Large-animal emergency rescue training continues growing in popularity around the globe, according to Mark Cole, managing member for USRider, a roadside assistance plan designed with horse owners in mind. Awareness of the issue was at a far lower ebb in 2002.

“We found that emergency responders, while trained experts in human rescue and extrication, had no training in large-animal rescue,” said Cole.

Fast-forward just seven years, and two Australians have won a fellowship to learn large-animal emergency rescue techniques in the United States, and to examine the feasibility of introducing a large-animal rescue service in Australia.

Melinda Howlett, from the National Centre for Equine Education, and Celia Turnbull, BVSc, from Goulburn Ovens Institute of Technical and Further Education, won the inaugural Agri-Food Skills International Fellowship. The award is sponsored by Agrifood Skills Australia, and organized through the International Specialised Skills (ISS) Institute