what is the worst injuries to a horse you have seen??

RuthnMeg

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Feel free to add pictures, I never have my camera at the time - always too stressful in thinking about how to deal with 'this' this time!
Anyway a few injuries I have dealt with (only a few were my own horse).
Driving down the road a few years ago came across a horse and dismounted rider, horse had put a foot down a hidden hole on the grass verge and sadly broke his fetlock. The girl was very brave, but not nice at all.
Caught a quiet gelding in a field, mad me shudder when half his neck was torn open. He recovered well, but no idea how he done it!
The advanced event horse struck his hind leg in the field - tiny cut but got an artery - the blood! -Recovered well.
Same horse kicked through his wooden stable, got a 2 inch splinter in his gaskin. (only knew this a few weeks later). Brave horse jumped around Blenhiem 3* clear. pulled out by the vets on the sunday morning. - Full recovery
My horse cuts artery in field (more blood), thankful that the landlord was walking his dog that day! - Full recovery.
Seen many a fatal event fall/injury, just always grateful its quick.
Novice event mare stumbled up step out of water and sliced her knee open - yuk! - Recovered well.
Those are a few, anyone want to add their experiences?
 

Ranyhyn

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Bit morbid but went to catch my horse from a field to find two ponies had been turned out with my old grumpy, evil horse. One of the elderly ponie was standing a little too quietly on her own, I went to see to find her with a smashed open chest, presumably from trying to jump out of the field and landing on the fence post.

The post had gone straight through and I could have put my fist into the hole. The skin was flapping away leaving little pockets of air trapped in her skin that made popping and cracking noises - ew. She also had barbed wire gouges all down her sides, where my mean spirited gelding had chased her along the fence presumably. I pulled her in, called vet and she ended up recovering well.
 

Ali2

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Panicked horse tried to jump fence, failed, impaled herslf on the fence post, struggled free, ripped her abdomen open spilling her guts spilt out. Died of shock before vet got to her to PTS. Horrible, horrible accident.
 

Eira

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[ QUOTE ]
I am not sure I should have opened this thread, it is a bit off putting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Its not like the title didn't give you a fair idea what was going to be the topic of conversation in here though
wink.gif
 

Flame_

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Its weird that so many horses meet horrific ends in accidents involving impaling themselves on fence posts, but fencing and fence posts remain the same. Its one of those accidents we all just accept, but it is quite common.
 

miss_c

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Broken back, major head trauma with lots of broken teeth, blood being coughed up. Fortunately horse couldn't feel anything and was in shock.
RIP Mazzie
 

FabulousFlynn'sMum

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My best friend has always kept her horse on livery with me. Two years ago in October she went to the gate and shouted of him, he didnt come which was unsual, she walked down to him and found him still standing with his front leg completely shattered from the knee down, in fact it was only being held on by the skin and tendons etc. I got the vet who PTS immediately with me holding his leadrope in one hand and my friend in the other. As if that wasnt bad enough, when he went down the leg snapped off completely as he hit the floor. It was the worst thing ive ever seen, my friend was inconsolable. RIP Sid, he was 28 when he died and my friend had had him since a 2 year old.

The vet to this day does not know what caused the injury, she said it was so bad she wasnt even sure it was a kick but if it was it was the worst kick injury she'd seen in all her career.

xx
 

scrumpygus

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Its awful to think about but ive seen a few- one horse bolted and caught its chest on a gate that was half open and ripped its chest open - it died on the floor and it was the most heart breaking thing ever for the owner.
Also my horse fractured its shoulder in the field and when i found her she has a hole you could have put your hand into.
And another tore off most of his nostril on the clips you use to put the chains up to stop them walking out of their stables - that wasnt pretty at all.
Its so awful when things happen to horses but what always amazes me is how bloomin brave they usually are considering how wimpy they are the rest of the time!
 

scrumpygus

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Oh my god thats the most awful thing ive ever heard - poor, poor horse. I bet that memory haunts you - which i think it will me now too x
 

charlie76

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I have seen a few. A horse on the yard was grazing and lent over a post and rail fence, the top rail snapped and in a freak accident got caught in the cross surcingle of the rug, horse panicked, ran off and impaled itself in the stomach causing the whole of her underside of her tummy to rupture and all of her guts came out, she died instantly.
So an 'against' for post and rail fencing!

Another horse was running about in the field and turned sharply, she broke her leg snapping the cannon bone and the splint bones,all of which came through the skin and her leg was the wrong way round.
 

quirky

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A young horse at a show ran into one of the metal posts that hold the rope round the ring. He was etremely lucky that the gash missed his heart by about 1cm. He made a good recovery.

A foal who was out in the field with a head collar as bad to catch. So bad to catch that the flesh grew round the head collar and had to be cut off. His wounds were de-brided by the vet and he made a good recovery. Not my horse.

Out hunting, a board was put over a cattle grid. This moved when horse stood on it, he ended up on top of rider in the cattle grid hole, iyswim. Both rider and horse badly injured.
Took over an hour to extricate horse, rider still under him. He was a stallion at the time but once he'd recovered, she had him gelded, so he could go out in the fields more and enjoy life. He lost his mojo for a fair, he recovered physically better than he did mentally. Rider spent a week in hospital and wasn't in the saddle for a long time after. She hunts again now though, horse didn't hunt again.

My horse fractured his skull in 2 places. Although not horrific to look at initially, he had bloody tears and nose, his whole head swelled up massively. It led to him being pts 5 yrs later.
 

Jojo_Pea4

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When working at a livery yard, 2girls turned out some horses and they galloped round the field and one horse slipped over snapped his leg, other horse was nudging him 3 get up and he kicked him in the face. Pony was pts. Owner had got back from holiday and came straight down 2 say good bye and I stayed with the pony while waited for the guys to shot him. RIP Toby
 

Kenzo

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Gosh I don't think I can take any more reading all these
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certainly must of been terrible for you all having to deal with such injuries/deaths etc, your a brave lot thats all i can say and if anything every happens to one of mine, hopefully I'd have someone like you guys to be brave for me.
 

alsxx

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When I really young (must have been about 7) I saw a friends horse that had impaled itself on a tree branch through its shoulder. It literally had a hole high up in in its shoulder about a good adult hands deep in and was probably about 6 inches diamater....you could see the tissue/muscle beating where it was so close to her heart. Its one of those images that is seared into my memory! She made a full recovery and has the most hideous scars, I think she is still going strong aged 25. She was a special mare to me as she was the born the same day and year as me (although I didn't know that until I was older)!
 

AandK

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at the last yard i worked at (over 5yrs ago), my old mare was out with a retired race horse, they were so in love! also in the same field were 2 other mares.. yard was on a massive 700-odd acre estate with a long drive running throught the middle of it. i came in one way and the field Kiana and Pamber were in was near the other end of the drive.
when i got to work that morning, other groom was just about to feed stabled horses, i said hi and she said 'have you not heard what happended to Pamber?' i said no.. legged it down to the field (in car - drive was over a mile long!) and first saw big patch of blood on drive, next i see Pamber in the field, being held by the groundsman (who has found him on the drive earlier) he was on 3 legs, near fore was smashed to peices from the knee down
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just waving about whan he tried to move.. looked like he had run through the fencing and smashed his leg on the post, no idea why he did it, had been v windy that night but in such a quiet area.. vet had been called and he was PTS. i waited with Kiana til he was gone, then took her to another field.. it was almost as if she knew he was on his way out as before the other horses were caught, she was protecting him, wouldn't let them near him.. but she seemed okay when he was gone, i guess she just knew!

seen plenty of other injuries (broken jaw, flesh wounds etc) but nothing as bad as that..
 

TGM

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I was riding through a badly hung gate that closed on us as we were going through and got caught on my boot/stirrup leather. Horse panicked and tried to shoot through which caused the gate to shut even more. Finally my stirrup leather came off and we were free - got off to pick up stirrup and noticed a few spots of blood on horse's leg so led her back into the yard. One of the yard staff looked up and her face just went white. I went round to the other side of the horse and saw that the gate catch had ripped into her hindquarters tearing off a huge flap of flesh that encompassed a triangle from point of hip to point of buttock to near the stifle. It was horrific - like something out of a butcher's shop.
crazy.gif


Thankfully she made a full recovery but always had a strange sweat patch in that area afterwards.
 

Flame_

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I knew a horse that hooked its eyelid over a metal hook the owner the owner had put near where the horse got tied up (
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) and it ripped its eyelid half off. It was repaired with surgery.
 

FabulousFlynn'sMum

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Hiya, yes it certainly does, it'll haunt me til the day I die, especially since he was only turned out with our five horses and to think that one of my boys or girls did that to him doesnt bear thinking about. My best mate was brilliant about it tho she holds no grudges and doesnt blame me at all although I blame myself. I wouldnte care, the herd had been together for 6 years and one of the horses has been with Sid all his life, so what exactly happened I dont suppose we'll ever know xxx
 

muddy_grey

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I guess I have been lucky that most of the horrible injuries I have seen have ended well. Seen a few that hit ateries. One just above the fetlock on his front leg and then ran around the filed refusing to be caught with blood spurting all over his belly, took a few months box rest, but he was fine. Gutteral pouch bleed, not really an injury, but blood pouring out from both nostrils and mouth.
 

Rana

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Horrible stories
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I'm lucky that I haven't seen too many, but have seen a few.

Polo pony put her foot through a gate on my day off. Owner didn't check them as he was supposed to, so very manky wound - down to tendons, covering the whole cannon area on one side. Not so bad to look at initially, but the vet had to remove lots of tissue so it would heal properly. Pony played again 2 months later, and saw her 2 years afterwards and there was barely a scar.

Another polo pony came down in the lorry - reared and flipped. Her head and neck were under 1 partition, her back legs under the other. Had horses on each side. We thought she was dead, then realised she was breathing. We thought she must have broken her neck, until she moved. Once we moved the partition from over her neck, she lay quietly for a minute, then hopped up as if nothing had happened. She cut an artery, but vet was there v. quickly. She made a full recovery, and even loaded quietly to go home!

My own pony was stabbed in the head - we have no idea who by, but vet was adamant it was a knife or scalpel wound. She was fine at 8am when I checked her, then got a phone call at 11 to say there was blood everywhere. She had a puncture wound down to her skull. I'll never forget the tapping noise as the vet checked her skull with tweezers to make sure it wasn't fractured. Full recovery.

I hope I never see another one like those, or worse
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alsxx

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I didn't see this when it happened, but knew of a pony that had a screwdriver shoved into its eyeball. It was blind in the eye but the eye wasn't removed and she had this really bad cloudyness all over it. We have a pic somewhere at home of her.
 

picolenicole

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A gray we had put his head over the wooden gate and bit it. Then without letting go pulled back and ripped his front lower teeth off. They where only held on by his gums!!

I found him standing at the gate sticking his tonge out, which was brigth red. Got a vet went on a three hour trip to surgery. When we got there I looked like i'd been in a blood bath. He recoved from jaw but then died from a gut bug the day after.
 

rocketdog69

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I went to get my horse out of the paddock one day and couldnt understand why he was walking so slow. He kept turning his head towards the offside rear and when I looked I nearly died. He had a massive gash on the inside of his hock and his leg was massively swollen, I thought he'd been kicked by one of the others. Vet arrived, tidied up the gash, put his hand in it hand said "Yes, I can feel the bone", I almost pukked. Needless to say the vet did a fab job, horsey recovered well and won a HT 3 months after his accident. He'd ripped his leg open to the bone on barbed wire.
 

CeeBee

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Years ago, kept my horse in Stanmore, next to a busy main road. Heard a loud bang come from the road, so went to have a look to see what had happened.
2 horses from a nearby travellers site had got out of their field and one of them was hit by a car. None of the traffic could move as he was stood in the middle of the road with one of his front legs hanging off just under the knee. The police came and the only way to get poor horse off the road was to shoo him into a driveway off the road. The vision of the lower leg spinning round as he hobbled off the road will never leave me.
I stood with him and the police officer who had no knowledge of horses, waiting for the vet to arrive. He was such a sweet boy. Stood there sweating and shivering, but still nuzzled my pockets for treats. Sobbed for ages after vet had shot him, such a waste of a lovely horse.
 

4leggedfurries

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A family friends horse once got stabbed in the throat, recovered well but always made a strange noise after that when it was being worked quite hard.

The worst thing was though to get a call off a fellow livery when my beloved nettie had an accident. Some how he'd managed to get his leg stuck in a 5 bar wooden gate and snap his leg clean in half. When he then tried to free himself he smashed the gate to pieces and shredded the rest of his legs. The poor thing then managed to walk across the field while he waited for me to get there. When i got there he was standing with his leg swinging in mid air with his other legs bleeding profusly with massive gashes all over. He was PTS seconds later as the vet had beaten me there. Most horrific thing i have ever seen, and messed me around for some time as i'd just lost my best friend and horse of a lifetime.
 

KatB

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A horse greeted me in the field with half a tree in its head and blood everywhere. He had done it ducking under electric fencing, lifting his head and not seeing the tree because of his fly mask. He had split his skull in 2, and shouldnt have still been standing.
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Luckily in a way, it was so much trauma his body went into shock (he would have been brain dead) so he stood quietly until the vet came
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He was a lovely lovely young event horse.

Saw a horse go stright into a cattle grid, fell over, and broke both front legs trying to get back up. This was out hunting. It still haunts me.

My mare ripped her lower eyelid on an electric fencing post. Luckily she has made a full recovery.

A horse I was looking after fell going into the water at an Intermeidate event and split his chest wide open. Was disgusting! But luckily healed very very well without even a scar
smile.gif
 

legaldancer

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Not a nice story I'm about to tell, but it may prevent something similar happening.

A friend a couple of doors down in the same village phoned me to say she'd seen her pony in the garden & could I come & help her catch him. (she had a new baby at the time). His paddock was at the bottom of the garden seperated by post & rail. I asked if he had a headcollar on & if her garden gate was shut to prevent him escaping on to the road, & she said thankfully it was, so I ran down to help without getting a halter first.

When I got to her house I couldn't quite believe what I saw. At first I thought he'd put his head through the gate & was nibbling some plants.
As I got closer to my horror I saw that he was impaled on her 5 foot high ornamental metal gate which had decorative arrowheads on top.
I just couldn't believe he'd attempted to jump it & none of his feet were touching the floor. Thankfully he didn't struggle -I think he was in shock.

It seemed an age till the vet came & then their gun didn't work. Luckily I'd also called the local knackerman who arrived at the same time as the vet & did the job properly.

A really awful story which made me realise that you can never underestimate what horses are capable of, & dangerous objects that may seem well out of the way of horses may pose a bigger danger than you think. (Have seen several photos of horses taken infront of ornamental spiked gates - studs etc.)

The ironic thing was that this was no jumping pony - he would refuse to jump the smallest of jumps.
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