WILLOW the mare won’t be horsing around for a while after firefighters had to cut her out of a hedge in her latest adventure.

The 16-hand horse and her exercise cart became trapped between a hedge and a building in Broadwindsor Road in Beaminster. It happened after Willow made off while she was being harnessed.

On-call firefighters from Beaminster made the scene safe while a vet sedated five-year-old Willow, and the fire service’s animal rescue team from Poole freed her by cutting away some of the hedge, unhitching the cart and gently walking her backwards to safety.

Mixed Practice Vet at Girling and Bowditch, Pam Sibley, treated Willow for her injuries.

She said: “We think the biggest injury she’s got is an injury to her foot. We think she’s trodden in some glass and the cut is quite deep – a couple of inches through the bottom of her foot up.

“We cut the hair around her foot, scrubbed it and flushed the glass out. At the moment we are just treating her with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication and are bandaging her foot.

“If she doesn’t improve then we may have to put a plaster cast over her foot.”

Matthew Bowditch, Willow’s owner, said his wife was with the horse at the time of the incident last Thursday but he was surprised when the mare ran off.

He said: “My wife said she was just harnessing her up to the cart which we have done for a year with no incident, and she decided all of a sudden to go off, but with nobody in the steering seat.

“So she went off fairly gradually but ended up between the bush and the wall. It was only a small, light, two-wheel exercise cart but it took a while to get her out.

“We sedated her and Dorset Fire and Rescue Service cut away some of the branches, and once they had got the branches out of the way then we undid the harness and pulled the cart out.”

Mr Bowditch added: “She was fine [afterwards], just walking off – she was fairly relaxed about the whole thing.”

He added he was sure Willow would be pleased with the publicity if she got some treats out of it, because ‘she is led by her stomach’.