Is she scratching? Is she stuck? An owner had a bit of a shock last week when she went to feed her horse, only to find the animal firmly wedged between two trees.
Ashley Kavanagh from Caerphilly, near Cardiff, in South Wales, found her horse Holly last Tuesday (27 January) unable to move due to her predicament.
“I went up to the yard and saw her in the field next to the trees,” Ashley told H&H.
“I thought she was just having a scratch against the trees, but when I first saw her, but then I realised she was totally stuck. I have no idea how she managed to get herself into that position.”
Ashley and seven of her friends then set to work, trying to free the trapped nine-year-old Welsh Section D.
“Luckily it wasn’t so bad that we needed the fire service or a vet, so we just started pushing her out,” added Ashley.
“There were five of us at the back and three at the front guiding her with a headcollar. We were pushing and pushing. We couldn’t reverse as her shoulders were stuck so we had to move her forwards.”
Ashley, who hacks and hunts Holly, was more concerned than her trusty steed however, who seemed unfazed by the incident.
Ashley, on the otherhand, passed out from the shock of seeing her stuck horse.
“I passed out and landed face down in the mud,” she said. “I was absolutely covered in it, it was very stressful, but she was fine. She was very calm and wasn’t panicking at all, which made getting her out a lot easier.”
* H&H recommends calling a vet and the rescue services if there is any cause for concern for the health or safety of either horse or human during an incident involving a trapped horse