I had just flopped onto my couch, remote in hand. Sunny, one of my teenage daughters, breezed through the front door, phone against her ear, and gave the door a careless slam. The windows rattled, and I raised my head.
“I think one of my teenagers must have just walked in,” I said to my daughter’s back as she disappeared down the hall. The door to her room slammed shut.
“Hi, Sunny!” I said to no one, then started my movie.
I was happily munching my popcorn when my daughter reappeared and flopped onto the couch next to me. She was now wearing her favorite huge pajamas and hoodie, and she snatched a handful of my popcorn.
“Whatcha watching, Mom?”
Interrupted
I started to answer, but my phone rang. It was one of my good friends, but I wanted to watch my movie, and debated letting it go to voicemail. My daughter snatched the phone from my hand and gave me an evil smile.
“Hey, Annie. Yes, she’s right here—hold on!”
I sighed and took the phone, but the panic in my friend’s voice got me off the couch, fast. I was half dressed before she’d finished telling me what was going on, and my daughter watched me run back and forth, grabbing my muck boots, coat, hat, headlamp, and vet bag.
“Mom, what’s going on?”
“Annie’s watching Libby’s horses, and one is down. I’ve got to go help her.” Libby was also a good friend, and she’d given my daughters riding lessons since they were small.
To my surprise, Sunny leaped off the couch and pulled on her muck boots and Carhartt coat. “I’m going with you!”
This was nice. Sunny didn’t come on calls with me very often, and I pointed at her pajamas, bagging over the tops of her boots.
“You might want your coveralls, kiddo.” Sunny shrugged, and followed me out to the truck, and we roared out of the driveway, headlights slicing into the dark night.
Down for the Count
We scanned the field as we pulled up to Libby’s place, and a dark figure waved a flashlight at us frantically. I parked as close as I could, and we ducked through the wire fence and hurried over to a small group of people huddled around a dark shape on the ground.
It was Libby’s favorite mare, Annabelle, and her head moved weakly as I approached. Her eyes were wide as she struggled desperately for a minute, then lay still.
I rapidly checked her vitals and gum color and listened to her belly, but everything seemed normal. I noticed some bloody tissue under her tail when I took her temperature, and the muddy ground was torn up around her.
We were on a gently sloping hill, and Annabelle’s body lay slightly downhill from her legs. I suspected that she was cast (unable to get to her feet). When a horse is in the same position for too long, the weight of their body can injure muscles and they can become paralyzed in one or more limbs.
There was no way to know how long the mare had been stuck like this, but the blood under her tail told me that the magpies had been pecking at her, so it had probably been quite a while. Would we even be able to get her back up?
Annie and the others had brought several long ropes, and I tied slip knots around both of the mare’s down legs. Sunny was darting around us, anxious to help, and she held the light for me as I secured the ropes.
“Now Sunny, I want you to stay far away from Annabelle when we flip her over!” I said sternly. “She may thrash and struggle, and I don’t want you getting hurt.”
Sunny nodded and I chuckled at her billowing pajamas and tall boots.
“You look like a pirate,” I told her. She grinned at me and saluted, then ducked out of the way as I called to the others holding the ropes.
We stood in a line just downhill of Annabelle. “One! Two! And THREE!”
A Big Scare
We all heaved as hard as we could. Annabelle slowly rocked onto her back, then rolled completely over. We scrambled back as she lunged to her feet, staggered, began to fall, and briefly caught herself, shaking the ropes free.
Annabelle rocked violently in place, then tumbled forward, lurching rapidly down a steeper section of the hill. To my dismay, Sunny was directly below her, running for dear life in her flapping pajamas and coat, knees almost to her chest as the mare plunged and scrambled and staggered barely 3 inches behind her.
The scene seemed to go on forever. Annie and I watched helplessly as the figures careened wildly down the hill.
Sunny finally had the presence of mind to duck behind a thick bush, and mercifully Annabelle came to a stop above her. The mare wobbled in place but stayed on her feet. I made sure Sunny was OK, then haltered the mare and coaxed her up the hill. Annie coaxed a shaken Sunny along behind us.
Annabelle and Sunny both recovered quickly, and the mare took some hay from my daughter’s hands after drinking half a bucket of water. Sunny helped rub Annabelle down with a thick, soft towel.
Sweet Relief
On the drive home, I kept picturing Sunny fleeing through the dark in her huge pajamas with the horse right behind her, and I laughed until my sides cramped.
“Nice, Mom,” Sunny said indignantly. “I almost die, and you’re laughing about it?”
I gave her a one-armed hug. “I’m very glad you’re OK, sweetie. Maybe next time, run across the hill, not down it?”
She glared at me.
“Maybe next time, tell me that before the horse gets up!”
This edition of Vet Adventures appeared in the March 2024 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!
