Digger rescues Lola the pony from Auckland sinkhole

A pony has been rescued by a digger from a sinkhole that opened up and swallowed her in a paddock on an Auckland farm overnight.

Amanda Harrison discovered Lola was missing at the Hunua farm during her morning check at around 7.30am on Tuesday, initially searching the whole property by motorbike looking for her.

It was only after noticing another horse staring at the ground that she found Lola's nose was poking up from a small hole in the earth.

"The whole pony was sunk in the hole — it was just so scary and just unbelievable," Harrison told 1News.

Lola had been put in the holding paddock at around 5pm the previous evening, so had likely been trapped in the underground cavity for most of the night.

Harrison called 111 and the Hunua Volunteer Fire Brigade responded.

Unable to lift Lola out through the narrow opening, one firefighter called his father who brought an excavator to the scene.

The team hand-dug around the hole to widen it, then used the digger to carve a ramp alongside the pony.

The operation required calm and trust from Lola, with a large digger working just centimetres from her head.

"As long as she could see me and hear me talking to her, she just trusted and stayed," Harrison said, adding she had been put in a safety harness in case she fell into the hole while keeping Lola calm.

"As soon as she couldn't, she'd start thrashing around and try to get up."

Once the digger managed to create an "escape ramp", Lola was able to get free.

A vet attended and administered painkillers and antibiotics as a precaution against infection from exposure to the water.

Lola's body temperature had dropped to 34C, below the normal range, but she was eating hay and grass by the afternoon.

Harrison had kept horses in the same holding paddock for nearly 20 years, describing the appearance of a sinkhole large enough to swallow a horse as "just bizarre".

She was full of praise for the Hunua firefighters.

"They were very, very good. I've never had that experience before and that was so lovely. They even gave me a big hug."

Lola, a fixture in the local community, had spent decades as a children's riding pony.

"She's taught hundreds of kids to ride over her years," Harrison said.

"She's a much-loved little pony by all the children that love riding her."