A “lucky” event horse escaped catastrophic injury when she impaled a hind hoof on a front horseshoe in a freak accident.
Pippa Dixon’s head girl Blossom found Pippa’s six-year-old mare Woo Hoo, known as Molly, injured in her field last Thursday lunchtime (14 April).
“Blossom phoned me and said Molly had got her shoe stuck in her foot. We grabbed some farrier tools thinking she had probably pulled or twisted it, but when we got down to the field I realised it had gone into her leg above her coronet band and into her frog,” Pippa told H&H.
“When I saw her all the worst thoughts were going through my head. I was thinking it had gone through ligaments or fractured her pedal bone and it was going to be the end of her career. I was trying to prepare myself for the worst-case scenario”
Vet Charlotte Ingham and vet nurse Maggie Chapman attended from Tyrells Equine Clinic.
“Whichever way we tried to pull the shoe it was pushing in further at the other end and I was thinking we were going to have to get the fire brigade to come and cut it in half. But luckily another vet at the practice had an angle grinder so we had to run metres of extension cord down to the field and the shoe was cut and removed,” said Pippa.
“Molly had been given a bit of sedation but she was absolutely rock solid and completely unfazed by all the smoke and sparks going on around her”.
Molly was taken to Rossdales for an MRI scan and had the joint tapped but has escaped serious injury. She will have six weeks’ rest and can then resume exercise in walk.
“The shoe had gone in a couple of inches but it went into the most perfect place, in that it missed everything. I could have cried with relief,” said Pippa.
“The vets have been amazing, especially Charlotte and Maggie who dealt with a very stressful situation brilliantly.
“No one knows how she did it; whether she rolled and pulled it off or whether she was galloping along and pinged it off and it went into her leg. To start with I felt awful thinking maybe someone else had pulled a shoe and it had been missed in the field, but it was her own shoe and was just one of those freak things,” said Pippa.
Molly had been due to step up to novice level at Horseheath this weekend and was being aimed at the six-year-old championship at Osberton later in the year.
“It’s absolutely gutting she’ll miss the championships, but looking at the bigger picture she’s been very lucky,” says Pippa.
“She’s a very talented mare and I’ve got very high hopes for her so I hope she’ll come back fighting fit and raring to go. One day when she wins Burghley this will all just be a little part of her story.”
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