Cast horse experiences...

[cardicorgi]

I had my first "cast horse" experience yesterday - no one was around besides me and a few nambypamby types, and I knew I couldn't roll her on my own. Managed to get the mare calmed down, made some calls, and I got instructions from my trainer on how to roll her. Fortunately, after much ado, the cast mare somehow managed to scramble up on her own, and boy was she relieved.

Have any of you dealt with this before? Ever rolled a cast horse?

I'd been going back/forth about how to bed stalls (e.g., like a "lawn", or banked which I'd learned) and I now think that banking the stalls is absolutely best, but I'm thinking you'd have to bed so heavily on the sides you'd use a week's worth of shavings.

[schwung]

I've rolled a couple...and its a little scary because you need to stay out of the way of the hooves in case they panic, which they often do when you put ropes around their legs and start pulling. Fortunately when my mare did it she just laid there completely immobile until we rescued her and just stayed limp while we rolled her. The other was a foal and that one was easy.

[cardicorgi]

Dang Schwung, did you roll her on your ownsome? I'm impressed! Where do you put the ropes (I'd forgotten to ask that yesterday), on their legs? I'm guessing the average lead rope is too short...

[pdevlieg]

schwung said:

The other was a foal and that one was easy.

That's my only experience too! I must say they are much easier under 200 lbs. Not much help for you though.

[schwung]

No I had help, a big strong man...so yeah, its hard. The ropes were just around their cannon or above their hock, preferably one on a front leg and one on a hind, but generally you just try to get whereever you can reach without getting hurt! If they will lay still you can rock them a bit to try and create momentum to get them over, but they are thrashing you really just have to heave ho in one quick motion staying way from the legs as best you can. Definately not a science or very fun.

[jennywho]

It is very dangerous although sometimes necessary to roll a cast horse. Before you go that route try getting a halter on the horse and pulling it around enough that it can get unstuck. It's hard to describe, but a lot of times just repositioning their neck is all they need to get back up. I have also pulled their hind around by pulling on their tail. You can pull pretty darn hard without hurting the horse so don't worry about that. If you do have to roll them, loop the ropes (lunge lines work best) around their fetlocks and make sure you have a good escape route. I haven't had to roll a horse since learning to reposition their head however.

Glad everybody got out of it okay.

[asmo]

If you can, when the horse is just laying down normal, see how close you can get, and if they let you touch them and stuff, every time they lay down touch them, crawl on them (not all your weight, just some) and then if they do get cast like that (had a few myself) it is REALLY easy to roll them. Chance got cast at a show once and i sleep with him when he lays down so it was really easy to get in and roll him. I did it on my own because no one was around to help, but he is such a "doi" horse that he just laid there and was like whatever mom, ok. He pushed off the wall when I pulled, so he helped me, quite funny to watch actually.

[cardicorgi]

I'd wondered about repositioning the neck - thanks for that tip, too.

What it means to have to help a cast horse never really entered my mind before this - they were the helpful tip articles I never read in the Horse.

This mare had wedged her head so that it was in the frame of the stall door; her poll was lodged behind the frame, so that she couldn't really move it unless she curled her neck laterally. When she did one minor thrash (and I saw this coming a mile away) she knocked her eye on the edge of the frame. I think she got so pissed off that she flailed correctly, and that was when she got up.

When I'd called my own trainer, she laughed at me and said "90% of the time they resolve it themselves."

[rachelle]

I've never had a cast horse. I've had plenty get stuck in bushes or fences though. My daughters pony filly is so used to getting stuck (blackberries wrapped around her or she'll try to climb through a fence) that now when she gets stuck, she just stands there and waits for us to find her and get her loose again. She got spooked by a coyote once and took a flying leap into a blackberry patch. You couldn't see her, the blackberries were just neighing at us. I took a while to cut her out and she just stood there the whole time waiting.

It'd be so nice if they were all so calm, especially if they had gotten themselves cast...

[huskiesnhorses]

Sounds like a name for a band - The Neighing Blackberries. Too funny!

I have "uncast" probably around 10 horses or so in my short paid horse career and was able to loop a rope around the hind fetlock and flip them by myself each time with little trouble except for one - who was so large and again - poll stuck in the corner of doorway - I had to really do some sneaking around to loop him and it took 2 of us pulling from out in the hallway to flip him.
I wish I had heard of the move the head/neck thing back then- I certainly would always prefer for them to get themselves out of that mess.