Thank you for psting! My mare died at the vet clinic and my farm coworkers went to get her, load her up, and bring her home to bury her for me. The vet had already pulled her out of the clinic with his truck when our guys got there but I don’t know how they did it. Don’t want to know but I hope it was a gently as you describe.
When a horse at the farm dies, we bury it but usually have to drag it a good distance so this is good to know.
I’m very sorry for your loss.
I am sorry for your loss.
But thanks for posting that. Very well done.
[QUOTE=goodhors;3667859]
This is supposed to be a helpful post, not just peculiar.
We lost a horse a week ago to kidney failure. We thought it was colic, took him to the vet clinic. Stayed a while, then left him for observation because we hoped time would help and he would be there for Vet to check easily. We are 30 miles away. Vet called us back that things were bad, he was in pain despite heavy meds. Not a surgery candidate. So we made the decision. She put him down and husband headed off to collect the body. Vet had no service to remove him.
Husband is very familiar with dead horses in his Farrier work. Real friendly with other horse vets and how they deal with dead horses. Sometimes the services can’t come immediately, bodies must be stored until pickup.
What husband has learned from the Vet Clinic workers was that if you fold the horse up neatly in the storage barn, tie the legs in place, then horse is very easy to manage later on for storing, loading out for disposal or burial. Sometimes they have to deal with a number of animals who were put down for various reasons that week. So this folding method was created and has been very helpful in dealing with the dead animals. The owners who sometimes come later to say goodbye are not faced with an ugly last view of old Spot, which is comforting to them. Most look like they are asleep all curled up. Some owners like us, want to take the animals home and a folded horse makes it much easier to do.
Husband said you do need the bucket on tractor to position the animal, then bend hind legs, tie up so hooves are close to belly. The Clinic workers usually tie around the hocks. Fold the front legs, tie around the pasterns and elbows to hold in position. Bend the head and neck around over the folded legs, towards the belly area. Not sure if they tie head to hind legs to hold in place. Horse then looks rather like he is circled around to sleep.
When rigor mortis sets in, horse will stay folded, legs bent and tied in place, head out of the way. This method makes it very easy to scoop up the animal for loading, no parts sticking out to catch or get damaged in moving. Animals take up much less room to store, dig a hole for burying or haul away.
I remember seeing a rendering truck go by as a kid, with cow legs sticking straight up from the inside!! Kind of a ghastly sight for a small kid, would have been worse with horse hooves. Now most trucks are covered, but the dead animals still are very stiff and hard to fit inside the truck neatly. Locally, the rendering truck only makes a run weekly, good or bad weather so animals picked up would be pretty stiff.
Husband picked our old boy up on the flatbed of truck. Vet’s husband had said he could not load into our ramp trailer, tractor was too small for the size of this horse. Husband folded the horse up, tied the legs in place, put a tarp over him and strapped everything down to come home. The Vet’s husband said this was the easiest way he had ever loaded out an animal, and the folding kept everything inside the truck bed edges. Flatbed was very easy to place the animal on, get him folded onto. He planned to suggest folding for the next animal they had to load out and practice his tying the legs in place.
We dug the hole the next day, and buried him. Husband said having folded him first, everything went VERY easily, unloading, putting him in the hole with the bucket on machine. Didn’t have to dig such a big hole either, because there were no flopping parts, stiff legs to deal with.
All this folding idea was new to me, but really made a lot of sense as we dealt with the body afterwards. Easier to be a bit dignified about everything.
So this is something to think about, consider if you have to make such a decision in the future. Fold them up while you can, tie things in place, to make it all easier to deal with later.
Our Vet called that next day, said tests showed horse had shut down his kidneys, was not a colic. That was why things were not presenting like a typical colic case, none of our efforts were useful. Nothing anyone could have done, we made the right choice instead of dragging it out longer. Ugly news, but good to hear because we were kicking ourselves for not noticing his problems sooner to start treatments. Kidneys are a sudden thing, no fixing it. When he started sweating, making puddles on the floor, he was a walking dead horse. Even ours and her best pain meds only helped a bit. Best to let him go and learn from it.
Hope the folding information is helpful, gives you more options for the last things you can do for him/her, while helping yourself as well.[/QUOTE]
its an old way - i have seen done in my past before restriction were in uk about buring horses on people property, horses are big and if you leave the head and legs out makes for a much larger hole to be dug by keeping them tucked up like a little swan its neat and tidy
sorry to hear about your horse, but a swan he is now and thus is the start of the pegasus
in the sky myth wing of flight are grown from the earth once a horse is folded like a swan
wow. such a great piece of info. sorry for your loss, but thank you for sharing.
hugs
Very thoughtful info… thanks for posting it for us… I’m so sorry you lost him… Rest in peace to your sweet guy.
Saw this thread a while back never dreaming I would have to do a search for it. This evening I had to put down my best friend of 26 years. (If interested see ‘End of an Era’ thread under Sport Horse Forum) I knew he could not be buried until morning and it broke my heart knowing if left flat out limbs would most likely need to be broken for burial. I quickly print the first post while waiting for vet. We looped one rope over his back before putting him down that way we never had to move him to tie hind legs once he was gone. Vet was impressed and even helped with the “folding” Just wanted to thank you for the info.
Great info here. So sorry to hear about the losses suffered.
Goeslikestink–What a beautiful image. Thank you for that.
I am so sorry for your loss. I left minutes before the rendering truck picked up Willem’s body, and had arranged his legs in a perfect jumping position. I thought it fitting, since where he’d gone to he was founder-free and could run and jump again. :sadsmile:
Just so you folks know, rigor mortis is transient.
Maybedog, so sorry for your loss. 
Like Ghazzu stated, rigor sets in and then goes away again. If there are enough hours between passing away and burial the limbs will be able to move again.
But it’s still a good idea to fold, as a just in case.
Thank you for posting this information - we have always buried our own horses and ponies and never had any trouble - but this method sounds very valuable in case one was unable to bury a horse within hours.
Surprised to see this again after so long. Glad you all found the information helpful or saved it for future use.
Funny how we were just talking about Lewis today, always was Mr. Dependable for so many things. He still is missed a lot around here.
I know that rigor mortis goes away in time but to me it would be much less traumatic to see the horse all nice and curled up like it was sleeping rather than all sprawled out everywhere. The horse is gone, he doesn’t care what we do with his body so if it makes an awful situation a little less heartbreaking for the people involved I am all for it.
Goodhors-thanks so much for posting. Since I board retirees and my mare is now 21, I know that this is an issue that I will need to be prepared for. It’s good to know there is a dignified way to deal with this. Thanks again and Godspeed Lewis.
Different opinion here. The backhoe guy we use lowers the body into the hole with chains around the legs. Not sure how that would work with folded legs. I don’t want them pushed into the hole, but placed carefully.
Thanks for this, goodhors
I’m very sorry for your loss. This good information about folding has been shared here before, and I remembered it vividly, for some reason. I was faced with a horse that needed to be put down in the stall this summer, and mentioned that we should fold him to my vet as we prepared the drugs. She had NEVER heard of the concept and was amazed at what a great idea it was, especially when a horse could not be moved from the stall for euthanization. Horror stories exist about horses that die in stalls and are not able to be removed without damaging the body or dismantling the stall.
Anyway, our horse recovered enough to be able to get out of his stall and into the backyard, so we did not have to use the technique, but my vet was all ears as I described it to her, and it may come in handy in the future. Thanks for sharing.
We have been able to move 1300# horses out of stalls. If you can run chains thru an opposite stall window to a tractor to help pull, and get 4 or 5 people to work the body around the door frame, sometimes flipping them at the door to get the front legs out, it will work.
I really think the burial process, as long as you are able to keep the body intact helps begin the healing process. It is hard work, and such a huge relief when the horse is finally in the ground. It feels good to know the horse is resting the way you want them, and it is over.
I am sorry for your loss, but thank you for posting that information.
Fairview–that works if you have four or five people to do it an an aisle you can get the tractor down! I’m just saying.
As Ghazzu says, rigor passes, though again that depends on conditions. One thing I was going to add–unless it’s REALLY cold and/or you are very used to handling decomposing bodies, I wouldn’t keep it around for a week. Bad things can happen to corpses in that time and while some of us are less grossed out than others (I’ve eaten off tables where I’ve handled human skeletons (not bleached/boiled prepped kind) twenty minutes prior) it can be traumatic. Not to mention if you do be SURE it’s a very protected area, because scavengers large and small can find a carcass from miles away. Also, the byproducts of decomposition can be nasty even when there weren’t toxic chemicals used to destroy the animal. We’re talking things like botulism.
Just saying, folding is a good method, but please be careful whenever disposing of a dead animal.
[QUOTE=danceronice;4397290]
Fairview–that works if you have four or five people to do it an an aisle you can get the tractor down! I’m just saying.
Just saying, folding is a good method, but please be careful whenever disposing of a dead animal.[/QUOTE]
Folding is not a disposal method. It is a way to keep the whole thing more compact. I would think it would go without saying that you still need to do something with the body after its folded, either bury or render or whatever but maybe not.
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