Published: June 12, 2009 07:04 pm      

Horse on mend after lightning strike

Even a horse can be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If Hershel — a rodeo horse owned by Josh Land of 251 Charlotte Drive — could speak, he would surely testify to the old expression. The 12-year-old gelding was huddled under a pine tree with two other horses in the corner of a pasture when Thursday’s noontime storm lashed the rural north Whitfield County neighborhood. Lightning struck the pine, ran down the trunk and hit Hershel, knocking him to the ground. The two other horses bolted away unhurt.

“I got the call in Calhoun on my cell phone,” said Land, who was preparing to buy some calves to use in calf roping competition. “The neighbors called the store (Discount Sporting Goods, owned by the Land family) and then they called me. I went that way fast.”

Land was joined by his father, Jeff, and also his grandfather, Carl, who owns the property and gave Hershel to Josh when Josh was a senior at Dalton High School in 2004-2005.

“He was laying on his side and couldn’t get up,” Josh Land said. “I had already called our veterinarian, Bucky Bancroft (of Bradley Veterinary Hospital in Cleveland, Tenn.), and we met there about the same time.”

Bancroft began giving steroid shots and IV fluids to Hershel, who thrashed around but could not stand.

“At one point we used a tractor and a sling to try and help him, but he kept falling back down every time he tried to get up,” said Josh Land. “He was alert, but his nerves weren’t functioning — one of his ears wouldn’t move, and he was beating himself up pretty good every time he fell.”

A vet in Alabama was consulted by phone, and after five hours of treatment Bancroft left with instructions to keep an eye on Hershel and notify him about his condition.

“The vet pulled out to leave and Hershel stood up,” said Josh Land. To make sure the horse didn’t have a downturn, he and his father stayed up all night keeping watch in the pasture.

“He made progress overnight and he’s moving around some, but he still has some recovering to do,” said Josh Land.

On Friday afternoon, Carl Land said, “I wouldn’t have given you two cents for that horse yesterday, the way he was wallowing around. The doctor in Alabama said that very few horses survive a lightning strike, and the vet who was here couldn’t believe he was doing so well.”

Hershel had a swollen right eye from all his falling, and stumbled while taking a tentative step. A little over a hundred feet away stood the pine, still standing, with a pale stripe showing the bolt’s path that stopped just short of the ground.

“I’ve never seen a lightning mark on a tree that didn’t go all the way to the ground,” said Carl Land. “It must have jumped off and come down on (Hershel). Josh rode that horse in the rodeo all during college, but I don’t know if (the horse) will rodeo any more.”

Carl Land said his grandson was “the only cowboy at Dalton High” during his four years there. Last month he graduated from Tarleton State University in Stevensville, Texas, an adjunct school of Texas A&M University. He earned his degree in economics and business, and plans to pursue his master’s there in business administration.