Hey! It’s Jessie again with that farm story I promised you. : )
So, Pie has a German Shephard, Roxie. We sent Roxie to get some training and last Sunday after church we were supposed to go pick her up.
Roxie had been Pie’s constant companion and she’d missed her terribly. She was a little stressed about getting her and was pushing us out the door.
Well, Julia decided at the last minute to grab her horse from the bottom pasture. She’d just put her out before we left for church, but it was going to be after dark until we got home and she didn’t want Duchess to be out that long.
I decided to throw a load of clothes in the laundry, so I set my purse (and phone) down and worked on that.
I got the clothes in and sat down on the porch steps with my shoes. My purse rang and I grabbed it, confused, since no one ever calls me. : )
It was Julia.
“Mom. You never answer your phone.”
Ha. That was funny, but there was something in her voice.
I said, “I’m sorry. What’s up?” I’d just seen her three minutes ago. Why was she calling me?
“Come down here right away, please.”
I stood, knowing she was in the bottom pasture where the horses were. I could see movement through the fence and trees and could tell from the tone of her voice that something was seriously wrong.
I didn’t ask a bunch of questions, but just said, “I’ll be right there.” I hung the phone up, left my purse on the step and ran to the Gator. I figured either she or Pie had gotten hurt somehow and I was going to be making a trip to the ER.
I drove through the upper pasture and down towards the creek. Coming along the side, I could see there was a horse lying flat out on the bridge. As I looked closer, I could see her back leg hanging down through the bridge. So, three legs up, one completely through the boards of the bridge. The horse, Julia’s baby, Duchess, was stretched out flat on her side.
I got out of the Gator and walked over. Julia was, understandably, upset. Duchess was wet with sweat, and she’d rubbed the upper part of her leg raw with her thrashing and struggle.
Her two front legs were still on the bridge, but half of a board was broken almost right under her and a wrong move on her part and she’d have a second leg stuck.
I honestly had no clue how in the world we were going to get the horse up. But, I do appreciate the fact that we have some equipment that could help and said, “We need the telehandler.”
Julia said that she’d talked to Watson and he’d be coming with it.
By now, I was bent down, stroking Duchess and trying to calm her down. Sometimes horses get themselves so worked up they make a bad situation worse with their struggle and fight.
When the telehandler came, the noise upset her and she thrashed around, banging her head on the boards and kicking with the one hind leg she had above the bridge.
We had a strap and a rope, but the issue was trying to get it under her – there just wasn’t room. We did manage to wrap the strap around her front hoof and around her front shoulders and neck and get her into a semi-upright position.
Watson thought she’d be able to pull herself up with that one back leg at that point. I doubted it, but didn’t have a better idea, so I worked with him on his.
Back when I was in school, I could hold one foot behind me against my butt and bend my other leg until I touched the ground with my bent knee, then straighten up without letting go of my leg. There’s no way I could do that now, and I kinda felt like Duchess was the same way – she wasn’t going to be able to pick herself up with just one hind leg.
As we worked on her, she’d start to thrash and kick and we’d jump back out of the way, so there was that danger as well.
After we were finished the girls said to me that they thought she was going to knock me out when she hit my head. I realized when they said that, that my head hurt, but I had no recollection of getting hit. I still don’t.
Anyway, while Watson was working on her front end, I waited for Duchess to tire herself out with her latest struggle, then I reached around her back hoof in front of her hind leg, putting the rope down through the hole in the bridge. The hole where the boards broke was mostly behind her, and I asked Watson – who was standing behind her – if he could see the rope and grab it.
It took him a bit to figure out what I was talking about, but he put his hand down and was able to grab the rope. We got the strap from the telehandler and her front leg and shoulder and tied it to the end of the rope, pulling it through so it was under her.
We were able to attach that to the forks of the telehandler. Pie got in the telehandler and lifted the forks up until Duchess’s leg was above the bridge, then went backward until Duchess was lifted off the bridge. We had to do it fast, becuase, while I said “strap” it wasn’t very wide and could end up hurting Duchess internally from the pressure of her weight on it.
So, I put up a couple pictures in the Chat that Pie took before she got in the telehandler. I didn’t want to send them in my newsletter, but you can see them HERE if you’re on Facebook.
Anyway, Pie set Duchess down, and all I wanted to see was her walking on all four legs. I was almost sure that one of her back legs was broken, and it would have been heartbreaking to put her down, especially after all of that.
But, to my surprise, she gingerly took a few steps, using all of her legs, although she definitely favored that back one. I was pretty sure after watching her for a few minutes that she was going to be just fine.
She was pretty tore up from the boards and her struggle, but those were surface wounds and we just had to make sure they didn’t get infected. Julia treated her before we left, while I realized that not only did my head hurt, but I had somehow scratched up my knee and both legs and had somehow gotten a big bruise on my ankle. Not sure how I did that, but it wasn’t as bad as Duchess’s wounds, lol.
So, we treated Duchess, texted the vet, and left to get Roxie. The vet ended up coming out Tuesday and said what we’d figured out: Duchess would make a full and complete recovery. : )
Have a beautiful week!
Hugs and love,
Jessie 