EQUINE
A Safe Escape
In the wake of recent brushfires in South Australia, Lisel O’Dwyer details how to
prepare horses for an emergency evacuation and outlines why it is greatly different
he Adelaide Hills, South Australia have recently faced severe brushfires, an unfortunate situation that has prompted the discussion of the logistical differences between evacuating and housing horses versus dogs and other small domestic pets in the face of natural disasters such as brushfires and floods. The most obvious differ- Horses who know each other can stay together ence between evacuating but dogs and horses is that it is, post-evacuation should be kept separate of course, much easier to from resident horses evacuate dogs. The average horse owner can only transport his or her horse(s) with a horse float (also known as a horse trailer in the US or a horse box in the UK), whereas most dogs will fit into the average private car. The vast majority of trailers hold two horses, although some are built to hold a single horse, and others built for three or more. Some horse people have horse trucks which can carry six or more horses, but these are in the minority. The use of trailers also requires a suitable towing vehicle, and both trailers and trucks need a driver familiar with towing heavy liveweight, which is quite different than towing deadweight.
Trailer Training
© Can Stock Photo/egonzitter
Assuming one has access to a trailer and towing vehicle when they are needed, horses must be trained to calmly and promptly enter the trailer. Before the trailer training stage though, they must be able to be easily Ideally horses will have been caught, a skill trained to calmly accept comparable being loaded into a trailer prior to any emergency to a good re50
BARKS from the Guild/March 2015
call in a dog, and be able to be led (comparable to loose leash walking with a dog). Entering and standing in a small, often dark, enclosed space is completely against the average horse’s instincts which is why we need to actually spend time training them to load. Much of trailer training does not involve the actual trailer–the horse should be confident about stepping onto wooden boards and tarps, entering narrow or dark spaces, and moving forward away from light pressure on the halter or on his rump or tail. Target training is a highly useful skill in these situations, and either a nose target or a foot target can be used. Clearly, this is quite different to the situation with dogs' transportation, where often all we have to do is open the car door! Of course, there are some dogs with high levels of anxiety about traveling in a car who require similar training, but a key difference between the two situations is that a person is able to stay with the dog while he is traveling in the car to reassure him with touch and voice. Horses, on the other hand, are on their own in a vibrating, shaking box where they must also try to keep their balance during turns, braking and acceleration. One method of helping an anxious horse to load and relax while in the trailer is to fix a mirror inside the float so that the horse thinks there is another horse nearby – company is very important for herd animals, who find safety in numbers. See Simple Trick Soothes Horses for more detail. Difficult loaders should be loaded last so the horse already loaded gives reassurance and acts as a “carrot” to the nervous loader. The main point I am making here is that extensive trailer training may be necessary, depending on the individual horse, before he can be trusted to load reliably. An emergency is not the time to put a horse in a trailer for the first time. There are several methods of forcing reluctant horses onto trailers in such situations (which might also increase their stress levels), but it is best to train the horse properly in advance and thereby avoid taking more time to load him than you actually have. To put it bluntly, properly trailer training a horse may save that horse’s life and the lives of the people handling him in a brushfire or flood © Can Stock Photo/JuliaSV
T
to evacuating dogs or other small animals