Team Leaders Learning About Equine Transport

Another week of Large Animal Rescue Team Leader training at our Horse Trust training facility in Buckinghamshire. Thanks to all the team for making it a huge success.

Dealing with horses in distress and in danger can be extremely challenging for emergency responders. Knowing what to do and who to call is critical to a successful and safe resolution for human and horse.

BARTA training for fire and rescue service team leaders explores strategies employed when horses are loose or trapped. When problems occur on the road network, establishing who can provide transport and in a timely fashion is crucial to the plan.

BARTA Director, Jim Green, in his operational role as an animal rescue specialist with the fire and rescue service, has first hand experience of the effectiveness of PRP Rescue.

“I recently attended an incident where a pony was upside down in a ditch beside a busy A road and their companion on the roadside, both in real danger. At 2 am and with no simple way to locate the owner, we had to rescue and secure safe refuge for these animals and reopen the busy strategic road as quickly as possible. Claire from PRP answered the call and within 30 minutes a professional equine transporter, who was equally as efficient, was with us and we were able to transfer the ponies to the transport vehicle and away to a veterinary care facility.”

PRP also sponsors the BARTA Team Leader course through facilitating the presence of one of their many registered equine transporters that serve the country.

Robert and Linda Rose bring a 3.5 tonne and 7.5 tonne transporter to the course for the firefighters to view. Discussions around size, construction and layout of vehicle types is followed by demonstrations of safe loading and operational considerations by BARTA’s experienced rescue team leaders and The Horse Trust Training team.

Jim said “Robert and Linda are incredibly experienced and bring a wealth of knowledge which is eagerly digested by the fire service responders. We are very grateful to them and PRP Rescue for allowing this element of the course to be brought to life like this. Firefighters can visualise how they might tackle situations and ask questions based on the foreseeable challenges they will encounter.”