Another Horse Rescue

This story comes to us from Willis Lamm with LRTC/Wild Horse Mentors, who worked with the Nevada Animal Emergency Network to rescue this horse. The scene on arrival. All four legs in the cattle guard. A citizen familiar with horses placed a jacket over the stallion's head to help keep him quiet while we were caching out gear nearby. Using pry bars to free the hooves. Typically, one bar would be used to turn the hoof so it pointed downward (providing a narrower aspect to squeeze through the grate) while the other bar leveraged against a plate under the cattle guard grate and pushed the hoof up. Two legs out. Sliding a slip sheet under to keep them from dropping through again. Tying the slip sheet to the cattle guard so the horse can't accidentally kick it out of the way. The horse was rolled slightly using the recovery strap to help take the load off his legs. Setting up a Z-rig attached to the tip of the cattle guard end frame. We had to use a Becker Sling and 3:1 Z-rig to roll the horse over to free the legs on his left side. Rolling the horse over and preparing to free his other legs. The foreleg looks bad but the real challenge involved the hind which was jammed between the top metal strap and a T-plate under the grate. It was wedged tight. We tried re-positioning the horse to get a better angle but our range of motion was limited. The horse would occasionally nibble on hay which seemed to help keep him calm. Nonetheless he would occasionally fuss and struggle. A hail Mary effort. To see if the Hurst jaws would break the welds and give us that one inch of space we needed. Good effort but the tool didn't budge the grate. Things got a bit busy for pictures at this point. We decided to get the front leg free first. The risk was that the horse might try to get up and snap his hind leg. we maintained control of the front legs with webbing and finally were able to reposition the horse just enough to pry his hind hoof free. A bit roughed up but free. We dragged him clear of the grate, released the Becker sling strap, then methodically released each foreleg, head control and jacket that was used as a blinder. After about a minute the horse simply got up... ... And he trotted away to join the other range horses. Big thanks to North Lyon County and Central Lyon County fire crews who came to assist and provided cool, clear-headed assistance with a type of call that isn't that common for them. (The call was near the border of both districts and they didn't worry about whose area of responsibility it was. These guys just get the job done.)