Get yourself two long, thick cotton ropes. About 30 feet long each. These are your “decasting ropes”. It works best with two humans involved, but if only one is present, one does as best as one can. With two people, one rope goes over the front legs, one on the hind end. On the front, put both legs in the rope, on the cannons or pasterns. The plan is to fold those front legs up to the chest during the pull. Hind end rope also goes on the cannons, they can be pulled forward if necessary. Get the ropes onto the hind legs swiftly, and keep yourself from being kicked in the face should the horse suddenly start to struggle. Keep yourself away from the feet and legs, once the ropes are in place. If you need to pull the front end out a bit first (if wedged right under the fence) the rope can be pulled up inbetween the front legs and around the lower edge of the neck on the underside, and sheer pull the front end out. If two people can’t get this done, or as many people as you can muster, that is where the tractor can come into play if necessary. Once clear enough, pull on both sets of legs at once, and turn the horse over so that he is clear to get up. If exhausted, he may need some encouragement to get up at this point. If there is a depression under the fence, and THAT is part of the problem, he will need to be pulled part way up the side of the depression before turning him, which will put him into a propped up state once turned.
Watch a recently freed cast horse closely. Sometimes the reason he has become cast is that he is colicy. If not sick, most horses learn to be careful of where the fences are. If sick, they don’t think about this as well as they do if they are just laying down and having a roll. That being said, I did have a filly who used to get cast daily… she just didn’t care. She would just lay there, and wait. She never struggled while trapped, nor while being freed. I asked around about what to do about her. An old time horseman told me to beat her with a broom while she was stuck- to make her care about being trapped. Eventually, I did try doing this. It helped. She no longer was carefree about being caught in the fence, some fear about the situation got instilled into her.
Horses who are a wee bit claustrophobic are the most fearful about being cast, and usually the ones who make the most effort to avoid being cast by making mistake while rolling. I have one like this. If ever cast, she would fight like a caged demon from hell. She just makes sure that it never happens, because she cares about stuff like that.
I agree that the best solution is to put a “bed and rolling” area of softness in the CENTER of the paddock. Unfortunately, this is often also used as a latrine it seems. That is horses for ya.
