Firefighter Training Day

Firefighter Simon makes first contact with wary Bobby

Monday was a special day because we had the Animal Rescue Team from the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service come to people4ponies for specialist training.  The team members first came to us for training in autumn 2010.  Then, we were able to teach them special skills and techniques to help them get close to frightened/wild ponies, to help them acclimatise equines to their equipment, and we taught them how to safely lead horses.  We also spend a lot of time teaching them how to read equine body language.

It was great to hear from the team how much of a difference just one day of our training had made to them with their rescues, and how they have applied techniques to all sorts of different rescue and training situations.

Training in the yard

On Monday, as well as helping the team progress with their knowledge of reading equine body language, and how to approach wary equines, we were able to spend the afternoon teaching them how to move and control loose horses from a distance by using their (human) body language.

Firefighter Kev won the "golden carrot award" - as his energy is so good, he was able to work with Dan to the extent where Dan would take a carrot from him in an outdoor, open space.  Although this would be an easy thing for a normal pony, Kev is the only man, other than Paul, that Dan has felt safe enough to interact with in this way.

We had such wonderful support from our p4p volunteers (both on the day and the lead up to it) and big thank yous go to Catherine, Hazel-Ann, Margaret, Gill, Graham, Ted and Jenny, and both Anns who all helped to make the day possible.  Thank you to LUSH too, for helping us to buy a projector to enhance our teaching.

The firefighters are such a great team of people to work with - they are great listeners and learners, and they progress so quickly.  They are often called to situations that we all dread as horse owners, where the unimaginable worst nightmares have happened.  It is such a relief that the Fire Service have such a dedicated team of people working with the greatest degree of thought for the safety and welfare of the equines and other animals that they rescue.

We are looking forward to doing more training with the specialist Animal Rescue Firefighters in 2013.

Firefighter Pete makes friends with Bobby

Firefighter Kev practices moving Dan ...

...and has the perfect energy, body language, and timing to do so.

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