At our barn here in the blasted area of the midAtlantic, two of our horses got themselves cast in the snow. It was scary but they both righted themselves within about 5 minutes. We are now keeping them out of the fields with the most snow. Is this a problem for other people? What do you do if they cannot fix the problem themselves. I had several ideas but have never had to deal with the problem before.
Not specific to snow, but with a horse cast in the pasture up against a fenceline, I used a longe line around the pasterns and we pulled the horse over its back. It’s a 2person job, usually.
I haven’t but have seen a couple of horror stories on FB. If it’s just the snow and they haven’t been down for an extended period, just digging it out enough that they can push off hard ground to get up should do it. The problem is that sometimes they struggle and either wear themselves out/ injure themselves or are too dangerous to get close to. But our snow has definitely left the invitingly fluffy stage and is now either super wet or crusted with ice, so I’m not too worried at this point.
None of my horses, but I have had to get other boarders’ horses up when they were cast. Not in snow, but in stalls. For some reason some owners have no idea how to get a cast horse up. I’ve been lucky to have the horses all be calm while I put my lead rope around hind legs to flip them over. I’ve had to ask people to hold a horse’s head still and then pull when I flipped the hind legs over.
I released long ago that it’s dangerous to reach over a horse that just arrived at a barn and rolled and got cast in his stall. But I don’t believe in beating them to get them up as one BO said to do with another boarder’s horse. The BO would not come out of her house to help us, even though she has supposedly for many years been a professional and expert on horses and even taught at a private school up north.
IN snow I would probably try to pull the horse out head first before putting a lead rope around the hind legs to flip the horse over. Depends on the situation and whether or not I had help from someone else at the barn. And I have drugs to dope a horse which I would consider using if a horse was frantic when cast. I’ve seen horses with horrible scars years after they were cast in a stall.
Years ago - yes. Each situation is different and you have to look and analyze quickly if you can do a few digs around their legs and allow them to right themselves or if you need to rope a leg or two and flip them over. How long have they been down for? Are they cold and exhausted and don’t want to try any longer?
Each one is so different and 1 remedy doesn’t work for every situation unfortunately
My all time favorite was this stupid mare years ago who rolled up against the feeder in the middle of a 5-6 acre field. I am driving down the driveway in my work clothes, high heels, etc and I had to tippy toe across the field trying to keep my balance and my shoes clean with a lunge line to flip her over otherwise Im sure she would have still been there hours later when I got back!
Never a dull moment for sure …
I had two horses get stuck rolling this week after it had snowed and drifted. One was a thirty year old and just wasn’t strong enough to push off and the other was a TB rescue (same strength issue). We just shoveled a bit around them and flipped the one over with ropes and after a rest they both got up. I did switch them to blankets with a velcro belly band and front clips that are very simple to undo in case they are down and twisted in their blankets. I live on property so I am able to do checks in every pasture on the hour when they are turned out. I imagine that if your horses are in a situation where they go for an extended period without eyes on them it would be a good idea to keep in so they don’t get down and struggle until injured.
My black and white heavily spotted leopard appy did it some twenty years ago. He picked an area in the field for a good roll, shimmied himself back and forth (making snow angels is what one persn called it), and then wound up stuck flat on his back with his four polka-dotted legs sticking up straight in the air. One of the boarders walked out, spoke to him gently, then pushed his legs over until he could roll back down, get himself up onto his sternum, and then heave himself up. If you are there to help them get back down, all is well and good. If not, and they stay up there that way long enough, they could end up dying.
Now the farm plows out a large area for hanging out and playing, which the horses tend to stay in when the snow is deep. Once it melts further down, they wander further off afield.
[QUOTE=trafalgar;8506000]
At our barn here in the blasted area of the midAtlantic, two of our horses got themselves cast in the snow. It was scary but they both righted themselves within about 5 minutes. We are now keeping them out of the fields with the most snow. Is this a problem for other people? What do you do if they cannot fix the problem themselves. I had several ideas but have never had to deal with the problem before.[/QUOTE]
I haven’t had a horse get cast in the snow, but I guess I would grab a shovel and dig around them if necessary. It seems if there is any way a horse can get cast, in the snow would be the easiest to fix.
My horses live outside in snow 6months of the year, including 2 or 3 months of deep snow.
Keeping them out of the snow isn’t really necessary. It’s like saying you stopped turning out in paddocks with fences because your horse got hurt on a fence, or you stopped putting the horses in stalls because a horse got cast in a stall.
[QUOTE=Prettypony88;8506109]
I had two horses get stuck rolling this week after it had snowed and drifted. One was a thirty year old and just wasn’t strong enough to push off and the other was a TB rescue (same strength issue). We just shoveled a bit around them and flipped the one over with ropes and after a rest they both got up. I did switch them to blankets with a velcro belly band and front clips that are very simple to undo in case they are down and twisted in their blankets. I live on property so I am able to do checks in every pasture on the hour when they are turned out. I imagine that if your horses are in a situation where they go for an extended period without eyes on them it would be a good idea to keep in so they don’t get down and struggle until injured.[/QUOTE]
Except if they are in for weeks or months they are going to be complete nutcases when they finally get out.
If the horses are rolling, and getting cast, in a regular, hollowed out, ‘roll’ spot,
maybe you could bank it with straw bales or old hay bales.
Then they would have something to help to push off of, and maybe,
not get stuck in the divot.
Or fill the roll spots with straw for traction.
Good luck, it would make me nervous too.
Oh good… something new I’d never thought of that will require worry from here on out…
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My 32 year old had to be rescued from the snow this week. This snow in VA is very tough on the horses. 36 inches and very thick and almost impossible to plow. You have to scoop it up and dump it. Several of my horses have struggled in it.
My mini-mules were stranded in their shed for a day. I could barely get to them wearing snow shoes. My 50 hp Kubota couldn’t get through it without scooping and dumping. It has been an effing tough week!!!
We purposely put our bigger, sensible horses out in the paddocks first without hay to get them to walk around and flatten things out and then we put out the others and the ponies. The snow was way too deep for the ponies to go out first as we were concerned with them rolling and not being able to get up.
The barn owner kept all the horses in during the recent storm. My mares usually live out 24/7. I had the barn owner turn my girls out the day after the storm ended. They ran and bucked so much that they mashed all the snow down within about 30 minutes. My younger mare rolled about 3 or 4 times, but had no problem getting up.
A friend of mine who runs a big boarding place just posted on Facebook that she’s had to unstick a horse cast in a snow drift every day since the blizzard. They did get a ton of snow!
My old pony did this at least once a year, not from age but poor judgement, he HAD to roll in the deepest area.Usually he would right himself after a couple of minutes but a couple of times we resorted to shoveling. Last year after the big storm we had, hubby snow blowed a large area and some paths for him, but NO, he plunked himself down in a drift and got stuck. I was home alone and did not think I could get him up so I called the Fire Dept for assist (hubby is a volunteer so a lot of the guys knew the pony) and started shoveling. Just as the FD got to the barn, pony hops up and all was well.
He was not a little pony either, just not the brightest one. But we loved him.
Bumping this old thread up because this happened to me yesterday. Thankfully I was around and not at work yesterday, but I had gone out to do a couple errands. Got home and since it was a nice calm, sunny day, I thought my two would enjoy a blanket-less afternoon and a roll in the snow naked.
It had been a couple hours since I had been out to throw hay, and there was my gelding, down in the snow and he’d clearly been struggling for a while. It seemed to be his blanket that was causing him to not be able to roll up enough to gain leverage, and he was a little bit down hill the wrong way, which wasn’t helping. I was able to unhook all his blanket straps and pull it off him enough he could roll himself up enough to get up. Scared the $h*! out of me, let me tell you. He was tired, but was otherwise unscathed, moved off okay and was happy to eat some hay and get a nice long drink.
Same gelding got himself cast in his stall last summer. I’d really rather not have to worry about this guy night and day. Now I have to worry about blankets in the snow too?! It was -5 yesterday morning at 6:00 AM, and he runs cold, so likes a blanket in that kind of temp. Otherwise I’d never blanket him again!
