ON Tuesday I got a call from my friend, clearly distressed and in need of a battery powered grinder to cut a pony free from an agricultural gate it had decided, at 26 years old, to try to clear. Unfortunately the bold old pony didn’t quite make it over and caught her nearside hind in such a way it was wedged under the fetlock. The poor girl was hanging by one leg and thrashing about to try to free herself, making the whole situation much more grave.

Luckily for my friend, her vet had only just left the yard and he was able to return immediately to guide us through what to do.

If you do find a horse in this situation, always call your vet immediately and try to keep the horse calm until they arrive. Do not force the limb free. Do not pull on the horse to pull the limb free. Do not attempt to free the horse if it is struggling violently.

In some cases as with this one, the horse will need to be sedated by your vet in order to help get it free. For our poor pony, despite huge physical effort by the vet and us, there was no way to free the leg from between the bars and they had to be cut. After a good twenty minutes of searching the yard, we found a hacksaw which the vet used to finally free the leg.

Improve dramatically

Once freed and still under hefty sedation plus pain killer, it took a while for the pony to come around, the vet checked all of the joints and that she was able to bear weight immediately after the accident. If they can bear weight at all, that is a good sign that the limb is structurally intact. Some horses that can hardly bear weight initially will improve dramatically with treatment and a bit of time. Horses with severe injuries to vital structures will continue to show serious lameness.

Thankfully, our yard pony has recovered very well and the vet came out to check her first thing the following morning, she’s resting and her owner is cold hosing twice a day and administering bute as directed by the vet. Always act on the advice of your trusted vet.

Yesterday, we bought a battery grinder, heavy duty wire snips, new hacksaw and a fencing snip to keep on the yard in case of any future emergency. I’d recommend that for any yard with gates and fences because you just never know when a freak accident like this may occur.