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Re: [RC] bad accident - Carol Suggs

Mary,at least you are ok and your horse has a good chance to recover.
 
I have experianced two very bad accidents involving barb wire fencing.  One was similar to yours, buried in the ground and my mare pulled it up with her hind leg.  She got a few scratches, and I got a crushed right knee and broken leg with resulted in hardware and knee reconstruction and 5 months of recovery time.  (all this because I tried to get off her and she kicked out, lost her balance and flipped over on me).
 
So although we love our horses, they are horses.  Accidents happen.  Heck when you are dealing with a 1000 pound animal that has a natural flight response to just about anything that they percieve as a threat...what can we expect?  We try to keep them out of bad situations,  we try to train them to accept and give to pressure.   All we can do is do our best.
 
Again, at least you have Jack, and you are ok.  Don't focus on replaying this in your mind, wondering what you could have done differently.  This is not your fault.  Poop happens.  Focus on the fact that Jack didn't lose a leg or his life, and more importantly that you are ok. 
 
Best Wishes,
 
Carol- Mariposa
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 9:16 AM
Subject: [RC] bad accident

Hi all,

 

I had a horrible accident with Jack yesterday.  I?m fine but he is not. We were out riding by our old house and came down off a slight hill with a dip along the side of the road where the water runs when it rains.   When we got to the bottom he caught his hind leg in some loose ?under the grass and hidden  ? barb wire and went down on his knees. I always watch very carefully for wire and never saw it.  He struggled hard to get loose and finally ripped the barb wire from whatever it was attached to and ran down the road dragging it.  I ran after him and finally got him.  It was horrible.  He was spurting blood and about 3-4 inches of flesh were missing with the tendon gone and the bone totally exposed.  Fortunately I had my cell phone and although I was hysterical I managed to call the vets office.  I got a tourniquet and held it onto him.  Dr. Peters got there about ½ hour later and managed to bandage and fashion a temporary splint.  By that time a nice man had driven to get my husband who was outside cutting the grass and never heard the phone. I also called a neighbor, Donna, who had been a large animal vet tech.  She came and helped before the vet arrived.  She also went to get my car and horse trailer ? which of course were in different locations.  After much effort we managed to get him to the clinic where he was cleaned, ragged flesh removed, given antibiotics etc. and had a cast put on.  We still don?t know what will happen.  The barb wire also scraped the bone and got into part of the joint.  The only good thing was that it was the front of his leg and that the joint it got into is not a real necessary joint ? if that is possible.  We will be watching for infection ? especially in the bone and joint.  He is going to be at the vets for at least 10 days and if he makes it, he will need complete stall rest for 6 months.  No riding for at least 1 year.  If he makes it he deserves to be a pasture pet for the rest of his life.  It has been a horrible day. 

 

Has anyone?s horse experienced an injury like this?  I know he will never be my endurance horse again, but what are his chances of living a comfortable life.  Is it cruel or in his best interests to do this stall rest?  I don?t want to prolong any suffering for him but if this is a curable injury, he deserves a good life.

 

BTW ? I trained him to give to pressure and if this had been an ordinary barbed wire incident I think he would have been fine. The problem was that he fell into a ditch and was so off balance - at one point he was actually laying on his side - that there was nothing he could do but move and then when it kept digging in he really panicked.

 

 

Thanks - Mary

 

 


Replies
[RC] bad accident, mary