My little mini was caught in a fence- nightmare

[SkipsMom]

The phone rang at the friends house wherer I was at 7:00 p.m. this evening. It was my kiddo calling to say our smallest mini, Pippin, had his right rear fetlock caught in the hog panel and she had done all she could do to try and free it. I told her hang tight and I would leave ASAP- the problem was I was 13 miles south east of town and we live 12 miles north west of town- so it would be 25 minutes before I could be there because it's all country roads. The wind was blowing strong from the west and it's about 28 degrees. The nanno second I had cell phone coverage- about 8 miles up the road- I called a neighbor and said "help!" and she went right over. By the time I got home they had used bolt cutters to release Pippin. He is sore and a little swollen, weight bearing but he does rest the hoof. At least he is so level headed that he stood stock still w/ my kiddo while she waited for me. Poor kiddo had dressed to do a regular 10 minute evening feeding and she ended up being outside for an hour and she was frozen to the bone. She said she was too afraid to leave Pippin and come inside to get on warmer clothes for concern that he would become upset. She gets an "A+" as a horsewoman for that way of thinking from her Mom.

Anyway, if not this weekend next weekend I'm redoing the fence. Hog panels will be replaced or placed higher on the post. They use to sit up off the ground 6" but that changed this spring when I had limestone screenings brought in to get rid of the mud because that raised the ground level to within an inch of the bottom of the panel. That has come back to bite me.

Anyway, be careful with these smallest of mini's and using hog panels because it was in the small grid section that Pippin caught his hoof.

Leslie

 

[horsefeather]

Whew! Read your post and was SO glad to see Pip wasn't hurt bad. Kudos to your daughter for staying with him. Great horsesense!! Tell her his ex-mom says THANKS

Pam

 

[SkipsMom]

Ya know, when it's a clients horse I can keep my wits about me 100%, well maybe 99.9% but when it's one of my own in distress I turn into "Lucy" on caffine. I bet he'll be fine but you can bet he'll have the first clinic appointment tomorrow if I'm not 100% certain that he's not perfect.

I will pass along to kiddo your comments. That is a horsewoman through and through.

 

[REO]

Way to go for your kiddo!

I'm glad she was there for Pippin and that he was gotten out ok. Whew!

 

[MountainViewMiniatures]

I am so glad to see Pippin is okay , when I think of what could have happened....Please tell your daughter she is just wonderful (of course, I 'm sure you have already told her this a few or more times) how proud you must be of her !

 

[AJ]

Have had similar experience. What I now do when fencing, is put the small holes to the top and the big ones in the bottom. Works much better as the feet cannot get stuck as readily.

 

[sedeh]

I've always wondered about those hog panels. Thanks for posting this. Major kudos to your popsicle daughter and to that wonderful Mr Pip for keeping his head and not struggling!

 

[victoria]

I have seen this so many times, I have seen a horse kick at another and get hind leg caught up in those squares, I cover them up so no feet can got though them!!. At the last show we went to I had my lot out grazing and all the girls were sitting on the ground enjoying some time off our feet and someone had tied a filly up to a mesh fence along by our truck and the filly rolled right over and got cast with all her feet though the mesh square fence... It took all three of us to get the filly out. I grabed her head and held her down so she couldn't try and get up and tangle herself worse and the other 2 untangled her feet and then we rolled her over so she was clear of the fence to get up.. so scarey for the poor filly..

What a brave kid staying with the horse.. Im pleased to hear pippin is doing okay. Im like someone else mentioned when its someone elses horse im fine, when its mine I get a bit frantic..

 

[justaboutgeese]

It amazes me how when horses know they ar stuck will just stand and wait for help. We had a big horse get tangled in a roll of smooth wire and was all trussed up like a turkey going into the oven. She stood perfectly still until I managed to get the wires cut off one at a time .

 

[Charlotte]

Poor little Pip and POOR KIDDO! Can you imagine how LOOOOOOOONG it seemed to her before help arrived?

She gets a super

from this farm! (and she should get a 'something special' under that Christmas tree too!

)

We use cattle panels too and since '97 have had 2 horses kick through and get stuck....sure was glad we were here to get them out as they couldn't have freed themselves. But the truth is....there IS NO 100% safe fence material where horses are concerned. I'm not sure what it would be! All of our perimeter fencing is heavy gauge 'no climb' horse fencing, but it sure wouldn't work for smaller enclosures....wouldn't stay tight.

Charlotte

 

[SkipsMom]

Thank you all very much for your concern. With daylight finally here I was able to see more. First, Pippin has skinned himself on the rear of the pastern. He did not remove the hair but the skin is moist and oozey. He is cocking the leg which must be related to the pastern injury. When he is all done eating I'll wash up that leg to determine the extent of the swelling which is impossible to see with the winter woolies on.

Those panels have been in place for two years, since we bought the little guys. You know how metal kinda ages to various shades of deep gray as it sits out in the weather??? Well, the piece of fence wire which was against the front of his pastern is as shiney as stainless steel. That makes me suspect he was indeed caught for awhile and pulling. His appetite was fine so there are no concerns there and I do not suspect serious or permanent damage, just extreme soreness. Poor little guy.

Leslie

 

[Sandee]

Kudos to your daughter!

I had my little (2+ yr old) kick at another horse and put one back leg through a pipe gate. It was just high enough that he got tipped and had the other leg off the ground and all his weight on the 2 front and his stifle on the pipe. I didn't want to leave him to get help but he kept trying to bite when I touched the leg. Fortunately he doesn's weigh over 200. I had to lift and push him over to the other back leg then he got himself out. No harm but scarey just the same.

Hope there's no harm to your little one too.

 

[lyn_j]

[SIZE=14pt]I use hog panel fencing BUT I put it with the small slots on top and the large ones on the bottom for that reason, No one has caught a foot in it because there is a bigger space.... We had a baby get caught once in the first year we used it so we turned all the panels upside down after that.[/SIZE]

Lyn

 

[Magic]

I'm so glad that your Pippin is (mostly) all right. Poor little guy.

I have "cattle panels", same as the hog panels but all the squares are the same size and the height is taller. In the ten years or so that I've had them, I've only had one incident here with them: my "B" size show gelding kicked at another horse and got a hind leg stuck in the fence just above his hock. I couldn't get him out myself and had to yell for my husband (who luckily was outside) to come help me. I was so glad that I had found my boy when I did; he had no marks on him but was sore for quite a few days.

I agree with Charlotte, there is no 100% safe fencing where horses are concerned, sigh.... but we can keep trying!

 

[RobinRTrueJoy]

Glad everything turned out ok. And Yes, your young one is quite a horse person!

 

[Marion]

We have correl panels and had put wire around that. When I came home one day, I had a mare that had rolled and hung her leg in the wire. I don't know how long she was there, but she laid there quietly until we got her leg out. She didn't have any damage to her leg.