Foal Rancher has made an incredible recovery after fracturing his leg
Suffolk Punch Foal Is Jumping For Joy After Recovering From A Broken Leg
3 years ago 
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A RARE Suffolk Punch foal is frolicking in his field again just weeks after breaking his leg, thanks to the skill of the veterinary team at Liphook Equine Hospital.
Rancher was only two weeks old when he fractured the cannon bone in his left foreleg while out in the paddock with his mum, Montana.
Limb fractures of this severity are often fatal in horses, but surgeons at Liphook Equine Hospital were able to repair the damaged limb, and now Rancher is cantering around on a leg that contains two metal plates and 20 screws.
Surgery was the foal’s only chance of survival and his owners, Eugenie and Randy Hiscock, had no hesitation in travelling him 80 miles from their home near Shaftesbury, Dorset, to Liphook in Hampshire.
Liphook vet Russell Parker, an RCVS and European specialist in equine surgery, operated on Rancher and said that despite his injury being very serious, he had a fighting chance due to his size and age.
Russell said: “Rancher’s fracture wasn’t straightforward because the leg was broken in more than two places and the bones were displaced, but foals are relatively light and their bones heal more quickly than adult horses, making fracture repair an option. It also helped that there was no wound associated with the injury.
“The operation took 2.5 hours and involved using metal plates and screws to realign and fix the broken bones. The modern implants we use today help us create a more stable repair because the screws lock into the plates as well as the bone.”
Russell explained that although the operation was a success, Rancher wasn’t out of the woods straightaway, as there is always a risk of complications following this type of surgery.
He said: “Our first challenge was to make sure that Rancher got safely to his feet as he came around from the anaesthetic, and we gave him a helping hand to avoid him accidentally damaging the repair.
“Also, there is a risk of the incision getting infected or the implants breaking, but Rancher made excellent progress over the next few days. In fact, he felt so well in himself, he became very boisterous in the stable, but luckily his mum did a great job of keeping him calm.”
After three weeks in the care of Liphook, Rancher was able to return home to Dorset, where he spent another six weeks on box rest inside a barn at Mr and Mrs Hiscock’s farm to give the leg time to heal.
Then, at the beginning of June, he was able to go back out in the field again and a thrilled Mrs Hiscock said it has been wonderful watching him enjoying the sunshine.
She said: “We can’t thank Russell and the team at Liphook enough for saving Rancher and giving him the best care possible. As well as the Suffolk Punch being an extremely rare breed of horse that needs its numbers boosting, Rancher was the first foal we had bred in four years, so he is very special to us. He is such a lovely, bonny foal and it would have been devastating to lose him.”
Mrs Hiscock said Rancher was born on 7 March and, apart from being three weeks late, had a text-book birth. She has no idea what caused the leg injury, which happened while Rancher and Montana were patiently waiting to come in from the field.
“She said: “We caught and led in the other horses first, and only left Rancher and Montana for a few minutes, but as soon as we got back to the paddock, I could tell something was terribly wrong. The lower half of Rancher’s leg was swinging, and it was absolutely horrific. I can only imagine that he twisted round suddenly causing the leg to snap, but it has left us all puzzled.
“We were straight on the phone to our vet and I stood with Rancher while we waited for them to arrive. I felt so sick because a broken leg is never a good thing in horses.”
A vet from Damory Equine Clinic in Blandford Forum attended immediately and encased the leg a plaster cast, but a follow-up X-ray showed that the fracture wasn’t healing, which was when the Hiscocks decided to make the two-hour life-saving journey to Liphook.
The couple, who run Donhead Hall Stud, own 12 adult Suffolk Punches, plus four other foals who arrived this spring. The breed is said to be extremely rare and there are only around 500 purebred Suffolk horses in the UK.
They use some of the horses to work on the farm, including feeding the cattle and chain harrowing and rolling the feeds, and take part in shows and displays. They also have a team of mares that pull the Badger Brewery dray.
Rancher’s grandfather was Suffolk stallion Garretland’s Golden Eagle, who was imported from North America when he was six months old, and all but two of the Hiscock’s horses share his bloodlines.
Mrs Hiscock added: “We may keep Rancher entire so he can breed his own foals in the future, or he could be used as a driving horse. On the day his accident happened I really thought we were going to lose him, so it is lovely to think that he has an exciting future ahead of him.”
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