Helping a trapped horse or cow can be one of the most dangerous situations an SES volunteer can face and David King, deputy commander of the Hawkesbury SES Unit, is passionate about making large animal rescue safe and humane for everyone involved.
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He was in Forbes on the weekend to run a workshop for Forbes, Parkes and Cowra SES teams, along with fellow trainer Anthony Hatch from Griffith.
If you were out and about the Forbes ski dam on Saturday afternoon, you might have seen them at work maneuvering cow and horse mannequins out of the lake with a crane.
"One of my quests is to get out there and train our units on how to safely work with our four-legged friends," King said.
But it's not work the SES does alone.
King is equally focussed on connecting all of the organisations that can be involved when large animals are trapped, involved in a crash or stranded by flood or fire.
Vets, Local Land Services, RSPCA, council rangers and Rural Fire Service were all part of the weekend event.
"A trapped cow or horse is one of the most dangerous things we face," King said.
"When we have a person trapped, we can hold their hand and say 'I'm from the SES and I'm here to help you'," King added.
You can't explain that to an animal.
The workshops, and King has previously run two full training sessions in Forbes for our volunteers, explain the hazards of working with a frightened animal and looks at ways to ensure everyone's safety.
"The secret to that is vets," King said.
Just as the SES wouldn't work with a trapped person without paramedics, they wouldn't work with a trapped animal without a vet, he said.
In Saturday's exercise, the local volunteers learned how to use what's known as a mud lance to squirt water down the animals' legs to break the seal of the mud, then place slings around the 350kg mannequin and remove them from the waterway with a crane.
While they worked with mannequins in the water, they also went to a local property and learned how to approach and put a headstall on a live horse.
They're all critical skills, King says, and just as critical is the networking between all the different groups that can be involved when an animal gets into trouble.
Sadly, the need to rescue large animals comes up far too often.
In King's home unit the drought has seen a dramatic increase in animals trapped in mud in dams and waterways.
He would encourage owners facing that situation to contact their vet and get connected to emergency assistance.
The good news locally is that King really feels the Lachlan Valley is on the front foot when it comes to being prepared.
