You won’t believe what this filly got stuck around her leg…
A filly has had a stirrup removed from her leg under general anesthetic following a riding accident in Victoria, Australia.
The chestnut youngster was being exercised when her rider fell off and the saddle slipped back.
The horse then trod into the stirrup with her offside hind leg, snapping the stirrup leather and wedging the iron onto her leg.
Vets from Barwon Equine Hospital worked to free the iron from the filly’s leg alongside the emergency services.
“All the vets here have seen some unique injuries in their careers and this truly was another one of those ‘just how did they manage that‘ scenarios,” wrote a spokesman on the Barwon Equine Hospital’s Facebook page last Tuesday (May 5).
“As you can see from the photos, the emergency services were called in by track staff as a precaution. Thankfully, however, the stirrup iron was able to be removed intact from the leg while the filly was under a brief general anesthetic.”
The spokesman explained the stirrup was stuck above the filly’s hock and would have been difficult to remove while the distressed horse was fully conscious.
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“The decision to remove the stirrup iron intact and under general anesthesia was made for several reasons.
“The filly was understandably fractious and the anesthetic allowed a full and thorough examination of all her injuries in a safe manner.
“In addition, to cut the stirrup iron would have exposed sharp metal edges capable of inflicting further injury.
“By being patient and waiting until the horse was recumbent under the anesthetic, manipulating the iron off the hock then became a relatively simple task.”
The filly suffered minor injuries from the accident and has since returned to work.
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Rachael joined Horse & Hound in 2014, initially as a digital sub editor then became part of the news team as a writer in 2015. The philosophy graduate studied journalism at the Press Association before working as a local reporter at the Brentwood Gazette. Rachael is now a mum of two and still loves all things equestrian, including hacking, dressage and jumping with her cob Bert. Rachael left the H&H staff to go freelance in June 2019, but still contributes to our magazine and website, as well as our sister magazine Country Life, among others.