This week (March 13 – 19, 2022) is Canadian Agricultural Safety Week (CASW), an annual campaign held the third week of March of each year.
In 2022, the aim of the campaign is to inspire farmers, farm families and farming communities to value #FarmSafetyEveryday. This especially holds true for the horse community, with high hospitalization rates as compared to other sectors of agriculture.
In fact, a recent study has found that the risk of an injury, requiring hospital admission, is higher for horse riding than for other potentially risky sporting activities, such as football, motor racing or skiing. The U.S.-based study cites, "Protective gear can save lives, but is not always worn... Studies have shown that a large fraction of riders involved in equestrian injuries were not wearing helmets at the time of their accident."
Workplace Safety and Prevention Services (WSPS) has been a supporting Equine Guelph for close to two decades in the development of programs to help youth and their families practice safety every day on horse farms through interactive EquiMania! activities and courses on the TheHorsePortal.ca.
Equine Guelph has incorporated the popular Stop Think Act resources (developed in partnership between WSPS and ESSO) into its online learning platforms.
EquiMania! Online makes learning fun with a series of online interactive activities. Adopting the "Stop Think Act" initiative, serious accidents can be prevented by taking the time to think about the possible dangers and to prepare for them. Youth receive a Safety Pledge Certificate after learning safety practices from drawings illustrating smart protective gear choices to use while riding, how to be safe around farm equipment and when handling horses.
Kids can be Danger Detectives by checking out many important resources and free activities at EquiMania! Online (TheHorsePortal.ca/EquiMania) such as: helmet fitting information, horse farm safety checklists, fire safety checklists and more. For those ready to learn even more about the nature of horses, TheHorsePortal.ca offers an on-demand online course for $25 - Horse Behaviour & Safety – recommended for youth ages 13-17.
Equine Guelph and WSPS encourage all horse enthusiasts to adopt the Canadian Agricultural Safety week motto #FarmSafetyEveryday.
Workplace Safety and Prevention Services is funded in part through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a five-year federal-provincial-territorial initiative.
(Equine Guelph)