Two horses can thank Cherokee County fire and emergency services officials for helping them get back on their hooves.
Cherokee officials and the Large Animal Rescue Team answered back-to-back calls about horses down Wednesday morning, Cherokee fire spokesman Tim Cavender said. One horse was down for 20 hours before being brought up and taken to a veterinarian.
In the first incident, officials got a call about 7:30 a.m. about a horse being down on Ranchwood Trail in Woodstock. Cavender said officials “were able to place straps underneath the animal and raise him back up.”
It’s not known how the animal fell, but Cavender said there could be many reasons. The county has had 26 calls about horses falling this year, he said.
“Sometimes it can be a slip and fall or they have a sickness and have medical problems,” he said. “Some fall in holes. It happens a lot in the summer.”
Sickness may have been the reason another horse went down. Crews answered a call about 9 a.m. on Russell King Lane off Highway 140.
A brown quarter horse had been lying on the ground for about 20 hours and had just given birth, Cavender said. The owner saw the animal down Tuesday night but thought it’d get up on its own.
Crews used an A-frame to lift the animal.
“Once they were able to get the horse up, they gave it some time to regain its strength,” Cavender said.
But right as the horse was led to the barn, it fell again. She is unable to walk on her own at this time, Cavender said. The horse was placed on a tarp and put in a barn, where a veterinarian was monitoring her.
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