Brambles/barbed wire injury. Where do I stand?

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caramel

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Over the past week or so my TB has come in with several (counted 11 in all), scratches to face, believed to be caused by brambles.

However yesterday I was notified that he'd come in with a nasty cut on his face. It's a straight line along his right cheek, and having cleaned it, looks most definately like a barbed wire injury. He's fully up to date with flu/tetanus ( yearly vaccs booked for 2 weeks). No obv swelling, looks to be healing (albeit slowly). Will take pic and post tomorrow. It's about 5cm in total, not sure whether to ring vet, but not big enough to stitch (plus nothing to stitch). It's being kept clean and his fly mask seems to cover it up nicely. Have put sudocream on.
However today I found a small cut on top of right foreleg, it's not very big and have cold hosed, sudocream applied. There's some heat but doesn't appear to be lame, although very reluctant to let me touch (don't blame him really).

And to top it off there are 3 evenly spaced marks on his neck, again these are broken skin. After consulting with a good friend on the yard, we've come to the conclusion these are also barbed wire related.

So, went for walk round field tonight, found lots of overgrown brambles at water trough, so probably gets scratched every time he goes for a drink, overgrown (very sharp) brambles along hedgeline, and a broken section of barbed wire. Spoke to YO who's proving awkward and not wanting anything to do with it, claiming that it's my horse's fault and the barbed wire not hers (despite there being a clear boundary between her field and the field behind that).

What do I do? My horse is scarred due to poor maintenance. Will post pics tomorrow.
 
Hmm, I am guessing from your description of the discoveries that you put your horse in the field without checking the boundaries or water trough. I think that if this was a general maintenance or wear and tear issue with the field and you had been there a while then there may be more of an argument for you to raise this as an issue with the YO. If it was like this from the off and you chose to put your horse in there then your look out I'm afraid. I'd suggest moving to somewhere more suitable. Sorry, this probably isn't the answer you wanted to hear!
 
Move yards, your horse is ultimately your responsibility.

Alternatively you could remove them yourself.

You walked round the field and did nothing about anything you saw, and I bet you have turned your horse out in the field again.
 
Not sure what type of livery you are on but suggest you cut the brambles yourself. You may be able to fix the wire too. In practice if self help is not an option you either need to move yards or get YO to agree to deal with it.
 
He's been in that field for some time, he goes out with a large group and never had a problem before. Always have a look when poo-picking and not spotted anything, only on closer inspection did I notice something.
There are her riding school horses out there too so we just go where we're told. There's no grass so I'm guessing he was searching for bits to munch on. Am heading out tomorrow to sort field, have sorted broken wire. Dad's bringing cutters for the brambles. My horse is on box rest.
 
How do you know the injuries are bad enough to scar if they've only just happen and you haven't called a vet? I think you will just have to accept that horses are horses and accidents happen
 
Sorry but I'm with the others. I would always check the fencing at any yard I moved to and my horse wouldn't be in any field with barbed wire or stock fencing. When on a previous yard the YO put stock fencing along the bottom of one of my fields so I put up electric fencing to keep D away from it.

Its not really an issue of poor maintenance. Good quality barbed wire could also have injured your horse just as easily. I would move yards or put up electric fencing.
 
caramel said:
He's been in that field for some time, he goes out with a large group and never had a problem before. Always have a look when poo-picking and not spotted anything, only on closer inspection did I notice something.
There are her riding school horses out there too so we just go where we're told. There's no grass so I'm guessing he was searching for bits to munch on. Am heading out tomorrow to sort field, have sorted broken wire. Dad's bringing cutters for the brambles. My horse is on box rest.
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box rest for a few cuts? i think your being a bit over dramatic here.
 
I would be more bothered about clearing up the barbed wire, cutting back brambles to prevent further injuries than anything else than apportioning blame.

I feel it is your responsibility to turn out your horses in a safe environment and check the field regularly as well as the YO and other liveries doing the same.
 
TBH I would say that the majority of the time I check any field my horses go into. If something is hazardous or poisonous I will bring to the attention of yard owner. Most times I will sort it myself and either cut away the dangerous/poisonous plants or material or else fence off and let yard owner know I have done it.
I have known many people at many yards not give a rat's arse what field they put their horses in, or even bother to check for any hazards or poisonous plants such as oak, ragwort, bracken, horsetail to name but a few! Broken bricks lying about, plastic wrappings, broken buckets, metal spikes, exposed metal wire, barbed wire you name it I have seen it.
Yet other owners have not!
Perhaps they care a little less about their horses or more likely cannot be arsed and have an attitude of someone else will do it or believe and trust in yard owners too much.
Sorry but I do not. I will go and check boundaries. I will go and check any watering places. I will clear away or tape off areas that could cause a hazard and I will clear away any rubbish.
Why, because at the end of the day they are my horses and my responsibility.
I won't just think it is not my field, I pay this and that and expect whatever. I will get off my arse and go and sort it myself if needs be.

To OP
I would just clean up the cuts with salt water apply some purple spray or similar and leave alone. Don't apply any cream yet as these wounds will be dirty ones and all you will do is seal dirt and infection in as you won't be using any dressings on a face to draw the dirt out.
 
When I turned my horse out in her new field - I had to (at my own expense) purchase electric fencing to fence off the dodgy barbed wire, YO is in the process of replacing all the fencing but its taking time and he is 75! So I took matters into my own hands and made the field safe BEFORE I turned out into it!
Might be something you want to consider doing. I was lucky my local scats store had a bogof offer on electric fencing posts and tape when I bought mine. Still wasnt cheap though, my field is huge.
 
And please don't forget, horses veins are very close to the skin, so a very minor cut looks drastic, much like how a paper cut bleeds.

As a plus point, if you found them on closer inspection, then you do not have much to worry about :)
 
I would be annoyed at the attitude of the YO to the barbed wire if it was accessible to the horses tbh. It would have been more appropriated if she thanked you for finding it/notifying her and either asked if you could shift it or say she would do it asap.

The brambles.. well they are brambles and much less of a concern than the wire IMO.
 
Op if he is lame enough to warrant box rest then I would be getting the vet out as that small wound could be a puncture - possibly from a thorn?

I would remove the barbed wire and just say to YO that you found what the problem is & removed it. Dont blame anyone for it as accidents happen and horses are horses!
 
To answer a few questions:: I've had my boy for over 18 months, have been at current yard for a year. Shares field with 8 others (including YO's riding school horses).

Horse isn't out for long as field is getting really muddy/wet, he always comes in caked in mud and worried about infection. Also has a healing cut to coronet band ( not related).
Couldn't see anything at all in cut on leg...
YO was notified of the barbed wire, at first she wasn't aware it was there, then when she found out she didn't want to take any responsibilty at all.

No other liveries have mentioned anything at all about the state of the field. Would be surprised if they already know.

Will clean and put his antibacterial gel on tomorrow.
 
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It sounds to me as if some of them could be bites from other horses - is that a possibility?
With cuts like that wash well with either salt water or diluted hibiscrub and then spray with either purple spray or aluminium spray. Sudocreme will attract dirt etc. so not the best thing to use. I agree with most of the others - the state of the field re. fencing etc. is as much your responsibility as you turn your horse out there.
 
Sounds a bit like a round bale of hay needed in field if horses are leaning over fences

I was taught at a young age ''a TB will find a way of getting hurt if you dont do everything possible to prevent it'' whereas the school ponies will probably hardly ever get a scratch in the same situation.
 
Persephone said:
You chose to turn your horse out in the field, so your problem I'm afraid.
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At the end of the day the yo has a duty of care to ensure his facilities are safe and fit for purpose, i would expect any boundry fence to be suitable and safe for horses, its not up to the liveries to change fencing and make it safe, even if theyre on DIY. You have a duty of care to your horse as well though.
Yes it is easy to trim back the brambles around the trough if the yo is being awkward, but its not up to you to sort dangerous boundry fencing, i would have a word again, if he's not prepared to have safe fencing id be looking elsewhere of it was my horse as barb wire can make one helluva mess of an animal.
 
There is one field where we are that my horse always gets tiny nicks in! Thorny hedgerow plus nosy horse equals my buying a lot of purple spray...we called her the rainbow horse for a while;)
 
We've gone through a lot of first aid stuff recently it's not funny anymore. He appears to be the most accident prone horse in the world. Will take pics and let you decide for yourselves.
 
Well I know someone who successfully sued their YO after their horse with sweeetitch, which they didn't manage, rubbed itself until it bled. Like they do. YO was told by insurance company to pay up.
 
dieseldog said:
Well I know someone who successfully sued their YO after their horse with sweeetitch, which they didn't manage, rubbed itself until it bled. Like they do. YO was told by insurance company to pay up.
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Sorry DD but As a Y O I would go to prison first. What is this bloody Country coming to.
Their is a simple solution to the OP complaint. Move yards to somewhere that provides full Post & Rail & all the other safety features all liveries want when they have a problem. Shame they do not think the same when looking for somewhere as cheap as chips! The other alternative of course is to check you horses field fence every day. It's watering hole is also a very important area to check at least once a day. Had this been done the offending brambles/wire would have been seen before an injury occurred. Whilst I accept I am presuming the horse is on DIY, why is it that people do not understand it means exactly what it says on the tin! Do It Yourself.
 
FRESHMAN said:
Whilst I accept I am presuming the horse is on DIY, why is it that people do not understand it means exactly what it says on the tin! Do It Yourself.
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I do agree that checking the field, water etc is responsible... Hacking away brambles or a bit of random wire is hardly a great hardship...

But DIY shouldn't absolve the property owner of responsibility for their own property maintenance and some duty of care to the stock they're charging to keep there... I don't think it's good practice that this YO (apparently) didn't care about potentially dangerous fencing once alerted to it...
 
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