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  Discussion on Safe Removal of a really bad cast horse
Author Message
New Member:
Lds536

Posted on Tuesday, Jan 2, 2007 - 12:37 pm:

Hello Dr O and Everyone else out there.....

A few months ago a friend was boarding her Haflinger mare and the mare became cast all the way under a rail. The owners of the stable, took a large cotton type rope and tied a huge knot on her pasterns on her rear legs then took a backhoe or tractor and pulled the mare backwards. This broke her back leg at the elbow. They never told my friend they did this. When my friend went to exercise her mare she noticed it was limping. Some one told her she might want to put some soothing ointment
on the mares leg. Not knowing anything about what had happened my friend never called a vet out. I am not sure of the details here except my friend finally found out that her mare had been cast and the idiot owners even had taken a picture of how they tied the rope and which direction they pulled her out from under the fence. So my friend immediately called her vet and found out it had a broken leg. He doctored it and told my friend the break would heal but it would be a long time, but she would never be able to ride the mare. The stable owners told my friend she had to vacate the facility. She told them she could not move her mare as it could not ride in a trailer and that she will have to stay until it stabilized.
After some time she was able to move the mare but the woman who owns the ranch absolutely refuses to pay for or help her pay for her vet bills. My friend is in the process of suing them. However, the ranch people have gotten their vet to say they did the correct thing in the way they removed the mare. This vet had not been there when they did this. He is just offering his opinion by the pictures.
I am not a vet but I can see in the picture that I would never have ever pulled a horses leg backwards!!!! There were other options for removal of the cast mare as far as I could see. I have had plenty of experience with helping a cast horse.

The ranch owner is getting letters from all kinds of her friends saying they did the right thing.
I do have two paper copies of the mare laying under the rail with the rope tied to her leg but not sure if I could get it sent to you, because they are just 8 x 11 paper and not a jpg picture. Could I scan them to send?
Anyway, I am hoping I can get some information from anyone about their thoughts. Also, would anyone know of a website showing the proper way to help a cast horse and safe removal and maybe some place that says, tieing a rope on a horse's back leg and pulling it backwards is not the correct way. I am just trying to help my friend gather as much information as she can. I know
nothing more than what I just told you. So now I will sit back and read every bit of information anyone is kind enough to send. If anyone asks a question I will answer it the best way I know.
I will try to see if I can get the picture on here.

Thank you all for anything you may be able to provide and I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Feel free to email me personally. l.smith@cox.net

Linda Smith
Member:
Jgordo03

Posted on Tuesday, Jan 2, 2007 - 2:25 pm:

Linda,
What a horror story! Below is a link I have to moving a cast horse. I just read it the other day because I didn't know what it was.
www.horseandhound.co.uk/horsecare/1370/60813.html
Member:
Jojo15

Posted on Tuesday, Jan 2, 2007 - 8:42 pm:

2 things come to mind. If a horse is stuck and sandwiched into something you break the something not the horse. If you can't break the something, than you have leverage the whole horse, not its ankle.

MY horse got herself stuck half in and half out of her stall by rearing up and coming down on the stall door. THE ONLY way to remove her at that point was to break the door. time was of the essence. smart people surrounded me and one had the necessary tools in his truck.... scary. adrenaline russhing and i was watching my mare lose consciousness as it was happening....stupid things could have happened without smart fast acting horsemen around...

The other thought that comes to mind is if a horse is stuck there would be ways to get a surcingle type of harness around it and pull that way... pulling the body equally. Or even the neck area is stronger than the ankle...I have had two serious cast horses in my time with them and both were serious and needed 4 to 5 people to work the animal out of the cast. One of which i remember was stuck under a rail of a stall. horse had already tore up her ankle to the point of raw. And got septic from it i recall, afterwards..

cutting the rail would seem smart. but in hindsight i guess anything but what they did would be smart...

Now i'm going out on a limb saying this, chances are you won't be getting many comments since this is third hand, not your horse, etc... I for one would like to see the photos... But there really isn't much anyone could offer to help your friend. Except maybe a really good lawyer.. everything we say is speculation of what if.. and that doesnt really help in court.

they should have called the vet upon getting the horse up though... thats a given, even if the horse looks fine, i would have thought some banamine and some vet inspection would have cleared them of any wrongdoing.

my two cents... not much.
New Member:
Lds536

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 3, 2007 - 12:01 am:

JoJo, Thank you for your input. I totally agreed with everything you said. This mare was also stuck under the rail. My first thought was to cover her face and begin cutting the rail. It appears to be small diameter rail. My gosh, they had the backhoe there why didn't they just lift the rail off the mare. Shoulda - coulda-woulda.... Thanks so much, Linda
Member:
Jgordo03

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 3, 2007 - 4:07 pm:

It would have cost your friend a lot less if they had just cut the fence. Boarding facilities I can't believe people would rather injure a horse rather then cut a fence. It would have cost your friend a lot less to replace the fence. I hope your friend finds a better barn and some people that have some brains.....
Member:
Hpyhaulr

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 3, 2007 - 4:24 pm:

AMEN.
New Member:
lds536

Posted on Wednesday, Jan 24, 2007 - 4:47 pm:

I am posting a rebuttal to what I first wrote in the article about this cast mare. I was only saying what I had heard by second-hand information. It was brought to my attention that what I said about the exercising, and I quote myself, "When my friend went to exercise her mare she noticed it was limping."
I have been told by the owner of this mare that she had not exercised her mare at all, but had simply noticed her limping.
Thanks, L.Smith
New Member:
freshman

Posted on Thursday, Jan 25, 2007 - 12:27 am:

No question that the stable should have contacted the owner immediately about the situation and had a vet examine her if there was any indication of injury. Hopefully authorization to do so in emergencies was a part of the boarding contract.

As much as my sympathies lie with the owner and the poor injured mare, I do think that in emergency situations, things are apt to go wrong. I hope that there was no ill intention on part of the staff but that they were unable to shift the rail and acted as best as they knew how when they used the ropes to free the mare.

Horses are pulled and lifted by the legs routinely in surgical facilities when they are hoisted onto and off of the table and into recovery, etc. Obviously this is done by experienced staff and it is possible that these people in your case applied the ropes or pulled improperly. But applying ropes and pulling with whatever they can, including a motor vehicle, doesn't necessarily mean that they were acting inappropriately or with bad intentions, or even that another method would have turned out better.

It may be that the horse was injured while she was casted and, in a court case, will require proof that she was injured specifically by their rescue efforts.

I do sympathize with this injured horse and owner. However,unless there is proof of gross incompetence or ill intent, I don' t think that much can be done by way of punishing the folks that did this. No matter what the result, it is possible that they tried their best in a bad situation.
Member:
judyhens

Posted on Thursday, Jan 25, 2007 - 10:11 am:

Sorry about the Haflinger's leg. Our neighbor told us that one of their horses got cast and panicked. Ended up breaking its own neck and died. Sometimes it is tough to know what to do, especially if the horse is thrashing. They may have felt that getting the horse free as quickly as possible was the better option. If the rail was pipe, it may have been difficult to cut through.

We have had several horses cast themselves under rails over the years. Fortunately we always had enough people available to exert equal pressure on multiple points of the horse and pull them out. Equally fortunate: none of the horses struggled at all. They simply laid quietly and waited for help. Two of these were, in fact, Haflingers. They seem to have a really good mind and are calm. No injuries resulted.

I really sympathize with your friend. Hopefully this will work out for them. Perhaps riding will still be an option in the future. Our baby apparently has a hairline fracture on an injured leg (by x-ray) resulting from getting a leg caught in a fence. The vet seemed to think that this should heal extremely well. While we were at the hospital following the original injury, we saw an 18 mo. old in a cast. The leg had been severely broken, surgery was performed, the leg straightened, etc., and the filly was hobbling around with the cast. They hope that she will end up fine. Did the Haflinger's injury involve the joint? Is the mare old? This is my first experience with any kind of fracture (and clearly a hairline is very, very mild...) and I am interested in obtaining all the knowledge I can....

Good luck! Tell your friend her Haffie is in our thoughts and prayers! That breed is wonderful!!!

Judy
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