I couldn’t get the link to work so I don’t know how the horse got so close to the water but 
this picture has me freaked out.
I would love to have seen the rescue. I’ve watched videos of horses and cows being pulled from ditches and ravines. A lot of equipment and manpower is used.
I will never forget the terrible story of the young woman riding with her mom when she and her horse went down in a bog. I think the horse made it out but the girl died. So tragic.
The horse was pastured in a field that includes a pond, which is not fenced off, and he went out on the ice and fell in.
Definitely one of those super unexpected but also not sort of things! Very scary and glad he’s okay.
Here’s a link to an article that should work.
Ack! That poor horse, I bet he has a very sore neck, head, and body. Get that guy a massage and a warm blanket.
@Simkie thank you for the link!
I saw a pic on FB (which of course I can’t find again) of him in a stall at the vet, on IV fluids, wrapped up in a lot of layers, with one of those warm air blowers things they use at the hospital stuffed under his blankets.
Oh here it is. Looks all tucked in and on his way to feeling better 
Nice!
We had that happen to one of our horses, Reno, a really sweet ranch gelding.
The spring fed pond was one they drank from all year, had barely 2" deep water and there was a large trough with piped in water right by it.
Some horses pastured there would drink from the pond and then walk to finish drinking from the trough, or walk directly to the trough to drink.
In the winter we had a heater on the trough, so that water was always open.
This one morning as I went to check one horse was in the frozen pond, swimming around and water up to his jaws!
Seems that he may have broken thru the ice, trashed until he had dug a deep hole and was stuck in there.
I ran to the barn, called vet and the local cattle feedlot, that said they would send help and grabbed a halter and ropes.
I ran back and, laying on my belly on the cracking ice somehow managed to get the halter on him and kept breaking ice as I backed up so he could get closer to the edge.
Then two feedlot people came and the three of us helped pull him out by the halter and with a rope around his behind, just as the vet got there.
Horse was in shock, staggering from exhaustion and shivering from cold.
We were afraid he would tie up, helped him into the barn, dried him with towels and blankets while vet was getting IVs in him, put a blanket on him and he finally started to come around.
After a while his legs started swelling and looked like stovepipes.
It took a few days of intensive care until he was finally well.
It too was shaking when it was over, very scary times.
We used that pasture for 100+ years without any trouble, thru many winters.
What happened was strange, this was Reno, with the English saddle, later that spring, fully recovered:
So scary. Poor horse.
Years ago I rode a horse at a backyard barn for the owner, and all the horses were turned out in a pasture with a pond in it. Good size pond, pretty deep. I asked her about it and she said not a single issue in all these years she was there. But man, that’s all I could think of. A horse getting on the ice (in winter, with the snow, you don’t even see the pond) and falling through. She said, Oh they’re sensible, they know it’s there, they won’t go on the ice…
When we bought our farm, there were two paddocks that included sizable ponds. I had the same thought as you. Previous owners reported no issues, but one of the very first things we did was fence off the ponds to keep the horses from going out there when the winter snows settled. Zero regrets.
Love my horses, but I wouldn’t necessarily call them sensible.
A horse I sent to an expensive trainer got scratches in all 4 legs due to him (horse) constantly going into the scummy pond in the pasture. I told the trainer he was a water dog and asked for him to go in the other pasture but, I don’t know why the trainer felt the need to keep putting in the one with the pond. I was two hours away so wasn’t able to check on him daily and when I saw his legs I wanted to, literally, kill that trainer. You wouldn’t believe how bad my horses legs looked. I knew it had to be terribly painful. Thankfully my vet was able to give me a mixture that had the scratches on the mend within the week.
Lesson of the long post any kind of stagnant water can be bad for your horse. And never put your horse at a barn where you can’t check on them daily.
I boarded one of my horses at a stable that had a small pond. They would break up the ice at one end to keep it open for drinking. My genius horse was out behind the pond and decided to walk across the ice to get to the open water. 
Of course he fell in. Fortunately, the pond was only belly deep and he was able to get himself out.
Your post reminded of a friend that had two young tb’s. She said they had one brain cell between them that they would toss back and forth, every once in a while they would accidentally drop it in the mud. 
(Good news is that both of her boys have turned into good citizens with one being on the way to becoming her horse of a lifetime)
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