Racehorse Rescue is the first story from the twenty-second episode of Season 4, which aired on March 23, 1993 on CBS. It airs in syndication on Episode 271S: Racehorse Rescue; Softball Slugger Save.
Story[]
On January 27, 1992, horse trainer Pat Mahoney was transporting racehorse Setting Limits and a colt named ML Pursuit to a farm for the winter. The ground in Chesterland, Ohio, was covered with light snow as he traveled down the highway in his pickup truck pulling the two-horse trailer.
As Mahoney drove, the horses shifted their weight enough to throw the trailer off balance. Mike and Susan Flores, who were driving behind him, saw the truck and trailer start to weave and were afraid an accident was about to occur. A second later, he lost control, and the truck and trailer spun in a circle across lanes of traffic. As they came to a stop on the highway, the trailer broke loose from the truck and flipped over on its side.
The Floreses stopped and ran to the trailer where the panicked racehorses were trapped inside. Setting Limits was pinned under ML Pursuit, and she was bleeding from his kicking in an effort to free herself. Mahoney didn't know what to do. He was afraid to let them loose on the highway, but he worried that if left inside, Setting Limits would be further injured. Suddenly, ML Pursuit broke free and galloped down the highway's median, but fortunately, he was caught one mile away.
Rescue units from the Independence Police and Fire Departments responded to the scene, including paramedic Frank Kruzewski. Rescuers had the equipment to cut the trailer in half, but they didn't know what they would do with Setting Limits if she was released. Although she was obviously hurting herself in her struggle to gain freedom, they decided to wait until veterinarian Dan Wilson arrived. Mahoney was most concerned about her bleeding legs. "All the kicking in the trailer could have done extensive damage," he said. "They can kick a board and end a career."
Dr. Wilson arrived twenty minutes later. "A horse's first instinct is to run," he said, "and when they can't they panic. A lot of well-meaning people have been killed by horses in a panic situation." As firefighters cut through the metal bar that was trapping Setting Limits inside the trailer, she collapsed from exhaustion. Dr. Wilson had to get her out quickly to see if he could save her. She was in shock, had lost a great deal of blood, and had a severed artery above her left eye. Mahoney knew she would never race again, but hoped she'd just pull through.
Dr. Wilson didn't want to risk moving Setting Limits because she was in shock, so he got to work on the scene. Kruzewski was amazed to watch him perform surgery under such conditions―kneeling on the snow-covered ground in bitter cold to suture her severed artery. His assistant inserted an IV in her neck. "The vet told me, 'Just hold pressure and push it in as fast as you can,'" Kruzewski recalls. "We're not used to pushing so much fluid into a person. They just don't teach us veterinarian medicine in paramedic school."
After he finished the operation, Dr. Wilson held Setting Limits on the ground. Unexpectedly, she sprang to her feet, a sign that she was feeling healthy and strong. "She just kind of pitched me around like a peanut," he recalls. "Once she stood up, she never looked back."
Mahoney was beginning to think there might be a happy ending to the incident. And there was. Setting Limits and ML Pursuit shocked everybody by walking straight into a new trailer without a moment's hesitation. "The paramedics and firemen who were there were absolutely great," said Dr. Wilson. "They're the ones who really deserve the credit for saving this filly and colt."
Setting Limits' owner, Shirley Girten, knew her racing future was uncertain when rehabilitation began. Despite all odds, eight months after the accident, she returned to the track and won her race. Today, she has retired from racing to have babies. "She went out in style," said Shirley. "She went out winning just as happy as the day she came in. She's going to have babies, well-deserved babies, I hope, that shall be the runners and carry the heart and stamina that she did."
In other media[]
"Racehorse Rescue" is one of the 81 stories featured in the book Rescue 911: Extraordinary Stories by Linda Maron.
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