Having worked at Rockdale Towing Company since 1995 and been the owner since 2015, Bruce Leibowitz holds one thing true: “Every call is different. Every tow is different.”

He’s gotten calls to remove animals from the road that were hit by cars, but Thursday’s call was a first.

Around 7:30 a.m., Leibowitz received a call to remove John, a 32-year-old, 1,500-pound horse, from an 8-to-10-foot-deep pit in Reisterstown.

“It was definitely not a call that you get regularly,” Leibowitz said. “That’s a once every couple years type of telephone call.”

Leibowitz had to park his towing truck about 30 feet from the pit, which was in the yard of a home in the 13300 block of Old Hanover Road, and extend a crane over the hole to lift the horse. He was shocked to see that it wasn’t injured, rather confusingly standing upright in the pit.

“When they called, I was fully expecting to get out there and the horse was stuck upside down, or on its side,” he said.

Fire officials said they got a call around 7:20 a.m. for an animal rescue. John had walked over a wooden plank and fell into the pit.

Leibowitz said John and two other horses strayed from a farm, which is about a mile from where John fell in. One of John’s fellow roamers neighed when he saw him in the hole, catching the attention of the owner, who was out looking for them, Leibowitz said.

In addition to Leibowitz with his tow truck and crane, a veterinarian was there to sedate John and 30 fire department personnel from both Baltimore and Howard counties were on the scene, Baltimore County Fire Department spokesperson Lt. Twana Allen said.

Leibowitz said Rockdale Towing Company, which was founded in 1968, partners with about a dozen different police departments and agencies.

The service on Thursday was done at no charge, he said. As someone who grew up in Reisterstown, Leibowitz said the grueling work he does is rewarding because it’s a service to the community.

“We’ve built our business around, if the fire department calls, we jump. If the police department calls, we jump,” he said. “It’s for the good of the community.”