure the Arabian had made it.

The tunnel is 3.3 miles in length, and Bryant Startin, Shoshone Irrigation District manager, reckons it would have taken the buoyant equine 45 minutes to weather the cold, dark ride.

On the bentonite-slick bank above the tunnel gates, Kent Black’s son, Joshua, 16, was leading the borrowed Eddie, 9, across a trail when the trail gave way, sending Eddie rolling down the steep bank into the deep bay-like waters above the gates.

Eddie nearly escaped twice, but he kept slipping on the mud while Joshua tried to pull him out. Then, Eddie and Joshua both tumbled together into the swirling waters.

At that point, Joshua knew he had to let Eddie go or drown with Eddie, Black said.

“I got back on top of the dam, and I couldn’t see him,” Joshua said.

Startin is guessing Eddie had around 2 feet of head room once he was paddling through the tunnel. However, Eddie would have been fully submerged as he entered the gates.

“We were crying for two days,” said Paul Watkins.

Then, to everyone’s surprise, Eddie was found — saddle and all — Saturday morning by district ditch rider Don Eden about three-quarters of a mile downstream from the tunnel exit near Iron Creek. But he was still in the canal, Startin said.

Black had to lead Eddie down the canal until they could locate a place where he could walk out, Black said.

“He was just wore out,” Black said.

Eddie was literally on his last legs, and it took everything both the equine and his owner could muster to liberate Eddie from the precipitous ditch.

Eddie was taken to the veterinarian. He was running a slight fever, so the vet prescribed antibiotics and penicillin.

Eddie had a nasty laceration on his hind leg that now has a wrap resembling a yellow sock. Eddie’s head took a pounding too.

“He looks like he went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson on his face,” Black said.

Eddie has a shiner too, like puffy prunes orbiting one eye.

Eddie may have been put through the ringer, but he came out the other side — pummeled, but whole.

“He’s an Arabian,” Watkins said, rubbing salve on Eddie’s wounds. “He was bred for endurance, and he endured a lot in that thing.”

Eddie is a trooper. In 2007, when Seeley, Montana, was evacuated because of fire, Eddie was lost.

But an enterprising Eddie found a group of firefighters.

“They were feeding him apples,” Watkins said.

Now, Joshua is doing the same, while Eddie chomps with gusto.

A lot of prayers were posted while Eddie was lost. “Maybe that’s what brought him back,” said Diane Watkins.

A miracle.

“That’s the only way I can explain it,” said Black, who is a pastor at Heart Mountain Baptist Church. “God helped him through there.”

Eddie is not just some anonymous horse standing in a pasture 24/7.

“He is definitely part of the family,” Black said.

Startin knows his irrigation canals and tunnels and the currents therein. He recalled a dog that took the same hazardous trip and wasn’t so lucky.

“It’s amazing when you think about it,” Startin said.