My horse tried to jump a barbed wire fence

[M'Lady Caija]

How's Rebel doing?

In Sweden barbed wire-fences got outlawed 2010. We have electrical fences and sure either with rope or tape-fences there can be some nasty injuries as well since the ropes cuts into the muscles/tendons and tapes burns and cuts. It's very rare that woodposts/planks are used over here, it's to expensive.

 

[Zorba]

Hmmmm. I grew up with horses. Never again. Give me a good dirt bike - it always does exactly what I tell it to do, never tries to think for itself! :lol:

 

[M'Lady Caija]

Hmmmm. I grew up with horses. Never again. Give me a good dirt bike - it always does exactly what I tell it to do, never tries to think for itself! :lol:

I prefer a horse that thinks instead of one acting on instinct. And a horse can find his way home when I'm lost, a dirtbike has no "homing-device" And don't say I should get myself a GPS, I can hardly manage my android cellphone ^^

 

[Shanazel]

We're still bandaging his leg two months later, but hope the bandages can come off for good the end of the week. I'm going to start riding him gently this very afternoon.

I don't know why our stable owner is so hard headed about barbed wire, especially in view of some serious injuries over the last two summers and an offer from all the horse owners to pitch in and help refence the property. Barbed wire was invented for cattle, not horses.

There's about two inches of bone showing here. You can see why healing has been such a long process: bad wound in a bad spot.

View attachment 5568

 

[Ariadne]

Poor thing. That looks just awful.

 

[Shanazel]

It was awful, Ariadne. We were afraid at first the tendon was slashed or there was some other major damage that would've lamed him permanently at best or made it neccessary to put him down (HORRORS) at worst. Reb's such a sweet boy; it broke all our hearts to see him so badly cut up.

Stupid horse. I don't know what made him think he was a steeplechaser al of a sudden. But by george, he took that fence completely down.

 

[M'Lady Caija]

ohh my! That's a really nasty one! Could you perhaps take a photo of how it looks like now next time you look over it?

And that was a really bad place for a quick healing. Was the skin just ripped or did a piece of flesh actually come of? Having a hard time seeing wich it is since he seems a "bit" swollen at the pic....

Poor thing! Having a lump in my stomach... Hate seeing animals hurt.

I don't really know but you could help the horses to see the fence better by make some plastic strips out of colourful grocerybags (I'm being a bit prejudice now but you guys do have other bags than paperbags right? ) and tye them to the fence with a spacing of 2-4 feet apart on the upper wire and a bit longer distance on the wires below the one on top.... It might help a little it's better than nothing if you cant persuade the landowner to re-fence.

Isn't there a responsibility to the horseowners when you have a boarding stable? Coz everytime a horse get injured because of the unappropriate fencing he should be held responsible.... what's his reason NOT to re-fence?

isn't there a law for animal protection and regulations for whats ok as fences or not?

 

[Shanazel]

Nope, no laws. Reb knew that fence was there- he tried to go over it, didn't just run into it. I suspect he and one of the other geldings were trying to mix it up.

The flags on the fences might be a good idea. Of course the only thing that spooks my mare is mean, ugly, horse-eating plastic bags.

 

[Ariadne]

But by george, he took that fence completely down.

You sound almost proud.

I'm glad he's healing, I know how it feels to have an animal you love hurt badly like that.

 

[Shanazel]

Hey, when you get hurt in a fight you want the other guy flat on the ground, too, right?

No, I'm not proud of this particular piece of horse stupidity. You could put a horse in a rubber room and he'd still find a way to hurt himself. We had some real tense hours over this incident.

I'll take a picture of his leg when we taken the bandages off for what we dearly hope is the last time. In this situation, the area had to fill in with granular flesh before the skin could start to grow over the wound. Had a bit of a problem with proud flesh at first but kept it trimmed away.

A friend suggested using sanitary pads for bandaging rather than medical pads- they're sterile, come in a bunch of sizes, are made to absorb liquids, and are cheaper than the medical grade stuff. Wish I'd talked to her two months ago!

 

[M'Lady Caija]

The flags on the fences might be a good idea. Of course the only thing that spooks my mare is mean, ugly, horse-eating plastic bags.

Huuuge difference between horse-eating plastic bags and 1-2" wide plastic strips ^^ She'll get used to them pretty quickly. And maybee you get another positive reaction from them, she might not think the horse-eating plastic bags will eat her if she gets desensiticed by the "plastic ribbons" on the fence

 

[Ariadne]

I'll take a picture of his leg when we taken the bandages off for what we dearly hope is the last time. In this situation, the area had to fill in with granular flesh before the skin could start to grow over the wound. Had a bit of a problem with proud flesh at first but kept it trimmed away.

I am going to show my ignorance here. What is granular flesh and proud flesh?

 

[M'Lady Caija]

I am going to show my ignorance here. What is granular flesh and proud flesh?

It's when you get a wound and the flesh surrounding that wound swells up a lot, there's a diffrence between granular and proud but I don't know wich. One kind is going to unswell, the other type might need surgical removal, or medications in an early stage to help it unswell.

 

[Shanazel]

The vet told me that granular flesh has to fill in a gapping wound like this one in order for skin to grow across it. But when granular flesh begins to swell up higher than the surrounding skin, it is called proud flesh and skin cannot grow over it because skin requires a level surface. Granular flesh looks grainy, reminds me of tapioca. It bleeds when trimmed but contains no nerves so the horse isn't hurt during the cutting away.

 

[M'Lady Caija]

The vet told me that granular flesh has to fill in a gapping wound like this one in order for skin to grow across it. But when granular flesh begins to swell up higher than the surrounding skin, it is called proud flesh and skin cannot grow over it because skin requires a level surface. Granular flesh looks grainy, reminds me of tapioca. It bleeds when trimmed but contains no nerves so the horse isn't hurt during the cutting away.

Now I learned lots of new things! I'm lucky that Harry isn't very accident prone (*makes signs to ward off evil*) he's only been lame once and he once had a wound that became infected on his hock that after I discovered it it was cleaned and he became well really fast, but that evening I was a bit stressed out since he laid down in his stall and unwilling to rise due to the pain, so I sat down with him and he put his head in my knee... That night I worried sick, the day after the wound was clean and nice and he was his usual self again....

I'm thanking my lucky star for having such a healthy horse *warding of evil again*

 

[Ariadne]

Thanks Shanazel, that makes sense.

 

[Erik]

Hi Shanazel. Just wanted to wish Rebel the best. I like horses. A couple years ago one of my neighbor's horses got loose and caught a hoof in a roll of wire fence on my land and was struggling in panic. I expected to be kicked to death but the horse was calm as I untangled it. I was told later that the horse can usually sense when you are trying to help it.

In case you've not seen them, here are my favorite clips involving horses.

Ben-Hur... chariot race clip - YouTube This is the most serious clip I could find. The uploader inserted a visual joke at 0:25

The Lighthorsemen - Battle of Beersheba Part 2 - The Charge - YouTube The last great cavalry charge was carried out by a mounted infantry unit. They had no sabers, so they drew their Lee-Enfield bayonets and charged. [And they won, as an extra added bonus!]

Yeah, I know rodeo is cruel, but this one really makes me wish I had a horse.FOSTER & LLOYD Texas In 1880 - YouTube

Now there, doesn't that make Rebel's ordeal seem better by comparison?