Matheson believed people who did not live in the area arrived and set off the fireworks in the road. A neighbor found Remi the next morning and her injuries were so severe that she had to be euthanized.
Matheson wants fireworks banned except for controlled public displays.
Matheson, who owns a small lifestyle block on Garrett Rd, said Remi and a male horse named Diesel were in a fenced paddock on her property Tuesday evening. She said she heard fireworks in the area around 10:30 p.m. as she lay in bed and looked out the window.
“When I went outside to look at my two horses, they were running in one of my two paddocks,” she said.
“I saw what appeared to be leaf lightning lighting up the sky and multiple fireworks going off at regular intervals. It sounded like big gunshots.”
Matheson said she did not go to the area where the fireworks were being set off for the next few hours, but spent that time trying to calm her horses before returning to bed.
A neighbor found Remi seriously injured at one of his entry gates the next day around 7 a.m., she said.
Matheson believed Remi fled through a fence on her property, lost her balance and drove onto the road. Her right hind foot was “completely torn off”.
Remi also had minor cuts and bruises on her body, she said.
Remi after being euthanized
“Remi had lost liters and liters of blood and because her foot was torn off, she couldn’t get up properly and that’s the lifeblood of a horse… Because of the extent of her leg injury and all the blood loss, her energy disappeared. Remi was in a lot of pain and fear,” Matheson said.
“It’s the most brutal injury I’ve ever seen in my life. I called a vet, but in the end it was decided that there was nothing a vet could do to save her, and the most humane thing to do was not to wait. One of my neighbors helped me euthanize Remi.
Matheson owned Remi, a former thoroughbred racehorse, for 10 years after rescuing the horse as a four-year-old.
“Remi was a gentle, kind and beautiful animal. She never bit or kicked anyone and many people loved riding her, including children.
“It was quite traumatic, not only for me, but for everyone else who saw Remi’s horrific injuries.”
She said her other horse, aged 15, was taken to a property in Te Puke because of all the blood in the paddock and fencing.
Matheson said many spent fireworks were found on the road at the top of Waitao Rd. This led her to believe that people from outside the area had set off the fireworks.
“There was a big pile and the problem with people bringing fireworks into a rural area and setting them off is that they panic animals, especially horses.”
Matheson said she had contacted Animates Vetcare New Zealand and invited the organization to use Remi’s death as part of its campaign to ban the public sale of fireworks.
Neighbor Andrew McKeown said he noticed a lot of blood spatter on the road in front of the gate and found the injured horse on her feet between a car and his border fence.
“There was also a trail of blood from the front of our driveway and all the way down the road to where Donna lives.”
“Remi’s right hind leg was up and I could see she had a bloody hind hoof, her head down, obviously quite upset and in a lot of pain.”
McKeown said he tried to keep the injured horse calm until they could find her owner.
“Half of Remi’s coat was soaked in sweat and she kept trying to move… The injured hoof was bleeding continuously from the top and bottom and the metal horseshoe was hanging from one nail and had been rotated 90 degrees.”
Other neighbors rallied to help and it became a huge community effort to save Remi.
“We tried to remove the shoe three times in vain, but then the entire hoof came loose and a lot more blood continued to flow from the wound.”
Fire and Emergency NZ said it had received a steady stream of calls throughout the evening caused by fireworks in the North Island, with at least 32 fires, including bush, tree and grass fires.
Animates CEO Neil Cowie The front page it wasn’t just November 5th that pet owners had to worry about.
“The bigger problem is the storage of year-round fireworks, which adds to the stress and danger to animals,” he said.
“As a pet owner, I can take steps to protect, care for, and confine my pets. It is when you least expect it that the real dangers and problems for animals emerge.
“I really have a feeling for nature, the birds, our livestock, horses for example.”
-Bay of Plenty times.