Bad Underground Wiring Blamed For Horse Deaths Wet Grass, Metal Horseshoes May Have Helped Shock Animals

An unlikely combination of wet grass, metal horseshoes and faulty wiring was blamed Monday for the mysterious deaths of two police horses that collapsed on the same spot in recent days in downtown Orlando.

Cheyenne II and Partner’s Pride were electrocuted when they stepped on wet soil covering a defective electrical line, said Wayne Zimmerman, an electrical engineer for Orlando Utilities Commission.

The jolt of electricity made it seem as though the horses were having heart attacks. But the animals were relatively young and healthy.

Orlando police began looking for other causes after Cheyenne II died Sunday on the same spot as Partner’s Pride a week earlier. The deaths seemed too coincidental.

Orlando police had the area tested for chemical contamination or anything else that might kill a horse.

“They were looking for any possible causes,” Zimmerman said. “It was a process of elimination.”

Utilities commission engineers discovered an electrical charge that they think is leaking from underground wires that once supplied power to an outdoor light, Zimmerman said.

The 277-volt circuit was timed to go on at night to light a sidewalk near a bus stop.

The wire carrying the charge either is broken or frayed, which allows the current to leak into the soil, Zimmerman said.

The charge wouldn’t hurt a person, Zimmerman said. Our legs are just too short to complete a circuit, he said. A horse, however, straddles a larger area, connecting the positive charge from the leaky wire to a more distant negatively charged area.

The horses’ metal shoes also are better conductors than the leather or rubber soles worn by most people.

The rider would be unaffected because the electricity would take the shortest path through the horse’s body - either through a front leg into the chest and down through the other front leg or through the front legs and out the back legs.