Thankyou to the Fire Service & my Vet

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hairycob

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Had a horrible phone call at work this afternoon - son in tears, his horse trapped in a ditch. I was an hour away with my mobile out of battery. Told him to call the fire brigade & I called OH who was nearer & the Vet. Everyone got there really quickly. Luckily he was close to the yard & had been able to raise the alarm there so they found him easily. HP was in a ditch about 12 feet deep, tangled up in dense brambles and there were power lines to the farm directly overhead.
Thank god he stayed calm & still so didn't need sedating & once the brambles had been cleared he was able to scramble out under his own steam and walk the short distance back to the yard.
Amazingly he seems to have got away with just a few scratches though I expect he will be a bit sore tomorrow.
Son now knows to avoid going round the back of the barn when the grain dryer is likely to be on.
 
Must admit I don't remember much about the drive back. It's 4 weeks today that Pickle was pts & all I could think was I can't lose 2 in 1 month. I have never been so relieved as I was when I got back & he was ok.
 
Very scary! Know how you feel as been there myself many years back. Our old horse in a very similar sounding type ditch!! He too amazingly only suffered a few minor scratches. We had to call the local farmer to hoist him out with his JCB!!!

Glad to hear everyone's ok. I found it amazing how ours stayed so calm and didn't panic (he was a real stresser normally). I am sure they know when they're beieng helped.
 
Bless them both, Hp enjoyed the sedative though!!! The scary thing is when I saw the Fire engines arrive I thought its either a fire I cant see or Hp has gone down the ditch, I didnt think I could have been right!!! I was so glad to see they were both fine and I wont be going near that ditch!!
 
Yep - it's the detour round the bungalow from now on! I'm starting to worry about that planned beach trip - so far this year we have had ambulance & fire brigade, will we need the coastguard?
 
hairycob said:
Had a horrible phone call at work this afternoon - son in tears, his horse trapped in a ditch. I was an hour away with my mobile out of battery. Told him to call the fire brigade & I called OH who was nearer & the Vet. Everyone got there really quickly. Luckily he was close to the yard & had been able to raise the alarm there so they found him easily. HP was in a ditch about 12 feet deep, tangled up in dense brambles and there were power lines to the farm directly overhead.
Thank god he stayed calm & still so didn't need sedating & once the brambles had been cleared he was able to scramble out under his own steam and walk the short distance back to the yard.
Amazingly he seems to have got away with just a few scratches though I expect he will be a bit sore tomorrow.
Son now knows to avoid going round the back of the barn when the grain dryer is likely to be on.
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So VERY GLAD that your son and horsey are home safely and in one piece.

This post has certainly brought back memories when I had to call out the fire brigade on a very hot Good Friday in 2007 for my chap.

We decided to ride along a bridleway to see if the usually muddy surface had dried out enough as we had been having some unusual lovely sunny weather for the time of year.

Just before we made a decision to turn around and go back my colleague who was riding my grey horse selected a track where horses had been and the pathway was flat, but narrowing at times. I had just told my friend not to use the path as it looked narrow for my horse to travel along, at that second he lost his footing with his hind leg, then stumbled into the deep muddy crevice onto his knees whereby my colleague scrambled off then as the horse tried to get up he got himself stuck in the crevice with his right hind leg trapped underneath him. My friend/rider even got his leg stuck at one stage.

Fortunately a family of four were out for a walk and the husband tried to assist us but couldn’t. I then got help from the occupier at the cottage nearby who raised help from the neighbouring farm (one of my neighbours) who also assisted with a long rope, bales of hay to stuff down the open ditch as that was my greatest fear. In the meantime I called 999.

The gentleman at the cottage managed to find a spade and digging commenced to flatten out the ruts to aid my grey horse in getting up. The fire brigade arrived but wouldn’t do anything until the vet arrived to sedate my chap.

I called my other neighbour to ride my other horse back home for me (who gave a lovely dressage display all the way home showing off to the men in their fire engines) whilst we waited for the Fire Brigade and Vet to arrive. She also brought with her a team of horsy helpers.

After some time passed my grey horse then decided to move, whereby he did a 90 degree turn towards the open ditch having a nibble at the grass on the way. He then managed to get his head in the hedging. A fireman placed his coat on the hedging to shield his head/eyes. The next minute my horse moved again and managed to scramble on the hay bales (in the open ditch) and was able to get up with some aid by pulling on the rope (around his body). The next minute he was up on all fours marching me back home as if nothing had happened and covered in mud head to toe(s).

He probably thought that he wasn’t having a sedation needle stuck in him. He marched home (me in tow) as if nothing had happened - of course he was late for his tea! We met the two fire tenders (one with the crane!) who were parked up in the open field nearby waiting.

The vet checked him over back at the yard and gave him a jab (painkiller) as he would have been stiff in the morning. My horse and everyone was ok. The whole incident lasted about 2 1/2 hrs. My vet actually went back to see the fire brigade and apparently 4 fire tenders turned up for my horsey. I will never forget this incident and try and keep away from big ditches… unfortunately I’m a bit paranoid with them!
 
Hairycob - yes it was rather scarey and stressful and felt rather useless at the time seeing him trapped in the deep muddy tractor rut.

I couldn't even have a stiff G&T as I had to check up on him late at night. The following day I went down with a nasty bad sore throat - turned out to be Laryngitis! Must of been the stress of it all. And it was so quiet for them at work, shame they had to answer the phones!
 
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