Cannon Hall Farm’s Rob Nicholson has shared the news of “shocking death of one of our most prized and popular animals” in an emotional video.
Farmer Rob and Dave, who appear on Channel 5’s popular … On the Farm series with Helen Skelton has announced the death of their shire horse stallion, Herkules. In an emotional video on social media, Rob said Herkules died earlier this week, “which is difficult to take in at the moment.”
Farmer Rob and Dave, who appear on Channel 5’s popular … On the Farm series with Helen Skelton has announced the death of their shire horse stallion, Herkules. In an emotional video on social media, Rob said Herkules died earlier this week, “which is difficult to take in at the moment.”
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NewsTranscript
00:00you some terrible terrible news our stallion hercules has passed away
00:06which is difficult to um to take in at the moment but basically what happened he's been living with
00:16harry in york he's been he's been serving our mares he's been serving other people's mares
00:21he's he's served some of some of harry's own horses he's been having a really really lovely
00:26spring but on monday night harry was doing his his late checks he saw that hercules had not eaten his
00:35eaten his food and five minutes later he came back to check again and he was on the floor and he was
00:41rolling he immediately suspected it was a colic this spelt trouble and and big trouble for such
00:47a big horse he was nearly 18 hands he was you know in the prime of his life now harry rang the vet
00:55straight away then he rang me and told me about it then harry's vet rang me and said look we need
01:01to get this horse to hospital and we need to do it quick this is really really serious so i said right
01:08get him there harry kindly loaded him straight up he took him straight to rainbow at malton
01:14we've had such wonderful dealings with with rainbow in the past they've saved several of our horses
01:19they are brilliant and if anyone could they could so he he was assessed um jemma rang me at 3 3am
01:28to say that this was a serious case there was no movement in in a large portion of his of his
01:37intestines there was a blockage so they decided that they would try and treat the blockage with uh
01:45with with with fluids to try and flush it through to try and to try and get it clear because the the
01:50danger of of taking such a big horse into an operation is is significant and and and many
01:57don't survive the anesthetic now the following morning she rang me to say no progress had been
02:03made it was uncomfortable um and his only chance was to operate so i said do it do whatever you need
02:11to do to give him to give him a chance so they they did that they they put him under anesthetic
02:19and and they did a great job they removed the blockage they they got him clear they got him
02:26back up again which was the real real risk with it all you know they often don't survive the anesthetic
02:32nearly you know many don't but he got back up but they could never get his stomach to to work there was
02:38there was no motility in it there was no movement and he started to fade away yesterday afternoon
02:44and and he passed away yesterday tea time so we're
02:50heartbroken is an easy word but but we are and for philip for ruth for the whole of the team it's going
03:04to leave it's going to leave a big void we we don't get animals like that you know i never thought
03:10we'd have an animal like him here on our farm so it is a blow but we've been here before with shire
03:19horses and you sort of know the territory when you get involved in them we've had such a good run
03:24so many successful falls born that then something along something comes along to bite you on the
03:31backside and that's what this is but it feels feels a nasty bite but we'll you know we'll get over it
03:38and we'll we'll we'll push on we've got falls to look forward to from hercules next year
03:46thankfully we took him to the seaman collection center and this was just by chance we had no idea
03:51something like this was likely to happen or you know realistically you always know it can happen but
03:57we didn't expect it but so we've got his breeding potential safeguarded but
04:08to see him um sorry trotting down the yard at springtime
04:17and to think that won't happen again is really upsetting but that will be fine so thank you for
04:24watching um i know you'll be as upset as we are and there are lots of people that harry especially
04:32and uh and jemma at rainbow you know they really fought for him jemma was was super upset last night
04:38we all are
04:39and you know you know you know we all are
04:42we all are
04:43we all are
04:49you
04:49you