Buddy's Next Big Adventure

When we last visited Buddy, the Belgian, he was standing on all four feet in the pasture, eating away at his hay, recovering nicely from his encounter in the marshy bog (January 2004 Equine Medical Service newsletter). Then in mid January, there came yet another emergency call from Donna Christiansen, Buddy was down again! Donna thought maybe he went through the ice in an irrigation ditch. My first thought was, "Poor Buddy, not again!" I called the office to let Nancy know where I was going, but unfortunately, she thought I was joking . And why wouldn't she think I was joking? After all, how many times can one horse get into a predicament like this? After much convincing, she finally realized that I was serious - that Buddy was indeed in trouble and I was on my way to see what I could do. Knowing that most irrigation ditches are not very deep, I thought, "How bad can this be?" Then, I remembered that this was Buddy we were talking about.

When I arrived, Donna took me back into the pasture along an embankment next to a large irrigation canal. The canal was 15-20 feet wide and had 7-8 feet high steep banks. Earlier in the week, the canal had some water flowing through it, but with freezing night temperatures and cold days, a strong sheet of ice had formed. There lay Buddy, on a thick sheet of ice, close to the bank where we stood. It looked as if Buddy had stumbled and fell down the steep bank and was now lying on his right side. Unfortunately, this was also the side with the arthritic knee. We were in need of a good plan to get Buddy on his feet and out of the canal. Mike, Donna's husband, joined us and we developed the plan to roll Buddy over onto his other side and see if he could get up. After a lot of slipping and sliding, we were only getting him further into the middle of the canal. We realized it was time for "Plan B". We thought it might be possible to slide Buddy 300-400 feet down the canal to a low spot on the bank, and see if we could get him to walk out of the canal. When we had pulled Buddy some 10-15 feet down the ice, out from the middle of the canal and to the jagged and steep bank, we knew we needed a different plan.

In the meantime, Donna sought the help of the Larimer County Search and Rescue. They were already familiar with Buddy, as Donna had talked with them earlier about the prior incident. The members of Search and Rescue told Donna that they had rescued a couple of horses recently in similar dilemmas as Buddy's. They were willing to come out and help with Buddy in this new predicament. Also, Dr. Altman arrived and agreed that more was going to be needed to get Buddy out of the canal. Search and Rescue members began to arrive and we contemplated the idea of lifting Buddy off of the ice. First, we needed some sort of machinery with an extendable boom that could lift 1500 to 2000 pounds straight up and then rotate Buddy over and place him onto dry ground.

Next, we needed some sort of harness to put on Buddy to safely attach him to the machinery to lift him up. Phone calls started going out to find the two items we needed to save Buddy.

Time was becoming critical, because the longer Buddy lay on his side, the more muscle damage would occur. As the ice began to melt under him, the colder he would get, creating a tremendous opportunity for hypothermia to set in. This would create the potential for severe muscle damage and frostbite. We started to cover Buddy with horse blankets and began massaging his shoulders and legs to help with circulation.

Within minutes, we had a sling from Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, especially made to lift and hold horses up during rescues such as this. Front Range Excavating was sending a backhoe with an extendable boom. When all the necessary equipment had arrived, Buddy was rolled over into the sling, sedated and blindfolded, and then lifted out of his personal ice arena onto solid ground. After touch down, Buddy was un-strapped and walked back to his paddock where he was examined and treated for minor problems. Once again, a successful rescue was achieved. Many thanks go out to all who volunteered their time and resources to help "Buddy".

Serving the Equine Athlete
In the Northern Colorado Front Range Area

Spring 2004 Newsletter