Two three-day courses designed to instruct first responders, veterinarians, and horse owners on the art of hands-on rescue and transport of a recumbent horse, containment of large animals, mud and water rescues, and night search and rescue will be held Aug. 20-22 and Aug. 24-26 at the Kentucky Horse Park. There are some audit openings left at a cost of $175; the hands-on sections are full.

Nathan Slovis, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, from the veterinary firm of Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, with the husband-wife team of Tomas Gimenez, Dr.Med.Vet., and Rebecca Gimenez, PhD, will instruct. Tomas is a professor of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at Clemson University, and Rebecca is an animal physiologist and a primary instructor in technical large-animal emergency rescue.

Slovis said the ice storm that paralyzed Central Kentucky several years ago spawned his interest in technical large animal rescue when  there was an old horse that got down and couldn’t get up, and no one knew how to help. “Clients and vets do the craziest things” in trying to help horses, he noted. Slovis added that many times, there are neurologic and down horses, colics, and horses with head injuries that could be saved if they could be safely moved to the Hagyard clinic for intensive care.

In wanting to do something for these types of horses, and in order to help during emergencies in Fayette and surrounding counties where the veterinary firm’s clients are based, they decided to develop a course with the Gimenezes to train first responders, mostly fire department personnel, on what to do in emergencies that involve horses and other large animals. Since starting the annual training in 2003, 100 lay persons and 100 fire department personnel from all over the United States have undergone training. Most firefighters who take the training have never been around horses