Helping Older Horses Get Up

I have an older horse that sometimes lies down and has trouble getting up. What rescue equipment can be used to help?
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Q: I have an older horse that sometimes lies down and has trouble getting up. My vet thinks it is advanced arthritis in his stifles. Do you have any rescue equipment that you have used to lift a horse up? Thank you for the compassionate work you do with horses.

Sharon Loucks

A: There are several pieces of emergency rescue equipment that can be adapted to assist an older or arthritic horse in getting up. It depends a bit on where the horse gets down. I am assuming the horse is kept in a pasture situation so that he is able to move around as he wishes instead of getting stocked up in a stall.

Horses of all ages sometimes get down in a strange place in a pasture where they essentially get “turtled” and cannot roll over far enough to get up. This is called getting cast. It can be easily solved by looping a soft cotton rope over the downed side rear pastern and pulling the rope over the horse’s back and towards the head (about a 45 degree angle to the body) until the whole horse rolls over

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