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Large Animal Technical Rescue    American Horse Council

 

Trails

  • Annual Tunbridge Trail Ride
The Vermont Horse Council will hold it’s 8th annual two day ride at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds in Tunbridge, VT on September 21-23rd, 2007.  The ride grows larger and better each year with up to 150 horses and riders coming from all over Vermont, New England and as far as Virginia and they look forward to this event all year.

The two day organized ride includes 15 to 20 miles of beautiful scenery up and down hills on mostly dirt trails. A limited number of stalls are available on a first come first served basis.  The campground has two shared showers with several toilets and water and electricity at every site.

Delicious food is catered at every meal over the weekend and in addition to having time to enjoy family and friends there is an opportunity to shop for new tack at the Saturday night JP’s North tack auction.  If you want to share your cherished memories of the ride On the Spot photo will be there to photograph you and your horse. 

Hope to see you on the trails in Tunbridge in September.  Directions    More info   Entry Form   Liability Form

     

  • Trail Maintenance Fund
The Vermont Horse Council is pleased to offer grant opportunities to Vermont organizations that use, promote, and maintain equine trails within the state. The program will assist equine trail organizations the opportunity to maintain and repair trails with matching grants from the Vermont Horse Council. All Vermont organizations involved in equine trail. This is a matching grant program with a maximum award amount of $500.00.  To learn more and fill out an application: Click on trail grant and trail grant report files.

  • Groton State Forest Trails
The wheels of progress move slowly but they are moving. Almost two years ago we had a meeting with Forest, Parks and Recreation (FPR) staff regarding the forests long range plan, in regard to trails that could be used by equestrians and a group of VHC members meet this past summer to discuss the final plan. This plan will unfold over many years. Last summer FPR put wash stalls in near the horse camping area of New Discovery.

There will be a meeting at Seyon Ranch, April 21, 2007, starting at 10:30 with a potluck and then some work on some trails. The trail from New Discovery to Seyon will be discussed at this meeting and the Telephone line trail. These trails will happen faster with volunteers helping to make them what we need them to be. Please check back as I will keep this updated as progress is made. You can contact me at smsrumor@hotmail.com with questions or comments..

Ride & Drive Program

The Vermont Horse Council riding and driving program began in April of 1992 with Pat Johnson.  The program was developed to recognize personal achievement and not competitive achievement.  Actual riding and driving times are logged for each participating unit, which consists of one person and one particular horse.  You may join with several horses but each one must be registered separately. You will receive a patch when you join and as you reach 50,100,150, 200,350,500,750,1000 and 2000 hours you will receive a matching hour bar.  Special awards are given at 500,1000, 1500 and 2000 hours.


Large Animal Technical Rescue

Large Animal Technical Rescue Training Was A Huge Success!!
 
On August 4th and 5th 2007 forty eight participants including members of thirteen fire departments and technical rescue units from Vermont and other animal professionals from VT, MA, NY and NH converged on Cottonwood Stables in Colchester for a Large Animal Technical Course sponsored by the Vermont Horse Council.
 
Cindy Cross-Greenia, President of the Vermont Horse Council opened the Saturday morning session using live horses and teaching horse handling and behavior.  Participants were instructed on the use of emergency leading and haltering, the four strike zones of a horse, basic behavior and were given the time to work hands on with live horses Buttons a Thoroughbred mare and Sophie a Haflinger mare. These four legged volunteers were owned by Jeff Senesac of Cottonwood Stables and seemed to really enjoy the attention.
 
Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday allowed participants to develop skills using both specialized rescue equipment as well as items commonly found on fire apparatus.  Rescues were done in the form of real life scenarios such as a horse down in the woods with a possible shoulder fracture and a horse cast in a stall with injuries needing medical attention these required the use of the Rescue Glide which can be described as a large horse backboard.  Another focus of the course was learning to use an Anderson Lift to raise horses that may need to be lifted up with the help of a tractor or rope pulley systems.  Rescues were instructed by Roger Lauze Equine Emergency Education Coordinator of the MSPCA Nevins Farm and performed on Lucky the rescue mannequin, Lucky is 15 hands tall weighs 600 pounds and is fully poseable.
 
We asked participants to fill out a post evaluation of the course and the feedback was excellent with all responders feeling assured that they can perform a technical horse rescue.
What we need now is funding to purchase the equipment for these departments and rescue teams, starting with Colchester Technical Rescue who have the ability to respond to many areas of the state.  We would like to continue raising funds and place this equipment throughout the state to increase response time to an incident.  Each equipment package will cost approximately $5000.00 so your support is needed.  If you are interested in making a donation please send your check to The Vermont Horse Council, PO Box 392 Underhill VT 05489 and indicate Technical Rescue on your check all donations are tax deductible and you will receive a receipt.  If you would like more information on this project contact Cindy Cross-Greenia at goodhorsekeepingco@yahoo.com or 802/899-3928.
 
In closing I would like to thank Cottonwood Stables for the donation of their facilities for this event, CCR Sales and Service for the use of a tractor, David Blow, Martha Benoit and Terry Rose for volunteering their time.

Large Animal Technical Rescue is the process of rescuing animals in accident situations such as a horse falling through an ice covered pond, becoming mired in mud or being injured on a trail and unable to walk back out to a trailer. Technical rescue requires special training and sometimes equipment to protect both animal and rescuer from injury.

The Technical Rescue Committee was formed after two years of research by Cindy Cross-Greenia who recognized the need for training of fire department responders to assist our beloved horses and other large animals in times of need.

Our short term goal is to provide training this summer to fire departments and technical rescue units within the state. We will be sponsoring a two day weekend training which will encompass one half day of horse handling and behavior and one half day of basic rescue training using equipment that is already available to most fire departments such as fire hose and straps.  The second day will be devoted to training with specialized large animal technical rescue equipment, which the Horse Council hopes to purchase for an existing human technical rescue unit in the near future.  This unit will then be capable to respond to most areas of the state.

Look for the dates for this event to be coming soon and encourage anyone you know on a fire department to attend.

If you are interested in volunteering at this event or joining this committee please contact Cindy Cross-Greenia at 802/899-3928 or goodhorsekeepingco@yahoo.com

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