In the News: Chaos Is a Ladder

At least that was true for this mare, who put her nose where it didn’t belong.

Photo courtesy of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund

Last Friday, May 23, 2025, the Corolla Wild Horse Fund (CWHF) received a call about a mare in distress — she had a ladder stuck around her neck. Fortunately three of the CWHF staff were nearby and were able to find the mare quickly (they reported she was pretty hard to miss). 

The hope was that she would put her head down and the ladder would slide off on its own, but every time it hit the back of her ears, she would fling her head back up. The good news is that the mare wasn’t panicking, so neither she nor her foal was in imminent danger. “One of the characteristics of this breed is that they are very level-headed and not reactionary, and this mare was a good example of that today,” reported the CWHF in their Facebook post regarding the incident.

Photo courtesy of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund

CWHF staff and volunteers spend about an hour trying to get the mare into a position where they could get close enough to pull the ladder off safely, but the mare had other ideas: “… she was too fast and there is just too much wide open space (this was one of the few times when that is a bad thing!).” The situation resolved itself when the mare dropped her head to graze and the ladder slipped over one ear and then fell the rest of the way off.

“Everyone in the surrounding houses who had been watching from their decks cheered, and so did we. The ladder was retrieved and both the mare and the foal are just fine,” the Facebook post went on to report.

All’s well that ends well.