Recommendations for wall coverings to help cast horse get up

catembi

catembi

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One of mine got cast again today. I managed to right him with a lunge line but it was a bit hairy and that’s the second time he’s done it. Not at all colicky…just stuck and fine when he got up.

They are all out but with constant access to stables so can wander in and out. He went in and rolled.

The floors are thick rubber mats with no bedding, diamond pattern for grip. The walls are smooth, plain chipboard which is why he couldn’t get enough grip to turn over. Barefoot. I don’t want to get any mats for the walls without checking for recommendations as some wall mats are probably grippier than others. Thank you ?
 
I saw them but the website showed one at about waist height and I wasn’t sure how that would help! I was literally about to bin a load of rubber offcuts from doing the floors. I wonder if they would work, or be too thick?
 
I’d line the walls with a thick rubber material from floor to about 1.2m high personally. This way it serves as a pushoff grip surface for all size horses, in all sorts of cast positions.

My own, mainly gelding, has got cast before, yet self-recovered as i have 50cm very sloped dense banks, and the whole bed is now created as a slope - deeper at the back, shallow at the front (i deep bed), so they have gravity on their side to roll over.

I saw him cast and self recover before i changed bed design, and his legs were sliding over the lower 2-3 foot area of boarding, so a cast strip at 1m height wouldnt have helped, as the position he was in, his legs wouldnt have reached the 1m rubber strip to push off. He’s 15.3hh. Luckily being fit, young and frisky he wiggled and pushed and flipped like a sausage!

Id rubber line the whole lot to allow for all cast positions.

Its ridiculous isnt it, my shelter has plenty of width for them to roll and flip to roll both sides….yet they choose to roll and flip along the narrow length!

If i could re-do a stable floor i’d concrete a slope instead of flat! I deep-bed specifically to create a dense slope bed, so now use pellets as they absorb so much and dont smell.
 
I have anti cast straps after my horse got cast not long after I got him. They are supposed to help them get purchase on the wall if they need to. They were expensive so if you can make your own thats a bonus!!
 
I second Rowreach, anti-cast strips are great and again anything really that gives them something to grip or push against. I have even seen lots of people put thin-ish wooden strips along walls for the same purpose.
 
OP the height of the strips will depend on the depth of bedding/banks do in your case with no bedding on mats they would need to be a bit lower. I think our were about 3’ off the floor. If you’ve plenty of off cuts you could do two strips.
 
Mine got cast a few weeks ago so now I've removed the banks & put my own strips up about 3.5ft off the floor.

I bought the rubber matting thick offcuts initially but there really is no way to secure them well enough to withstand 650kg pushing off it!

I have now screwed the half round wooden fence rails all around which are deep enough to get purchase & kick off, attach very securely & are very cost effective at only £6 for a 14ft rail.
 
I had one cast a couple of weeks ago. Watching back on the camera he freed himself by pushing against the plastic boarded walls and the cardboard bedding sliding with him.
 
Lots of good ideas, thank you! I was looking at the anti cast strips & wondering how they would work, that high up... The scuff marks on the walls are about a foot to maybe 3 ft ish. I think I also have some half-round rails somewhere... The chipboard really is very smooth & slippy, so not surprising that he couldn't push off it. But if he'd just folded his legs underneath him, he could just have got up, rather than lying there stiffly with all 4 legs extended like a plastic horse & sighing!
 
If horses had brains lol

Many older stables would have had the anti-cast strips as standard, mine all did anyway. Very handy little tool.
 
catembi said:
Lots of good ideas, thank you! I was looking at the anti cast strips & wondering how they would work, that high up... The scuff marks on the walls are about a foot to maybe 3 ft ish. I think I also have some half-round rails somewhere... The chipboard really is very smooth & slippy, so not surprising that he couldn't push off it. But if he'd just folded his legs underneath him, he could just have got up, rather than lying there stiffly with all 4 legs extended like a plastic horse & sighing!
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Sometimes I wonder about their brains ?
 
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