Cattle guards are heavy steel grates that allow vehicles to pass through fence lines without the need for a gate. They are common in rural lands where roads intersect livestock containing enclosures.

Horses unfamiliar with cattle guards may try to cross them and trap a limb between the bars. This is especially common in snowy weather when heavy winds blow snow drifts across cattle guards, obscuring them.

I have assisted a number of horses caught in cattle guards or steel grates. Some escaped with only minor injuries. Some sustained lower limb fractures. Most had severe blunt trauma to the lower limb without fracture or life-threatening injury. Some sustained large wounds and some had severe damage to the hoof capsule.

In cases where horses have been trapped for an extended period of time or have lost significant blood, they may be in shock. In one instance, I sedated a horse while the owner cut the steel cattle guard bars with a cutting torch.