Click HERE to download the report on Rescue 33.
Any Questions? Please email Les or Paula directly.
Advice For Dealing With Horses
Phil’s partner Jane has a large amount of experience with horses and has offered the following advice:
Horses can be spooked by any number of things, our horse Frankie for example will happily walk past noisy farm machinery but be very suspicious of a loose bit of silage bag in a hedgerow. So look out for anything that might move or make a noise or move unexpectedly. This includes ourselves, our radios and of course our vehicles (including blues and two’s).
If approaching the horse do so from at an angle to it’s head rather than directly head on. Keep the number of people approaching to a minimum, ideally just one.
Read it’s body language. If it’s clearly agitated don’t approach until it’s calmer. If it’s ears are back or it’s tense, snorting or sweating these are all signs of agitation. If it moves away don’t chase it, keep on talking to it and be patient.
Approach slowly and talk to the horse. It will be used to humans and curious. Ideally touch it on the shoulder and calm it before making any attempt to secure it.
If you want to get it’s attention, rattling a sweet wrapper can work and you can feed it the odd fruit pastille to further get it’s interest.
Ideally the horse should be held (but not restrained) on a lead rope or by it’s bridle. In the case of this rescue where the bridle appeared to be broken, a lead rope could be improvised by using one of our stretcher slings, preferably extended with a second sling to allow movement. Place this gently round it’s neck rather than slinging it over.
If it’s on a road there is also a risk to passers by and to motorists but the greater risk is that an impatient motorist will potentially spook it further or injury it, so this is a further risk that needs to be managed. It is essential that traffic is stopped
Ideally, if they are there, responsibility for the horse should be taken by one of the team who has previous experience.