By Lawrence Emerson
FauquierNow.com Editor

The veteran horsewoman could tell by the look in his eye: He wanted to live.

Kristy Willwerth has “put down” her share of sick or injured horses in 17 years as the owner of Picturesque Farm, a busy equestrian center west of Opal.

But, Woodstock — aka “Woody” — showed Ms. Willwerth something special, despite the fact that the 3-year-old gelding couldn’t get off the ground.

“He was rolling his eye,” she says. “You knew he wanted to get up.”

But, he couldn’t move his neck.

Traci Cantrell, a member of the Picturesque Farm staff, found Woody shivering and in shock Monday, Jan. 23. He lay on his side behind a pile of hay in a distant pasture, across Lee’s Mill Road.

Ms. Cantrell called her boss.

The women couldn’t get Woody up.

They flagged down a passing motorist and eventually rolled the 1,400-pound horse to his feet.

But, the pattern continued.

Several times a day, the throughbred/warmblood cross would go down and then couldn’t get to his feet. With vehicle tow straps and a tractor, Ms. Willwerth, her barn crew and parents of students would get Woody standing.

They repeatedly risked injury — to themselves and to the horse.

As many as two dozen people helped. They used vehicle headlights to illuminate the effort when a group gathered after dark to lift the gentle giant.

“We had four or five different tractor drivers,” Ms. Willwerth recalls.

Once, when Woody went down in a barn stall, they somehow dragged him out through a narrow door.

“I cannot believe he’s as calm as he is,” says Scott McDowell, who works at the farm. “I was sure he was gonna rear up . . . . He’s never even had a girth on . . . For a horse that young, as many times as he’s been lifted.

“He’s an unbelievable horse,” Mr. McDowell adds. “He’s got the will to make it, no doubt about it.”

With a portable x-ray machine, Steve White, a veterinarian from Amissville, detected fractures of two vertebrae in Woody’s neck.

Dr. White also began treating Woody for an acute spinal inflammation.

The horse could heal, but not without special care. Lifting him with jury-rigged equipment risked greater injury. And, if he lay in a stall all night, Woody probably would suffer organ damage. (Nature designed horses, “prey” animals, to spend virtually all their time upright.)

Last Friday, Dr. White got on Google.

He found The Anderson Rescuer Equine Sling, available from CDA (Care for Disabled Animals) in California.

Woody wears the sling day and night.

Perfect! The late Charlie Anderson in the 1980s designed the sling for just such situations.

But, even on sale, it cost $4,295. Getting it to the farm by Saturday via FedEx would push the price to almost $5,000.

“Yes, the business side of me should just have put him down,” Ms. Willwerth admits. “But, he’s trying so hard . . . . I want to do what is right for his life and his future.”

She also has a soft spot for Woody, a “bucket baby,” whose mother died two months after his birth.

The sling arrived on schedule.

But, plenty of challenges remained. Ms. Willwerth needed a contraption to support the sling in Woody’s stall.

With advice from structural engineers, her friend Steve Strentz from Orange came up with the solution.

Mr. Strentz, Mr. McDowell and others worked some 13 hours to build a massive support of oak timbers and 6-by-6 blocks on a reinforced hayloft above a box stall.

From that rigid structure hangs a 5-ton hoist, with its chain snaking through a fresh hole in the stall ceiling.

Each day at 5 p.m., Ms. Willwerth and her barn crew get Woody into position. They adjust the color-coded sling straps, which connect to a metal frame.

The chain hoist pulls the frame up, so Woody won’t go down if he takes the weight off his hooves.

A camera looks down on “Woody’s Man Cave,” as a handmade sign labels it. On a monitor in her bedroom, the farm owner — an admitted “insomniac” — keeps watch throughout the night.

Woody gets out each morning around 8 o’clock and spends the day in a hastily-fashioned private pasture just outside the barn.

He wears the sling constantly, in case he lies down and the crew needs to lift him with the tractor.

With a routine of an anti-inflammatory, other medication and lots of attention, Woody seems to grow stronger each day.

“When he’s up, he’s like everything’s fine,” Ms. Cantrell says. “But, before, he couldn’t move his head.”

“I’m cautiously optimistic, because he’s doing so well,” Ms. Willwerth says. “I really think the sling is helping him rest.”

By Tuesday afternoon, he began to get a little frisky, especially as a group of fillies raced back and forth through a pasture just over the three-board fence from Woody’s compound.

“I’m cautiously optimistic, because he’s doing so well,” says Ms. Willwerth. “I really think the sling is helping him rest.”

Whenever Woody returns to normal, she hopes the sling — apparently one of only two in Virginia — will help other distressed horses recover.

She estimates it will cost about $9,500 to save Woody. That figure would be greater without lots of volunteer help and discounted medication. Ms. Willwerth’s mother is a veterinarian and her aunt is a large animal surgeon at Cornell University.

“Everything has astounded me,” Ms. Willwerth says. “I called my aunt and said, ‘Am I insane to do all this and buy all this?’ ”

Her voice trails off.

She has 40 horses at the stable, along with mares and foals at the “baby barn” on her mother’s 200-acre farm across the road, where Ms. Cantrell found Woody in distress.

“You’re gonna have injuries with that number of horses,” Ms. Willwerth says. “But, he’s the only one I’ve had who’s stood” after such challenges.

“He really knew we were trying to help him . . . . It’s like he’s very aware.”

Thus, Woody probably won’t get sold or get pressed into hard, show hunter work.

Ms. Willwerth calls them “Lifers” on the farm. One had a tracheotomy. Another has just one eye.

“They’re the ones who stay around and have problems that not everyone could put up with.”

Previously little known to the Picturesque Farm clients and their parents, Woody suddenly has become a celebrity.

“He probably had 20 visitors on Saturday,” Ms. Willwerth says.

Amy Kaye, whose daughter rides regularly at the farm, has taken it a step farther. Ms. Kaye started a blog to share Woody’s story.

He has the will and a group of willing people.

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