‘He was like a war horse’: stallion suspended on tree for days makes miraculous recovery

The owner of a stallion who spent days hanging from a tree with all four feet off the ground has paid tribute to her vets – and the temperament of her horse.

Suzanne Kemp’s Bullhill Major suffered extensive wounds from the pressure of being stuck over the branch of a fallen beech in the New Forest last June. Seven months on, Suzanne told H&H, there is barely any sign of an issue.

Suzanne explained that as a stallion who had been licensed by the New Forest pony society, Major was out in the forest last summer. As the ponies are free to roam, they are not necessarily seen by their owners every day, although there is a network of people keeping an eye on them. So when it was noticed in June that Major had not been seen for a couple of hot days, Suzanne thought he may have gone deeper into the forest, where it was cooler.

But on 4 June, when Suzanne was planning to look for Major, she had a call from a forest agister.

“A couple of girls riding had found him – it was a traumatic find for them,” Suzanne said.

“He was like a war horse, draped over the tree. They wondered what he was doing, went for a closer look and the poor boy was stuck, all four feet off the ground.”

Suzanne said she can only imagine that Major was trying to mount a mare who had gone under the branch.

“A couple of commoning friends had been called; they took a chainsaw to cut the tree and got him off,” Suzanne said. “Initially he managed to trot away, which is amazing; we think he had been there for three days.”

Major had some abrasions that did not look too serious but Suzanne took him straight to Seadown Vets to be checked.

Seadown clinical director and equine vet Laura Trigg said: “Major is well known to the practice; we knew him as a foal and vetted him for his New Forest stallion licensing; he has always been a firm favourite at the practice.

“He presented at our clinic having been cut out of a tree branch where he had been caught up for at least two or three days. Being a stoical New Forest pony, he perhaps didn’t appear to be as sick as he was.”

Vet Karolina Kalka took bloods and realised Major was suffering from severe dehydration. But also, having been effectively hung from the branch for a significant period of time, he had serious pressure wounds in his abdominal area.

The vets realised the benign-looking wounds were deeper and more serious than they appeared; the skin was dead and dying, which carried the risk of life-threatening septicaemia.

Warning, graphic image.

Major was put on IV fluids, antibiotics and pain relief and started to recover but the dead skin started to slough off, so when he was discharged four days later, it was with an “armful of medication and wound dressings”, to be cared for at home with frequent visits from the vets.

“A couple of my friends work in the NHS with pressure wounds and they were very interested,” Suzanne said. “They said it’s so typical, that the wound looks like nothing but as the tissue dies, the whole area just drops away; you could have put your hand into it like a glove.

“It was horrible but he was incredibly good to treat; he never once needed sedation or put his ears back or lifted a leg when I was cleaning it.”

Suzanne said that other than the antibiotics and pain relief early on, Major had very little medical treatment; the healing was supported by frequent cleaning, vet visits and application of manuka honey and aloe vera.

“I have to say I’ve found it fascinating, how it’s healed,” Suzanne said. “I’ve shown a few people pictures of how it was and they’ve been bowled over by how well it’s healed. I think it does give people hope that serious wounds can mend, given time. Time, and consistency in how you treat them, and do as the vet says! The main thing is to give people hope, and I think it shows the resilience of the ponies.

By November, the wound had nearly healed

‘I’ve got no qualms about putting him back out; he so enjoys it and he’s a perfect gentleman. He just loves it out there, and what could be better for them?”

A spokesman for Seadown added: “As Major was otherwise a fit and healthy pony, the regeneration of his skin tissue has been remarkably quick and once completely healed, we think he will be left with a small scar near his sheath which should barely be visible.

“This case has been a testament firstly to Major and his fabulous temperament, his dedicated owner Suzanne and the team effort from the vets and nurses at Seadown Equine who have painstakingly managed Major’s wounds and helped achieve such a successful outcome.”

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