Bwana: The story of an amazing escape by Miriam Kleiner

Bwana: the story of an amazing escape

I am the proud owner of a bay Thoroughbred gelding who stands at about 15.3 hh and is 28 years old. His name is Bwana or “Back in Style”. Bwana has had an interesting, varied and eventful life - at the age of 4, he broke his leg on the race track and rather then being put down, his owner had the leg pinned and retrained Bwana before selling him on. Bwana then went through a string of owners doing hacking, dressage and even vaulting before unfortunately suffering at the hands of some individuals who had been entrusted with his care. I bought him shortly after that, from a lovely woman called Leanne. I continued to agist Bwana with Leanne and Bwana then saw me through many years of hacking, dressage and pony club until being forced to retire due to a stroke at the age of 20. Since then, Bwana lived a happy and uneventful retired life until Thursday 3 June 2010 when I think I received one of the worse calls the owner of a horse can get.

The call I received was from Leanne, the woman who I agist Bwana with. She was calling to tell me that Bwana had an accident. She had arrived a the paddock at approximately 3pm on that Thursday and could not see Bwana. This was strange because as soon as any car pulled up to the paddock there Bwana was, licking his lips and sure in the knowledge that he would soon receive dinner. Leanne had walked down to Bwana’s paddock and as she got closer saw what appeared to be four hooves and a muzzle sticking out of the creek that bordered the paddock. It appeared that Bwana had been rolling (one of his favourite past times) and had rolled himself into the creek. The creek was, and is, very narrow - not so narrow that Bwana couldn’t fall in, but too narrow for Bwana to get himself out.

At any time this would have been a bad situation to find your horse in. This situation was even worse considering that we had just had the wettest month in Sydney for a long time. As such, the creek was full. In falling into the creek, Bwana had also blocked the drainage system. The water had nowhere to go except up. When Leanne found Bwana, he was entirely submerged in the creek with only his nostrils above the water line.

Leanne, without thinking about her own safety, jumped into the creek to hold Bwana’s head out of the water. She called for assistance from everyone who could come and her entire family appeared in the next half hour, as well as 3 members of the Sydney trucking community. Leanne’s daughter’s boyfriend, Lee, jumped in the water with Leanne to help her hold Bwana’s head out of the water. Leanne’s daughter, son and partner started to dig a relief trench to move the water away from Bwana’s head. They did not know how long Bwana had been in the water for but he was exhibiting signs of extreme exhaustion. His rug, which was water proof, had absorbed a lot of water from the creek which made it impossible for him to move. He wasn’t thrashing or fighting and a few times closed his eyes and appeared to stop breathing. After awhile, Bwana started to groan and take shallow rattly breaths. In a horse of 28 years, with a previous history of a stroke, everyone thought the worst was upon them.

Finally, after about an hour, the relief trench was dug and the bank had been dug away enough for people to start trying to move Bwana. People entered the creek and started to lever Bwana up from underneath his shoulder. Fortunately, they were able to get him up and out of the creek. When Bwana got to his feet, he started to shake violently. Leanne’s entire family rubbed him down with towels, rugged and walked him around until the vet came.

On an initial consultation, the vet was actually of the opinion that he could stay in the paddock as he surprisingly appeared to have sustained no injury. However, given his age and the potential for hypothermia or late onset shock, it was suggested that he be taken to Randwick Equine Centre for a full check up and observation.

I met the bedraggled party at the Equine Centre after having run out of work like a maniac. I was surprised to find Bwana calmly eating some hay and attempting to rub himself against the vet who was conducting a check up on him. The vet checked him again and then with some surprise announced that all his vital signs were normal to the extent that he was not even exhibiting a raised heart beat as a sign of shock. There was some irregular lung sound however, and so, Bwana stayed overnight. The next day, his lung sound was perfectly normal. He wasn’t stiff or sore.

On Saturday morning, Leanne brought him home - to a paddock without a creek. On all accounts, he came off the float like a stallion - thick necked, tail high, breathing heavily and whinnying at the mares. On being released into his paddock he trotted around in a state of high excitement until settling down to graze.

The vets are still incredibly surprised at how well he did and how well he is doing. He fell into a full creek and survived without even a scratch to show for it. I think the humans involved have fared a lot worse from this accident.

I thank the wonderful staff of Randwick Equine Centre who cared for my “wonder horse” during his stay. But it was Leanne, her partner Cleve, children Cheryl and Sean and Cheryl’s boy friend Lee who are the real heroes of this story. They saved my horse and acted as if he was their own. They acted without care or concern for their own safety and well being and without any expectation of reward. To them I give my eternal thanks.