Equine Guelph is hosting a one-day Emergency Preparedness workshop for horse owners on September 18, and a three-day Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue course for first responders on September 19, 20 and 21.

September 18 - This one-day workshop will provide horse owners valuable skills to help prevent emergency situations from occurring on their property or while travelling with their trailer. Horse owners will also learn the best course of action to take if an emergency does happen and will be given an overview of techniques involved in large animal rescue. This workshop will take place at the University of Guelph.

September 19, 20 and 21 - This operational-level training will be offered for the first time in Ontario and will be lead by Dr. Rebecca Gimenez (TLAER Inc.), world leader in this field, with two specialized co-instructors. This training will give emergency response professionals the knowledge and skills to effectively deal with incidents involving large animals.

This is especially timely, with the upcoming Pan-Am Games set to bring a high number of valuable horses and trailers to roadways and venues around southern Ontario.

This training will take place at the Adjala-Tosorontio Fire Department, (near Orangeville) in the heart of horse country, a partner on this training initiative.

“I believe that students will benefit from what we have learned about horse behaviour in the crisis and emergency situations (especially barn fire response and roadside incidents),” said Dr. Gimenez. “Above all else, students will learn simple ways to prevent the worst disasters in their stables and paddocks. Horses can exhibit extremist behaviours – where fear and panic drive them to do things that most owners and handlers cannot imagine in daily life. Our job is to teach students to perform a risk assessment for safety, and then react correctly in these types of scenarios."

For links to other emergency-related features, please click on the links which appear below.

Emergency Preparedness

• ‘When Disaster Strikes, Plan to be Prepared’
• ‘Disaster Preparedness’

Trailer Safety

• ‘Trailering With Safety in Mind’
• ‘Checklist to Trailer Safely’

Fire Safety

• ‘Fire Safety on the Farm – Reducing the Risk’
• ‘Checklist for Fire Safety’

For additional information on the workshop and for registration information, please click here.

(With files from Equine Guelph)