Firefighters Remove Trapped Horse Shoe

[Sunlei]

Denver, North Carolina – Firefighters were called to help remove a horseshoe that had become stuck on a horse’s hoof. The fire department received a call from owner Lyn Caldwell, asking for a large pair of bolt cutters.

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“We figured out quickly that the bolt cutters weren’t going to touch that horseshoe so we called for the heavy rescue truck,” Denver Fire Department Chief James Flynn told reporters. “We just revert back to our technical rescue training in dealing with humans and try to apply the situation to the horse.” Using a special tool used to extract people from car accidents, the shoe was cut and removed.


?resize=640%2C480 by By Dale Williams June 29, 2017

The horse, named Jitterbug, was suffering from a lot of pain and was rushed to the vet hospital. “He’s in a lot of pain and very uncomfortable at the time. Possible surgery tomorrow if things don’t change for the better. Long road ahead of him that’s for sure. He has a lot going on. All we can do is pray,” Jitterbug’s owner said in a Facebook post.
http://newsofthehorse.com/2017/firefighters-remove-trapped-horse-shoe/

Firefighters are Heros for Animals!

[procon]

1. A farrier would have been my first call. nt

[csziggy]

2. I'm not sure a farrier would have been able to get it off

That was a strange position - I can't even imagine how the horse got that shoe lodged where it was. But if it was wedged on really tight then there was swelling as it looks like there would be from the fetlock, a farrier might not be able to remove it.

Plus, here farriers are getting few and far between. One of the farriers I used for twenty years died a few months back. The one I have been using was scheduled a few weeks ago but his back went out and he is still not able to work. The young man who he was hoping would take over decided it was not for him after he'd attended farrier school and worked at it for a couple of years.

We're still hunting for a farrier just to trim my mares. Some people here use a farrier from out of town that only come to the area every six weeks. If they have an emergency or their horse throws a show, they are out of luck.

[Sunlei]

3. looks like somehow she clipped the front shoe with the rear hoof. Horses have weird accidents!

Looks like fairly new shoe on injured hoof. I bet she felt a lot better once the pressure was off.

I had the same problem finding a farrier here in close SW Houston. Only a couple stables left close in to Houston. (under 50 miles) Hard to find good hay here as well. I only have one horse and she has free feed hay, will eat about 10-20lbs a day depending on my pasture grass & season.

I don't feed any grain to her and shes always been barefoot with good hooves- thank God.

[csziggy]

4. Yeah - horses are smart enough to get into trouble

And not smart enough to stay out of it! I had one who would stand at the fence and carefully work the wire under the heel of her shoe, then yank the shoe off. She only did that if we were at the barn working with other horses - she wanted more attention!

We used to have plenty of farriers around here but they are aging out of the profession and can't find young people to take it up. The young man I knew loved the work but couldn't make enough compared to other fields. He's now in training to be a Master Mechanic - after only one year he is making several times as much as he did as a farrier.

Here the weather is keeping hay scarce. Either it rains so much that they can't cure the hay or we have droughts so the grass doesn't grow. We can't win! My girls (two retired broodmares and two pasture ornaments) are barefoot, too. They get just enough grain to make sure they have trace minerals and all the grass and hay they want - when the grass grows.

[Bantamfancier]

5. Oh good grief.

About 5 minutes with a hacksaw.
Or, depending on the nature of the horse, 30 seconds with an angle grinder.
When you've got their rear leg resting on your thigh, they can't kick ya.

[gopiscrap]

6. welcome to du