Horse Trouble
Hey All!
So about a month ago, we got a new horse in at the
ranch. She went into the mare pasture with my girls, and
was doing fine for the first few days. Her owner had
mentioned to us that she liked water, but we had no idea
she liked it quite so much...
We're not quite sure how she got herself into this
situation, whether she decided to get into the water
trough, or was chased in by another horse. Whatever the
circumstance, she must have slipped and tried to catch
herself, caught her leg in the fence, and ended up here:
Laura, in the blue, is trying to steady Mercedes, as Dr.
Ellsworth, in the green, (who showed up in less than 10
minutes!) sedates her for safety reasons. She was being
extremely quiet under the circumstances, but better to
be on the safe side.
The reason she was so stuck is that on her way down,
she'd put her hoof between the sucker rod and the water
trough, and then slipped her leg under the cage that
protected the float that filled that trough:
So, we had to call in backup - Dave came home from work
just in time, and with the help of borrowed power tools,
cut the sucker rod fence to free her hoof:
Once her hoof was free, her leg was still pinned between
the sucker rod cage, and the water trough, and while it
appears it could have been pulled out with a little
bit of work, no such luck without breaking her leg:
So Dave hacked away at the next piece of sucker rod that
was in the way, and then used a piece of pipe to pry the
sucker rod up away from her leg:
Finally, her leg was free!
Now, how the heck do you get
a sedated draft horse out of
a round water trough?
Bring in the big guns! Annee,
get your loader:
And...all the way over
And after about 30 minutes of panic, phone calls, and
hard work, Mercedes' pool party had come to an end. She
walked away with no broken bones or skin, just a little
bit sore, a little but mucky and stinky from the silt
(and fish, who sadly didn't survive the ordeal) in the
water trough, and still happily drunk from the
sedatives.
